You KNOW you've been in ham radio a while...

1) You look at the QST magazine section where they show the QST's from '50 Years', '25 Years', and '5 years' ago and you recalling seeing the '50 year' cover but you recall SUBSCRIBING to QST and having had the '25 Years' issue in your collection.

2) When you see a table full of 'old gear' (tube etc) you realize 'HEY! I owned that!' or you can (and do) go up to it and can IMMEDIATELY recognize if it's been modified or not simply by the layout of the panels. (It's even more of a sign when OTHER guys who are your contemporaries start asking YOU to confirm or deny something about a piece of gear in that era!! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

3) When you can, simply by a look, identify tower types, antenna types, and other things AND also know the specs and (if you are REALLY good) what the prices where when they were first being sold.

4) When all the newer hams you know refer to you as 'one of those guys who was licensed back when all that stuff was new and/or considered 'state of the art' for its time!

ahh... well.. Time marches on!

K3FT

[K9STH]

When one of those who post on QRZ.com suggests having you carbon dated!

Glen, K9STH

[ka5s]

When you realize how much money a lifetime membership would have saved you.

When you tell stories about old solar cycles.

When your collection of RTTY art has to be thrown out.

If you have a W2NSD QSL -- from New York.

If "remote cutoff" doesn't mean one went dead.

Cortland

[K9STH]

When you realize how much money a life membership DID save you!

Glen, K9STH
AMSAT 239/LM463

[K4JSR]

I thought that carbon dating is how you determine the age
of your T-17 Microphone! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif
K4JSR

[w5alt]

When you can name more ham manufacturers that are out of business than are in business.

[ka5s]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (w5alt @ Jan. 26 2004,05:49)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When you can name more ham manufacturers that are out of business than are in business.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
(edited) I'll just list what came to mind - it keeps going up (grin ).
B&amp;W
Collins
Drake
Eldico
Gonset
Hammarlund
Hallicrafters
Johnson
Morrow
RME
WRL


......Cortland

[K5CEY]

When I fire up my Central Electronics 20A with Lakeshore Bandhopper VFO and a trio of 807's on 40 meter S.S.S.C. and someone informs me that I'm 23 cycles low in frequency.
# # # # # # # # # # # # John #K5CEY

[kk7jk]

Yes Sir, Chuck.
I can recall many QST front page covers, afew now.
Brings back &quot;GOOD&quot; memories, a past era, not for me, a &quot;GOOD&quot; era.
Walking down the street in Jersey to Hammarlund, between Fort Monmouth and, and there it was, drowling down my NECK, all those state of the art radios. Didn't have the cash-on-the-barrelhead. Anyway, got orders for Vietnam, a first time bummer.
How sweet it was.

[K8YS]

WAIT! EFJohnson and RL Drake are still in business... sorta.

[K9STH]

Walt:

I was going to say the same as YS! Johnson is definitely still in business, they just aren't making amateur radio equipment. Also, Collins is still very much in business as a division of Rockwell International. They are still making all sorts of communications equipment but are no longer targeting the amateur radio market. I have heard rumors that every-once-in-a-while that some KWM-2A units are still turned out for &quot;3rd World Countries&quot;. But, I have not really seen any confirmation of this so it probably is just a &quot;rumor&quot;.

Now, for some other companies that are no longer around (to my knowledge):

Ameco (was a division of Aerotron and Aerotron went &quot;belly up&quot; after being bought by &quot;off shore&quot; interests and moved from North Carolina to Florida).

Central Electronics

Clegg

EICO

ETO (Ehrhorn Technological Operations, Inc. - Alpha 70, etc.)

Galaxy (became a separate company from Globe Electronics)

Globe Electronics (the old WRL was sold and became Globe Electronics)

General Electric (made a lot of FM equipment that was used by amateur radio operators - sold to Ericsson then was sold to even others)

Harvey-Wells

Heath is not on this list, is still in business although not making kits at this time.

Hunter

Knight

KW (was a British company that imported into the U.S.)

Lafayette

Lakeshore (made a lot of 1950s SSB equipment)

Multi-Elmac

National

P&amp;H

Polytronics (VHF rigs including SSB)

Regency (became Realm then other brands now, I believe sold to Uniden)

SBE (Side Band Engineers)

Signal / One

SONAR

Swan

Tempo (Henry Radio imported various manufacturers from Japan as well as building some stateside)

Varitronics (imported all sorts of Japanese rigs including those made by Inoue as well as building some stateside)

Then there were the &quot;small&quot; manufacturers:

Abbott Instruments

American States Electronics

Amplidyne Laboratories

Audar

Avcom

Babcock Radio Engineering

Conar

Cosmophone

Davco

Del Mar

Elenco (very early SSB transmitters)

Geloso (made in Italy)

Genave

Gladding (actually made by Pearce-Simpson)

Hamtronics

Harristahl (VHF equipment)

HY-Q

J&amp;D Labs

Justin

Karadio

Lettine

Linear Systems

L-W Electronic Laboratory

Lysco

McMurdo Silver (made a lot of receivers but also some transmitters)

Master-Mobile (made linears as well as antennas)

Meissner

Millen

Palco

Pausan

Peterson

Philmore

Pierson-Holt

Raytrack

Robyn

Ross &amp; White (2 meter FM - I knew &quot;Buzz&quot; Ross fairly well - his main business was washing UPS trucks in Chicago!)

Simpson (their Model &quot;A&quot; was a real piece of you know what!)

Solar System

Sperti (made 2 meter handheld units back in 1948)

Stancor

Subraco (mobile 20 meter transmitters in 1948)

Tapetone

Technical Materiel

Techcraft

Transcom

Tri-State Electronics

Unimetrics

Utica

Vanguard

VHF Engineering

Vocaline (made primarily Class &quot;B&quot; Citizen's Radio Service equipment but did make a 70 cm amateur radio transceiver)

Wacom (Not the duplexer manufacturer that was in Waco, Texas)

Walter-Ashe (better known as amateur radio dealer and QSL card publisher, however made a complete line of Novice Station kits in the early 1950s)

Whippany Laboratories (made the Lil-Lulu 6 meter transmitters and receivers)


John, CEY:

You mean that you use only three 807 tubes for your linear and didn't build the &quot;Four in line&quot; that used four modified 1625 or 807 tubes (or the 837 without modification)!

Glen, K9STH

[ka5s]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K8YS @ Jan. 26 2004,12:59)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">WAIT! EFJohnson and RL Drake are still in business... sorta.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Yabbut (grin) not selling HAM gear. Heck, Drake doesn't even make the R-8 anymore. And I don't think Jpohnson'll sell me replacement knobs for my Adventurer. Or even for a business-band Messenger.

Cortland

[K5CEY]

Glen, I do swear (or affirm), I'm overwhelmed at the volumes of information that you are able to deliver! Whether it's in your head or you have a magnificent reference source I'm impressed. I do think Subraco made 10 meter rigs instead of 20 meters, but that's probably a typo. Or I'm mistaken. This seems to happen quite often as I rapidly approach senility.
# I'm familiar with the &quot;four in line&quot; linear, but this is a design from the '57 Handbook with two 807's in parallel and a BC 375 roller coil in the pi net. I simply added one more 807 to form the trio. Built it about 1959.
# # # # # # # #John #K5CEY

[K9STH]

John:

Subraco made the MT15X series mobile transmitters which were for 20, 75, 10, and later 15 meters. The rig ran 30 watt input on AM phone and used Class &quot;B&quot; modulation. This particular transmitter even had a built-in coaxial antenna relay! However, it was pretty expensive for its time (introduced in 1948). The transmitter sold for $87.50. The dynamotor power supply was $59.95 (6 volts input only - this was before the advent of the 12 volt automotive systems), and an AC supply was available for $39.50.

Of course the &quot;Four in line&quot; used grounded grid. Both the 807 and 1625 tubes had to be modified to lift the supressor grid from its connection to the cathode. Most 807 and some 1625 tubes had this connection made inside the glass envelope and thus couldn't be modified. Other versions you could cut a slot in the base to get at the wire to the supressor grid. You then unsoldered it from the cathode pin and reconnected it to either the screen or control grid so that the cathode could be used for the input to the grounded grid amplifier and the supressor could be grounded!

