CHAPTER THREE ... I don't remember just when Johnny and I took our novice tests. Probably it was in late April of 1956, or perhaps the earliest part of May. When
we had completed our written examinations, Dick put them both together in the same envelope, sealed it, and mailed it the next day. He told us it usually took a while for the actual license to
come. Turns out that was about nine weeks, which was typical. Since our examination papers were mailed in the same envelope, Johnny and I assumed we might get consecutive call signs.
Most of the kids in school had call signs beginning with the letter 'K", but one kid had a "W" call sign. He was, at that time, a senior at Young High School, and his name was DeWitt B Stone. He
was known as Dee Stone, and his call sign was W4HTW. His father, also Dee Stone (SR) was also a ham, but I have forgotten his call, though I do know it began with a "K" not a "W." I
remember, though, some of the kids saying to me, "It would sure be nice if you got a 'w' call." I honestly didn't know why that meant anything, but I agreed with them. I believe it was June
25, 1956, when I checked the mail and found that little envelope, the size of today's small amateur license. It was from the FCC and since I knew I had passed the test, it was clear this was the
long-awaited license. I ripped it open, and there was my call sign: KN4JSG! I was a ham! I dashed inside and called Johnny Walker. He, too, had received his license. It was not
consecutive with mine. His call sign was KN4JUC. I didn't have a radio. My father, knowing how much this meant to me, and yet too stubborn to ask me anything, as "he knew what was best,"
decided to buy me one. As was the case with most poor folks, we lived, ate, breathed and crapped, Sears Roebuck. Credit was king. So he went to Sears with his good, misguided intentions and
purchased for me, a "ham" radio. Of course, Sears made no such thing. What he bought was a Sears Silvertone battery/AC portable shortwave radio. It was a very cheap version of the
then-popular Zenith Transoceanic. Even I, with my zero experience as a ham, knew this radio was not going to do the job. But since my ather was infinitely wiser than I would ever be, or any
of my friends would ever be, this was the radio that would HAVE to do the job. Or I could buy one myself. I listened on that radio through much of July, and learned that I really could copy
very slow "thumps and hisses" as code. But with the entire 40 meter band taking up about the width of a pencil eraser, tuning stations would be a miracle. Still, they were there, and I wanted to
get on the air. That is where Dee Stone came in. Dee offered to let me borrow a homebrew 40 meter transmitter he had made. I could use it for a while and get on the air. He gave me two
crystals, I believe about 7.175 and 7.182, in the 40 meter Novice band. The transmitter ran a 6AG7 oscillator, and a 6L6 amplifier, about 15 watts input. It was link coupled to my TV-twin lead
300 ohm line to a folded dipole strung between trees. I was not concerned with power out, as there was nothing I could do about it anyway. In an issue of Popular Electronics I learned I could
take a BC radio and place it beside the Silvertone, and the oscillator in the BC radio would beat against the incoming signal on the SW radio and creat a beat note. As long as I didn't move the dial, I
would have real CW. BFO injection was by moving the AM radio closer to or further from the SW radio. It worked, after a fashion, but the local oscillator signal of the AM radio was pretty darn
weak time it was multipled up to 7 MHZ. With that rig, I worked 11 states. That fall Dee Stone went away to college and he took his 40 meter transmitter back. I had had it only two
months, and now I was off the air. A few years ago, when I was looking for a vanity call sign for the 5th call area, one of the ones I chose was W5HTW, as a sort of reminder of the fellow who first
put me on the air, Dee Stone, W4HTW. Some of the fellows I remember from that period of time, besides Dee Stone, were the boy from Spanish class, David Dawn, then KN4EPR, and later K4EPR after he
got his General. Johnny Walker, of course, KN4JUC. Earl Patterson, K4EAI, who had a beautiful RME45 receiver and a DX35, and helped me learn what 15 meter phone was all about, though I was not
licensed to operate it myself. There was Allan Johnson, I think was his name, K4DSC. I think Allan had an S38D for a receiver. A young fellow named Louis Puster, K4GAH, was also a great
help to me. All of these were Young High School students. Most important in my ham radio life at that time was Dick Ingram, W4PHW. Dick saw me to Knoxville Amateur Radio Club meetings,
and had me and others to his house for many parties. While the adults at those parties usually had beer, we teens and younger had soft drinks, and there were activities at Dick's house for whole
families, such as pie eating contests, volleyball and other things, while the strong men hams raised antennas. CHAPTER FOUR In the fall of 1956 I returned to
Dick's house for my Technician test. Back then the Tech written test was the same as the General, but the code test was 5 words per minute, the same as the Novice. The FCC's idea was that
Technician Class hams, who could operate on six meters and up, but not on two meters, with full power and all modes of operation allowed to Generals, would help develop the VHF and UHF specturm.
