I have been getting a lot of good feedback from my computer history columns. I was thinking about doing another one this week, but instead decided to reminisce about another aspect of technology that influenced my early life.
My introduction to ham radio came at a fairly early age; I was a sophomore in high school. One night we started getting interference on our television. You could hear a voice speaking, and it was the voice of a neighbor down the street! When I called him, in a very excited state, I didn't realize that he was a ham radio operator, and his gear wasn't supposed to do that. He sounded a bit disturbed rather than friendly, but he did invite me over to see his 'shack'. About that time, an upperclassman at school was organizing an effort to monitor the transmissions from Cape Canaveral to the astronauts, using ham radio equipment. I joined the effort and from then on ham radio occupied a significant part of my young life.
I received my first ham radio license (or 'ticket' in ham parlance) in 1962. This test for this level of license, the Novice license, could be given by local hams themselves with FCC supervision. A year later I obtained my General class ticket.
But I almost didn't make it. In order to get the General class license, you had to know the International Morse Code at 13 words per minute (wpm). Now, 13 wpm is actually fairly slow, but until you get the 'hang' of Morse code, it can be a daunting challenge. Also challenging was that you had to take the test at the FCC regional office, which was in lower Manhattan (that is in New Yawk, for you Southerners). Since I was trying to break away from my childhood and become independent, I decided to take the bus and subway into NYC. I had never done that before, or anything remotely that adventurous.
I managed to get on to the right bus, and got to the Port Authority building in NYC. I managed to get down to the subway levels and found the right subway. I even found the right stop. But by then I was pretty frazzled. I found my way to the building, only to find out that the FCC offices were on an upper floor of this skyscraper, and the elevators were busted. I ran up the stairs to make sure I got to the test on time. I thus arrived frazzled, bewildered, and sweaty. And I flunked the code test.
And so, home. And back to study. I was able to try it again one month later, and this time knowing the route and having the elevators fixed, I passed. It was both a technical and social achievement!
Now to get a 'rig' - i.e. equipment. I had a little money from working, but not too much. My friend from the high school astronaut experiment (which was a success, by the way) took me to a ham radio get-together called a "hamfest". There we found an old WWII variety receiver (originally used in aircraft) that would tune one of the ham bands - 40 meters. Since I could only use Morse code with the Novice license, I had to modify the receiver to receive code. With help from my friend, I actually mounted an extra tube socket and soldered the components into the receiver and was actually able to make it work! For a transmitter, I built one entirely from parts - it had a single tube and used military surplus crystals to control the frequency.
I threw up an antenna made from the old style flat TV cable that was in use at the time (called Twin Lead) and was ON THE AIR!
Don't ask me how many contacts I made in those days - it wasn't many. But the point was: I learned and achieved, and did it mostly on my own. The roots of the nerd I am today were sown back in 1962-63 and there were many new and rewarding experiences after that. More later.
Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).