Trials & Errors #78 (5/12/2026): A Banner Year for Amateur Radio

Yep the SCR608 designator FM radio that the allies used in WW2 were prototyped at Noble labs in Phoenix, the predecessor of Motorola in Phoenix which was my old stomping grounds from my time designing some of the first LDMOS in the mid 1990'S. The original 52nd St. and McDowell Rd. Motorola facility was one of the earliest ones in Phoenix way before my time.

 

1957: I remember riding my bicycle listening to a two transistor radio to one of the strong Los Angeles radio stations, KFI, KNX? 2N107/2N170 if memory serves.. one leg of a transistor broke and i still could hear a broadcast! I guess a diode would have sufficed... the following year word was that my electric shop teacher was a ham and if we got a license we would get an A in the class so I got my Novice call WV6IYL... that changed to WA6IYL when i got my general so I made the V into an upside down A and used the same QSL cards...

 

Max, that's hilarious about the "Easy A" teacher . . . I'll bet he got more than a few guys into the hobby, Dave

 

For fun I looked up "SOS At Midnight" on Amazon ... the $199 for a used paperback is out of my league

 

I found it on Internet Archive as a PDF, but it says "Book Unavailable" at this time. Dave