The Novice license was good for only one year. It could not only not be renewed, and if you ever held a Novice class license, you could never hold one again. It was a learners permit, and as
such worked wonderfully. With it you were allowed HF CW operation, at 75 watts input power, crystal controlled, no voice operation, and only in narrow segments of 80, 40 and 15 meters. You
could also operate voice OR CW on 145-147 MHZ, and "voice" usually meant AM. You were still limited to crystal control and 75 watts input. You could not operate on six meters or ten meters.
The Technician Class license allowed operation on six meters, but not on two meters. And no HF operation at all. The FCC saw that it would be good if hams could hold both the Novice and the
Technician class of licenses at the same time. And many of us did. So that fall, I took the Tech license, and I passed it. Dick sent the examination away to the FCC and by November, I had
received my Technician Class license. Novice call signs contained an "N" in the prefix; mine was KN4JSG. If a person qualified for a higher class of license, the same call sign was issued, except
the "N" was removed. So my call sign as a Technician was K4JSG. That would also be the call sign I would have if I got my General. If operating on Novice frequencies, under Novice rules,
I would use the call KN4JSG. If operating on Technician frequencies, under Tech rules, I would use the call sign K4JSG. I had taken the Tech license for two reasons. The first was to save
my call sign in case I did not pass the General right away. The Tech license was good for five years and could be renewed. I could remain K4JSG for many years, if I so chose. The second
reason was I had been invited to participate in some six meter Civil Defense activity if I could get the license. That sounded exciting! So when I got the Technician class license, I operated the
Gonset six meter communicator for Civil Defense, and also operated it in support of ham activities in the area, such as the March of Dimes drives. I even borrowed one and took it home, putting me on
the air on six meters as K4JSG. I was not able to keep it for long. In March of 1957, we moved to Denver, Colorado. Anxious to get on the air, I soon discovered hams in the school I was
attending, East High School. The first ham I met at East, I was standing in the hallway, not knowing anyone, in this huge school of some 3,000 students, and I was really "out of it." It was
between classes and hundreds of students were moving from one class to another. Suddenly, right in front of me, a fellow said to another guy, something like, "Hey, Jack, boy ten was really open last
night. I worked Australia ...." I stepped closer. "Are you guys hams?" "Yes. Are you?" "Yes, " I said. "I'm K4JSG." One of them was Lester, W0ZAY, the
other was Jack, K0CRV (Cool Radio Veteran!) They introduced me to some other hams in the school and I soon became very close friends with a fellow named Dennis James, KN0IJA. (I Just Ate!)
And I met Jim, K0EHG. Both lived near me. Through them, I learned of what was then called Aurora Surplus. An Army Surplus store that sold military radio equipment. I had been at
school less than three weeks and I had friends. Ham friends. By late April I was also working after school and earning what was then fair money for a kid. I bought a car, with my father's
cosigning, and, again with my parents' cosigning, I bought my first "real" ham radio - a Hallicrafters S-85. Brand new, from Burstein-Applebee in Denver. I financed it myself. With a
"dream receiver," I now needed a transmitter. Aurora Surplus provided that. For four bucks I could buy an ARC5, the 7 MHZ version, new and unused, complete with tubes. I did so, and browsed
the surplus store for other parts. Soon I had built a large but workable power supply, and strung a wire out the window from my second floor bedroom, out over the garage. I was still limited
to Novice frequencies on HF, and to crystal control. But the ARC5 did not have crystal control. I broke the law. I lowered the plate voltage on the oscillator, and put in a regulator
tube. The oscillator was crystal stable, and, by keying the cathodes of the finals, and letting the oscillator run continuously when the tx HV was on, I had no drift and no chirp. It sounded like
a crystal controlled radio and I went on the air. The rig ran about 50 watts plate power input to a pair of 1625s which could handle 150 watts easily but I did not have the plate transformer to do
that. My Novice ticket would expire the end of June. I did not feel I was ready for the General test. With just four weeks left on my license, I tore into the ARC5 again, putting in a
changeover relay and increased the plate voltage on the finals. I never got it to 75 watts, but I came close. Then I was off the air, my license expired. I had met some other hams by
now, Jim Lamb, K0IME and a couple of others, K0KGN and K0JUP. I had also submitted my Technician Class license, as required by FCC rules, for modification, and I received the call sign K0KPM.
K4JSG would be no more. From an older ham who knew several of us, I again wound up with a borrowed six meter Gonset Communicator and three crystals in the AM portion of 6 meters. I was on the air
now as a Technician only, as K0KPM. It was time to study. In August, 1957, I went to the FCC's office in the New Customhouse of downtown Denver and passed the General Class test on my second try,
the first having been in mid July. I received the coveted license in September, after only a five week wait. I was K0KPM, General Class. I had all amateur privileges.
... to be continued ... |