The 837 was basically the same tube except that the supressor grid was not connected to the cathode.

P&amp;H made a commercial version of the &quot;Four in line&quot; and it could be purchased with either the modified 1625 tubes or the 837 tubes for the same price. However, the tubes could not be interchanged.

Glen, K9STH

[WA2ZDY]

McMurdo Silver . . . I had a model 1517 receiver in a huge cabinet with the electromagnet 15 inch speaker. That thing sounded good and the multicoloured dial was gorgeous at night. The chrome chassis, tube covers, and all was impressive to look at too.

Just one more thing I wish I had never gotten rid of.

Glen, you mentioned Henry Radio. I assume they're out of business also. There is a seller calling himself Henry Radio on ebay and he sells items he claim are old stock from Henry. I bought a Motorola P200 service manual from him that supposedly came out of their shop.

And Hamtronics is I think still in business in upstate New York, unless that's another recycled name. In fact, I used to deal with a radio store in Pennsylvania called Trevose Electronics that was also called &quot;Hamtronics&quot; though I don't know if that was ever really one of that businesses name.

All interesting, fond memories, and friends - yes, that's what those names are - long gone.

you folks just won't believe me when I tell you .. as I've mentined in the past..

GLen is REALLY a TRUE cybernetic organism! He has humanity allthrough out him.. but they've replaced all the parts that wear out, go bad, or otherwise would cause him problems.

He still retains the brain and all the other humanity but hte old parts that can cause problems are gone.

So he remembers all.. can recall them at a moments notice.. and has never forgets anything!


He just SAYS he is 60.. but REALLY.. he helped give folks like Tesla, Ohm, Oerstead, and the rest all thier ideas...

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

73
Chuck K3FT

[wb6bcn]

Knight: #AKA Knight Kit: #A product of (or at least sold exclusively by ) Allied Radio of Chicago. #Allied Radio still in business selling all kinds of parts.

Lafayette: #LRE: #Lafayette Radio Electronics still in business in Long Island, N.Y.

Hamtronics still alive

Philmore parts and kits still available at many electronics distributors .

Stancor is still making transformers

When you see 'MHz' or 'kHz' and you scowl and say (to yourself)

'IT's Mc/s and Kc/s, dammit!!'

When you always looked for the CONELRAD 'CD' symbol above the AM broadcast frequency readout.

When you HAD a CONELRAD monitor hooked up in the shack.

When your tuned your transmitter for 'MAXIMUM NEON BULB' brighteness.


When SWR was a grouping of letters that had ZERO meaning relative to antenna and performance - beyond the technical use in figuring out impedances needing to be matched

When 'lecher' was with wires and not people!

When 'sal ammoniac' was a FINE cleaner for soldering IRONS!

When you HAD a soldering iron that you heated up in the forge! .. right Glen??? (OW! OW!! Stop it, Glen, I'm sorry! I couldn't resist! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif )

When you had THREE batteries in your rig.. A, B and C.

When having a tube in your rig meant you were 'well heeled' and had money!

When 'SPARKS' WAS an accurate name for a radio ham!

When 'RI' for hams, was NOT primarily known as the postal abbreviation for the State of Rhode Island'

When you had to CERTIFY, to the MVA/DMV that you had a working ham rig in the car BEFORE they would give you ham plates!

When K9STH was known as 'TOM' then 'GL', then '9STH', the 'K9STH' (OW! OW!!! I said I was sorry!http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

When a 'mill' was not something used to grind flour and you had one and used it!

When 'Lake Erie' was more than just one of the Great Lakes and 'banana boat' was ,more than just a vessel that made the run to South America.

73

Chuck K3FT

[wb6bcn]

K3FT: sez
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When you see 'MHz' or 'kHz' and you scowl and say (to yourself)

'IT's Mc/s and Kc/s, dammit!!'
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Lets not forget it is kilomegacycles, #not gigahertz:)

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When a 'mill' was not something used to grind flour and you had one and used it!
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Yo are talking about a mill as in mill-wright, #right???

