Back in the mid 60’s, I would listen to my cousin W7ZQR
transmitting and receiving on his ham radio every time that we would visit,
which was frequently. I was fascinated by him talking across town, across the
state or across the world to another ham operator. “W7ZQR, W7 Zebra, Queen,
Roses transmitting in the City of Roses.” The knobs and dials and switches were
amazing, how would anyone know what to do. I decided then that I wanted to be a
ham radio operator.
But, in the 60’s you had to know Morse code. There was the
problem. Cousin W7ZQR provided us with a straight key with a battery and light
bulb so that I, along with my brothers could learn. He also taught us how to
build a simple wire antenna, using wood insulators, made out of wood from a
fruit crate, and connecting it to a crystal radio. The antenna was strung between
a tall cedar tree and a large oak tree. It was probably 20 feet off the ground
and close to 100 feet long. The feed line was just another piece of insulated
(if I remember correctly) wire that went from the cedar tree (which was the
closest) to our bedroom. I came through the window and connected to the crystal
receiver. The receiver was the basic crystal set with the “pick” that you
“probed” the crystal with and the enameled coil wound on what looked like a
toilet paper roll, that you moved the copper contact across to change
frequencies. With a set of headphones, we tried to tune in the world. I
honestly can’t remember if we (or I) ever heard anybody or not.
Fast forward to the early 1970’s and the Citizen Band Radio
was becoming the thing to have. By that time we were in Boy Scouts, then
Explorer Scouts and eventually a Search and Rescue group. I remembered that we
have an uncle who lives in Texas (we lived in the Pacific Northwest) that was
into radio stuff. My brother and I wrote him a letter and asked if he had a
radio. Imagine our surprise when a wooden box came with a single channel
Hallicrafters (think it was) with the “magic eye” tube on the front that when
you transmitted came down from the top in a “C” shape and full modulation would
give you a full green circle. We began to “build antennas” for this. Course not
knowing anything about antennas or antenna theory, we probably blew up the
radio and never knew it.
We then got a “mobile” CB radio from someone that we knew.
It had a Cinch Jones six pin power plug on the back. We apparently gave our
friend the wrong information, so when we put the radio in the car (1963
Corvair), it was wired backwards and we ended up melting a large portion of the
wiring harness in the dash of the car.
There were various other radios that came and went, most
were not worth much when we got them and certainly not worth anything when they
left us.
