WØUI "Woody"
at www.w0ui.com
1963 (Pre-SWL - Practicing with my home-made code key)
2012 (46 years in amateur radio)
Early in 2012, my ham shack is in transition. In early January it looked like this.
Above
Left-to-Right Top Row: (1955) Johnson Adventurer transmitter, (1982) Yaesu FT-767gxii 160-6 meter, VHF, UHF transceiver
Left-to-Right Middle Row: (1957) Johnson Valiant transmitter, (1960) Hammarlund HQ-170c receiver, (1970) Collins 30L-1 linear amplifier
Left-to-Right Bottom Row:: (1959) Johnson Pacemaker HF transmitter, (1955) Collins 75A-4 receiver, (1976) Yaesu FT-401b HF transceiver
Next to top Adventurer: My first bug from 1966 (Vibroplex Blue Racer, now gold plated) and my grandfather's Signal Electric brass straight key
Bottom left next to the Pacemaker: The Vibrokeyer from my mentor, Ernie Longman (w8da, sk)
Upper right: My (re-gold-plated) Vibroplex Presentation bug
Lower right by the FT401b: My Brown Bros. CTL-B double key (paddle/hand-key) - Anyone know of a source for replacement red plastic paddles?
In the early 1960s, I would go to play with a neighbor friend, Eric, whose father (pictured below) was an amateur radio operator (Ernie Longman - SK - W8SCU later W8DA,).
Mr. Longman used a Collins 75A-4 receiver and Johnson Viking 500 transmitter.
As a CW buff, he rarely used his Astatic D-104 microphone, deferring mostly to his Signal Electric brass-based morse code key (or his early Codex brand electronic keyer).
Although my grandfather, Kenneth Buck, Sr (KIA on the USS Skill AM-115), never got his amateur license before his WW2 deployment he was accomplished with the code.
He owned and practiced with the same style Signal Electric key. That key, pictured here, was passed down for me to use.
When morse code was being sent from the Viking 500 the mercury-vapor tubes down by our feet would glow and the transformers would buzz.
It was so fascinating to me as a child and absolutely hooked me on the hobby.
I started playing amateur radio operator and at about age 8 (1963) my father built a console out of WW2 army surplus equipment for me to play with.
I home-made my first morse code key out of a block of wood, a scrap of metal and a screw and some washers.
I didn't actually talk to anyone but it was sure fun pretending.
For a Cub Scout project and using a Boy Scout publication called "Radio Signaling," I built my first radio - an AM broadcast receiver using no batteries.
My first real receiver was an Allied Knight-Kit Star Roamer.
At the annual First Methodist Church rummage sale I purchased a Philco 37-60 for 50-cents that added to my radio base.
I remember listening to HCJB, the Voice of America and Radio Moscow with it.
A simple dipole was strung in the attic of our home above my bedroom.
While a wood shop student at Ann Arbor High School in the mid-1930s my father had hand made a desk that he offered me to use with my radios.
In 1966 at the age of 11, with trembling hands, I passed my amateur radio written exam and code test.
There was no electronic mail back then and all application processing was still done by hand.
The ticket finally arrived in the mail perhaps a month later on a Saturday. I was so excited.
I called Mr. Longman who agreed to could come over later in the day and help me get on the air.
He had a Johnson Adventurer transmitter he would loan me to use.
It was probably the longest day of my entire 11 years of life. The waiting was horrific and time passed slowly.
Finally late that evening he arrived (I already had my pajamas on for bed).
Toting the Adventurer, he got things set up and explained "peaking the Grid" and "dipping the Plate."
I tuned up into a 60-watt light bulb and then out onto the dipole we had hung in the back yard.
There was a toggle switch attached to the upper right corner of the transmitter to activate the antenna relay mounted to a small board attached to the back of the rig.
Finally there I was... on the air. What joy filled my young heart. This was the real thing and I was a part of it.
On my 12th birthday, my father bought a Hammarlund receiver from Tony Lameika, WA8GQY (SK) to replace the Star Roamer.
A few months later I had saved up enough money for a down payment on a used Vibroplex Blue Racer bug from him, too.
He let me make installment payments for it. Total cost to me was $15.00.