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When you had to CERTIFY, to the MVA/DMV that you had a working ham rig in the car BEFORE they would give you ham plates!
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

I don't know about everywhere, #but in California you still have to show a valid FCC certificate before they let you get ham plates

[N0WVA]

I dont think J.W. Miller is gone yet. Although they just make chokes and stuff for industry......

[N0KLT]

Glen,

In that long and amazing list of companies now out of the ham business, I can think of at least one you left out. Hy-Gain from here in Lincoln, Ne. They made ham radios and antennas for years. I am not sure if they ever made anything but HF rigs. I knew one old boy who had a couple of their huge top of the line HF rigs on his bench, I was impressed just at the size and strength of his bench to hold the dang things, to say nothing of the little guy's abliltiy to carry them down into his basement.

73

NØKLT

[w5alt]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K9STH @ Jan. 26 2004,16:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Now, for some other companies that are no longer around (to my knowledge):[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Glen, the fellow was right. You should be carbon dated!

Another way to know you've been in ham radio a long time (but not as long as Glen) is when you recall that the first thing you did on getting your General ticket in the mail, was build a VFO.

73,

[wb6bcn]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (N0WVA @ Jan. 26 2004,17:07)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I dont think J.W. Miller is gone yet. Although they just make chokes and stuff for industry......[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
JW Miller also had a radio kit, maybe more than one, but for sure. It was the J.W. Milller Hi-FI AM Tuner, and I know it was still being sold in the late '60s and early '70s.

[K9STH]

Actually, Allied Radio was bought out by Tandy around 1970 mainly to get the Allied Radio stores that were in competition with Tandy's Radio Shack stores. After buying out Allied Radio the Allied Radio stores were either converted to Radio Shack stores or, if they were near to existing Radio Shack stores, they were closed.

Then, about a year later, the United States Justice Department brought an anti-trust suit against Tandy for buying out Allied. Instead of &quot;fighting&quot; the anti-trust suit Tandy sold off the old Allied Radio parts operation and that became Allied Electronics instead of Allied Radio. My first &quot;real&quot; shortwave receiver (a used Heath AR-3) came from the original Allied Radio store at 100 North Western Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Traded it in at the same store (was the only Allied operation at the time) several months later for a new Hallicrafters S-107 (&quot;reboxed&quot; S-53A).

During the transistion, units like the AX-190 and SX-190 receivers (which were actually built by Trio - now Kenwood) were &quot;converted&quot; from the Allied name on the panel and serial plate to &quot;Realistic&quot;, the Radio Shack brand. For a while I actually had two AX-190 receivers, one with the original Allied name and the other with Realistic. I had obtained both from the same source. The Allied version had the knobs removed and was in only fair condition. The Realistic version was in perfect condition except that there were problems on the audio output board. I exchanged the audio board from the Allied version for the one in the Realistic version and now the Realistic version works fine. Traded off the Allied version as a &quot;project&quot; radio!

A while back the person who was in charge of Radio Shack's amateur line came over from Fort Worth to trade with me. He told me all sorts of &quot;plans&quot; that Radio Shack had for amateur equipment and then were cancelled. Like the companion transmitter to the AX-190 was to be imported but never was. The AX-190 has all of the outputs just like the Heath SB-Line (heterodyne oscillator, BFO, and VFO) to transceive with the companion transmitter. The pair would have probably been pretty good for the time.

Philmore I wasn't sure! I remember their crystal kits from the late 1950s and into the 1960s. Hamtronics name has been used by at least two different companies over the years. Stancor has been in the transformer business since at least the 1920s. They ceased amateur production in the early 1950s. I hadn't heard from Lafayette for a long time. They used to have a series of stores around the country just like Allied Radio and Radio Shack back in the early to mid 1960s. There was one a few blocks from the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, Georgia, when I was there. Newark is still in the parts business but back in the 1950s they were across the street from Allied Radio at 101 North Western Avenue and were primarily a store that was &quot;catering&quot; to amateur radio operators.

