[ARC5] Can yoiu say...

[Richard Knoppow]

    Your mention of not knowing about a BFO brings a painful reminder of 
just how naive I was as a kid. I had nagged for an S-38B since a 
neighbor had one and, at maybe eight years old, I thought it was 
advanced technology. Well, I got it. It had a switch marked AM/CW. It 
sounded different in CW but I didn't really know what the difference 
was. I suppose the instruction book might have told me. Eventually, I 
found out.  I also realize now that for the same money I probably could 
have gotten a used receiver of considerably better quality, maybe an 
S-20R or something of the sort. I still have the S-38B but its in 
pieces, maybe at some point I will restore it. I wish I had had some 
sort of "elmer" at the time but the teen age neighbor was just a spoiled 
rich kid; no help at all. I also could have done with an ARRL handbook, 
didn't know they existed. I got into all this because my dad took a 
night course in radio. We built a simple crystal set (on a literal bread 
board). Worked like a charm.  He also took a class in photography and 
brought home a Kodak Darkroom in a Box. Well you can guess who set this 
up. I still remember watching the images come up on a roll of (probably 
127 Verachrome), seemed to take forever. I also printed those negatives 
although I now have no memory of what the pictures were. Both ham radio 
and photography became life long hobbies and electronics my profession. 
In both cases I was pretty much self-taught.

On 6/14/2017 9:08 AM, Robert  Eleazer wrote:
> The only Command Set transmitter I have converted was a 5.3 to 7 MHZ ATA 
> model I got from Fair Radio.  Like Ken, I was not interested the sets 
> from the Amateur Radio standpoint but rather the historical  aspect. And 
> I did not have my license yet, in any case.
> I used the 1965 ARRL Handbook for information to get the transmitter 
> running.  Those instructions called for minimal modification of the 
> transmitter.  I only put an octal plug from a broken tube on the back to 
> apply power, removed the antenna relay, and added a small phone socket 
> on the front for a CW key.  I brought the transmitter up with about a 
> 250VDC supply, stuck a piece of wire in the antenna connector and tried 
> transmitting to a GE multiband receiver on the other side of the house.  
> At the time I did not know about BFOs and was perplexed that I could not 
> get a signal.  But eventually I found a signal to beat against.  No 
> doubt I was not getting out past a mile or so but I did not care, since 
> there was no one to talk to anyway.
> I delighted in the operation of the Magic Eye tube and especially the 
> fact it was a real WWII set, which was the real reason I got into radio 
> in the first place - so I did not hack it up.
> Wayne
> WB5WSV
> 
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-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL