[ARC5] On Hacking

Mon Oct 15 15:04:00 EDT 2012

Well, Dave

	First it was hacking and now the preservationists have upped the insult to those intrepid hams who made these things useful to "Chain Sawing."  It's no secret that hyperbole tends to ruffle the feathers of we  who made good use of this junk in the late 40s and 50s to get on the air.  I did in fact save my paper route money in the early 50s to buy a few command set receivers from R and W electronics and a couple more from Standard Surplus in San Francisco.  Those rascals taught me a lot about how radios worked and did in fact provide me with a great introduction to both ham radio and the mystery of electronics...  and introduction that lead to a long career in the telecommunications industry for the next 50 years.  Not having the opportunity to take a lot of this surplus junk apart or modifying it would have been a great loss to me.  The articles in CQ magazine during that period instilled a great desire to learn more about this stuff.  As I said in a prior posting, there's a lot more history in the amateur radio--surplus electronics nexus that one would ever find in the various government documents depicting how many CBYXXX were manufactured or deployed.  To each his own, but the vitriol towards those who used this junk to a good end is not warranted.  Live and let live.

Bob, KE6F 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com>
To: ARC-5 List <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, Oct 15, 2012 2:18 am
Subject: [ARC5] On Hacking

Oh No Here He Goes Again warning:
IMHO and YMMV.
This is just how I see it.
I do not demand anyone agree with me,
nor am I mad at anyone who has a different opinion.
I don't sign your paycheck and you don't sign mine
so God bless ya and go your own way.
I won't "restore" your stuff if you don't drill mine ;-).
Anyone who wants to fight about it, please
hit your "delete" key or forever hold your peace.
Amen.

It is true that a few inventive and laudable
things were created out of WWII surplus gear
and we should admire them.
And it's true that little of the gear would have been saved
for us had not the ham community taken to it.
But the fortunate fact that hams did so is a 
seperate issue from the results of that interest.

If more knowledgeable people had taken the time to 
actually understand and write about the equipment,
rather than simply "parrot" what some guy 
with a chainsaw wrote in haste,
I think even more of it would have been saved.
Thank God Almighty for Gordon White.
Without him, I think every Command Set 
would be beer cans now.

We need to stop kidding and congratulating ourselves 
about just how much of this was "learning" and "invention" 
and how much was "hackery" and "quackery."
Because of the nature of our group
there are many exceptions here
and many of us built some neat things.
But amongst the general 1940s-1970s ham population,
I think the "wonderful ham innovations
with surplus military gear" are more myth than fact.

Barring things like some AC-ed BC-348s, hacked gear 
that became something of enduring usefulness is rare.
Thousands of SCR-274N transmitters were hammered
and drilled with the intent of becoming Novice transmitters
for broke kids. I was one of those kids. 
In fact, my first "dit" on the air was a BC-459.
However, the vast majority "died-a-borning" 
and never had the then-required crystal oscillator installed,
or the power supply never got built,
or some poor kid bought-into the parroted "TVI" baloney
(which still lives on today!)
and he gave-up in the face of the extensive 
and expensive mechanical mods, 
or a dozen other reasons why they were never finished.
And if the majority of hams doing this "learned" much,
other than how to tear things up, I sure couldn't tell it.
Even when a few were finished,
they were run improperly and got the kids
pink tickets from the Feds or cards from busy-body OOs.
I confess: the only reason I made contacts with my 
BC-459 was that I was using the internal MO.
Call the FBI. I'll go quietly ;-).

Lawns got mowed and papers got flung and something 
from Globe or Heath or Hally etc. came along 
for the kids (mine was a Globe Scout 680),
and most of the once historically-significant gear 
went straight to the junk-pile.

I've been working with this gear off-and-on for 40 years.
I've seen thousands of hacked military radio items. 
The ones that could reasonably engender pride 
I can count on my fingers- and have some left over.
I certainly wouldn't want anything I hacked 
when I was 14 years old to be pictured 
in anyone's history book. 
Most hacks- if they ever worked at all- 
were quicky discarded in favor of commercial gear.
A large precentage never did another lick of useful work-
not so much as a "dit."

Again- one person's opinion, 
worth every penny you paid for it.

73 DE Dave AB5S

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