Crabtrees in Dallas was still in business when I came here in 1967. However, they went out of business not that long after I came. Electronic Center was originally a separate building then moved to the basement of the main company. They went out of business in the mid 1990s. AGL Electronics was located just across the street from the Richardson city limits for a couple of years and they went &quot;belly up&quot;. Actually the &quot;money&quot; behind AGL was a local amateur who's father had died and left him about $3 million (back in the late 1960s). He used AGL as an excuse to get his amateur radio equipment at wholesale!

There was another company that was just up the street from Crabtrees and then moved out to Oak Cliff that lasted a few years. Next, there was J-T Electronics that was half-owned by an employee of mine that lasted for about a year in Plano (was open evenings and Saturday when my employee wasn't working for me!). Texas Towers started in Gerald Williamson's (now K5GW) garage out in Murphy, Texas (selling Rohn towers only), and then moved to its present location in Plano over 10 years ago. Tucker Electronics lasted for quite a while over in Garland selling used test equipment and amateur radio equipment. I believe that the amateur radio museum and used equipment from Tucker went to Surplus Sales of Nebraska when Jim Tucker sold out.


FT:

I recently added a Heath CA-1 Conelrad Monitor to my &quot;original&quot; Heath &quot;twins&quot; AM/SSB station (Apache, Mohawk, SB-10, Warrior, Seneca - 6 and 2 meters, XC-6 and XC-2 - 6 and 2 meter converters for the Mohawk, AM-2 SWR bridge, and B-1 balun coils).

Anyway, people are certainly remembering!

Glen, K9STH

[K9STH]

KLT:

HyGain was bought out by mfj and is still in business using the HyGain name. I haven't heard much out of Carl Mosley's company for a while!

Glen, K9STH

[K9STH]

Walt:

I didn't build a VFO when my General arrived in the mail. I came home from lunch and my new ticket was in the mail box. When I went back to school that afternoon I took the &quot;N&quot; from my little Mosley callsign holder (Mosley used to send every new licensee a small plastic desk holder with slots for letters and numbers which they included for your &quot;new&quot; call) and handed it to K9LHC when I passed him in the hallway (Jim was a senior and I was a sophomore). When he got home that afternoon he packed up the WRL 755 VFO and SM-90 screen modulator that went with the Globe Chief 90A that I had bought from him when my Novice ticket arrived. We hooked up the VFO and I put back in the modification that had been removed to put the 90A back for CW only. In less than an hour I was on the air with a VFO and on AM phone!

Glen, K9STH

[N0WVA]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K9STH @ Jan. 26 2004,18:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">KLT:

HyGain was bought out by mfj and is still in business using the HyGain name. #I haven't heard much out of Carl Mosley's company for a while!

Glen, K9STH[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I think I saw an ad very recently about Mosley antennas, it mentioned them moving to a new location around St.Louis.

[N0WVA]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wb6bcn @ Jan. 26 2004,18:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif7--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (N0WVA @ Jan. 26 2004,17http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif7)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I dont think J.W. Miller is gone yet. Although they just make chokes and stuff for industry......[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
JW Miller also had a radio kit, #maybe more than one, #but for sure. #It was the J.W. Milller Hi-FI AM Tuner, #and I know it was still being sold in the late '60s and early '70s.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
The crystal set guys still go nuts for one of those babies...

[ka5s]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K9STH @ Jan. 26 2004,18:40)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Electronic Center was originally a separate building then moved to the basement of the main company. #They went out of business in the mid 1990s. #[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Another old timer thing: If you remember the Sidewalk Sale before EC moved and it spread out under the overpasses and got made commercial.

Back in the late 1970s I sold an HW-8 there I'd built in Germany and was tired of replacing diodes in (ESD damged). About 1990 I was at the Sidewalk Sale and there it was on a table with still my old call sign W1CEJ scratched in it. Shoulda bought it... heh! Also saw a Hallicrafters R-274A I'd sold there no longer as cheap as I sold it for, nossir!

Cortland

[KC0OFZ]

Or just pull a core sample http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[n0xu]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ka5s @ Jan. 25 2004,11:43)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (w5alt @ Jan. 26 2004,05:49)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When you can name more ham manufacturers that are out of business than are in business.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
(edited) I'll just list what came to mind - it keeps going up (grin ).
B&amp;W &lt;snip&gt;[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Cortland:

B&amp;W is still in business. I put up one of their antennas, brand new, a couple of years ago.

http://www.bwantennas.com

[K9STH]

KA5S:

When the original sidewalk sale was at the old Electronic Center location it was almost always just amateur radio and associated equipment. When it moved down the street the computer stuff started coming in and finally it was 99 percent computers.

Walt Jackson, who died a couple of years ago, was not only the &quot;head&quot; of ECI, but he also was one of the 33 charter members of the then Southwest Vintage Radio and Phonograph Society (now the Vintage Radio and Phonograph Society). He was near the middle of the list and I was the last one in alphabetical order of the original 33.

Another of the amateur radio personalities of the Dallas area was Frank Wanja who passed (and failed some!) most of the amateur radio operators on their General and higher class licenses from the 1960s until well into the 1980s at the Dallas FCC office. During the mid-1970s when I was the President of the SVRPS and the yearly convention was coming up, I learned that Frank had a working spark-gap transmitter. I telephoned him at the Dallas FCC office and asked him to come to the convention and demonstrate the rig. Of course we would take care of his registration fees, pay for him and his wife to eat at the banquet, etc.

Frank said, &quot;you want me, an official of the Federal Communications Commission to come and operate a transmitter that has been illegal to use in the United States since 1921 and anywhere in the world since 1939&quot;?!!

I said, &quot;you're damned right Frank&quot;.

He then said, &quot;what time do you want me there&quot;! He came to the convention and put the transmitter on the air for 2 minutes starting at 58 minutes after the hour until the start of the next hour. He did this for at least 8 hours for almost 3 days! The reason that he used for the time frame was that the spark transmitter tore up every television in the hotel (and probably for miles around!) and that the last 2 minutes of each hour were just commercials!

I took my Advanced exam from Frank in 1968 and, at that time held not only the K9STH callsign but had 2 additional callsigns (WA4MLI in Atlanta, Georgia, and WA5STI in Richardson, Texas). However, my main call was K9STH and it had a station location at my parent's house in LaPorte, Indiana, but a mailing address in Richardson, Texas.

After I had completed the examination, Frank came up to me and said, &quot;you passed handily, but you can't have your main callsign outside of the 5th area&quot;. I handed him my then present license and he said, &quot;I'll be damned, if Washington did it once then they'll do it again&quot;! He handed me back my license and never said another word about my callsign for the next 30 years! I did have to give up the K9 when the FCC did away with additional station licenses in the mid-1970s and made you get your call from whatever area you were in. I got W5UOJ and held that call until several years ago when the FCC allowed you to get back any previous call that you had held that was available from the callsign pool.

Anyway, I guess that another of the signs that you have been licensed for a while is when you remember so many of the things that those who have since &quot;passed on&quot; did during their lifetimes!

Glen, K9STH

[K9STH]

OFZ:

I have had enough surgeries over the years that I believe that they have already pulled some core samples!

Glen, K9STH

[K3STX]

Ouch, remembering old sunspot cycles? That doesn't make you old, does it?

How about using a &quot;Ham-Key&quot; set of paddles every day, even now, because spending more than $25 for paddles just doesn't seem right.

(Remember the Ham-Key paddles, bright red on black base, from The Ham Radio Center, St. Louis?)

paul

[ka5s]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K9STH @ Jan. 26 2004,21:23)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I took my Advanced exam from Frank in 1968 and, at that time held not only the K9STH callsign but had 2 additional callsigns (WA4MLI in Atlanta, Georgia, and[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
I was an NCO at Fort Hood from 1977 to 1980. I had held W1CEJ for a some years, after moving #&quot;officially&quot; to Massachusetts in the mid 60's; and had been W9AEI, KN4EQJ and WV6CCP (plus German calls). #I upgraded to Extra at the FCC field exam at the 1979 North Texas VHF convention and I am keeping THIS call, thank you. D'you think Frank gave that exam?

Got back to Texas as an EMC engineer, in 89, and worked there for Tandy until mid 93. #My boss was also a ham, name of Bob Sanford (had to look up his hs first name and call, now W5OCX. He was pretty colorful himself, and claimed his mentor was a guy who'd worked for Edison. But our entire engineering crew there was colorful!

