How I've received the livelong radio virus

In the early '70s a friend had a AM CB 1 channel portable transceiver. Soon I heard other people on the same channel (14) and therefore I wanted more . . . So over time I had several different CB equipment, like Pony CB 36/ CB75/ CB78. The use of CB transmitters was at this time forbidden by law, but strange enough possession was not !

In those days I was able to buy a tube receiver for the HF bands and then I heard real Ham operators for the first time. This was a real eye opener for me. At the same time I built FM transmitters in the broadcastband, at first simple oscillators and later on with tubes like ECC-85/ QQE-0312/ QQE-0640 because in those days there weren't transistors with enough power.

Several years had gone by, I had other things to do and in the late '80s I got a Yaesu FR7700 HF receiver and the virus came back again. Also CB became legal (FM modulation - 0,5 Watt - 22 channel). At this time the interest for getting a real Ham licence grew even further. After an exam I got the licence for PE1HGM, later on the callsign changed to PA1HGM.

Over the years, several transmitters have gone by in the shack and of course also other equipment like antennas/ test equipment/ mic's et cetera. I will not give a list because transmitters have improved over time. Presently, almost all transmitters are made with SMD components and are using SDR in al forms. Using a radio without software is nowadays unthinkable. Comparisation with vintage radio's therefore isn't fair.

But my memories still remain . . .