Might end up in Texas again. Depends who hires me!

Cheers!

Cortland

[kg4rrm]

KDK still around? i thought they went out of a while ago.

[ka5s]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3STX @ Jan. 26 2004,21:52)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">How about using a &quot;Ham-Key&quot; set of paddles every day, even now, because spending more than $25 for paddles just doesn't seem right.

(Remember the Ham-Key paddles, bright red on black base, from The Ham Radio Center, St. Louis?)[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Well these HAM-KEY paddles (picking up a set) have a dappled gray enamel finish. Another (incomplete) set I have was someone's project and it appears they spray painted the base semiglossy black. I will use it for parts.

Here's a set of Vibroplex Iambic paddles which came with a Curtis keyer taped to them. When I sold the keyer, the paddles came out pretty close to free.

Mind you, spending less than $25 on ANYTHING is an OF habit.

Cortland

[WA2ZDY]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3FT @ Jan. 26 2004,18:00)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">When you see 'MHz' or 'kHz' and you scowl and say (to yourself)

'IT's Mc/s and Kc/s, dammit!!'

. . .

When a 'mill' was not something used to grind flour and you had one and used it!

When 'Lake Erie' was more than just one of the Great Lakes and 'banana boat' was ,more than just a vessel that made the run to South America.

73

Chuck K3FT[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Lake Erie is one reason I learned to use a keyer and gave up on my old MacElroy bug (long since lost in a move.)

And I spent much time wearing cans and copying on the mill.

I have finally for the most part gotten around to recognising the contribution of Herr Hertz. But there are still plenty of cycles left in my mind too.

[K8ERV]

Glen, you did not tell us what the core samples revealed? Were they from your brain (if any). http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

TOM K8ERV

[K6UEY]

Glen &amp; Guy's,
Just went through the previous pages, what a wonderful journey down memory lane. I saw some names I haven't seen or heard in many decades, one unusual was Harristahl-VHF gear, that was of course the Famous Sam Harris, MR. VHF and of course Mike Stahl,who was known for his EME work, and some may remember him from being the&quot; M &quot;in KLM antennas. KLM, Ken, Leland, Mike were the founders of KLM, I knew them pretty well,Mike K6MYC was a neighbor of mine for years,Ken was K6HCP ken Holiday was in our VHF Society as was Leland, he was also a member of our Amateur Television Club, his call escapes me at the moment. Our little group was known as the Southbay VHF Society, in SAN JOSE, south of San Francisco Bay. Tapetone brings back memories,the whole group bought Tapetone Converter kits when the Nuvistors came out, and Chuck Smallhouse WA6MGZ had them sent to his house, so he brought them to my place for our meeting, and he brought along a friend who was in town, Don Stoner W6TNS,that meeting almost never came to and end, with the kit building going on and the stories being told, and trying to pick Don's brain it was pretty busy night. A lot of sal ammoniac went up in smoke that night.
Thanks guy's for a very pleasant trip, they don't make days the way they did back then.......

ORV
K6UEY
ARRL Life Member

[K9STH]

Cortland:

Frank oversaw at least 90 percent of the amateur examinations that the FCC gave when he was there and they were still giving the examinations. There is a pretty good chance that he was the one!

Before he went with the FCC, from the end of World War II until sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s, Frank was in charge of radio communications for Texas Power &amp; Light Company (which became the largest of the TXU companies). When I was working for TXU I had to go through all of the old licensing files to determine just what needed to be kept and what needed to be destroyed. I found all sorts of technical descriptions of the equipment (during the 1940s to get a two-way radio license required a whole lot of documentation!) right down to the tube line-up, circuits used etc. All of those had been prepared by Frank!

There was just too much &quot;history&quot; to destroy! Since everything was in two large 6-drawer file cabinets I just said that we needed to keep all of the information!

Glen, K9STH

[K9STH]

Tom:

All of the core samples have been removed from my chest and my &quot;gut&quot;, none from above the shoulders! They did take a vein from my left arm and from my right leg when they did the bypass surgery.

Glen, K9STH