Fw: [Boatanchors] know code / no code debate

[James Duffer]

Sounds reasonable, they were certainly many available, they were small and 
compact.

I attended a one room school house, no electricity, no plumbing.  I had a 
teacher who was a ham.  He brought his car down and it had a mobile unit, he 
made a contact with a station in Des Moines, IA.  I thought that was 
amazing, and in retrospect probably awakened my interest in ham radio.  He 
didn't finish the year as he allowed himself to be drafted into the Korean 
war.  He did have a project where we were to make a crystal radio, coil on 
an oatmeal box, a galena crystal/cat whisker, headphones etc.  I would like 
to have reported that we heard a station, but we didn't. It was fun anyway.

Years later I heard him on the Kadiddle Hopper net out of Texas.  I had a 
short QSO with him.  He was a retired railroad man.
>
>What was used to listen to the output?  Did you build your own
>speaker or headphone?
>
>
>Dad told me, that a telephone hand piece was most often used.
>Telephone line wire was a popular antenna. Lucky was the day when you found
>the end of a downed line you could splice onto and set up a receiver.
>
>The old wall box with a hand piece on a wire was popular. The "newer" 
>modern
>hand set was also used. Lot of guys had head sets from radio sets. My dad 
>had
>carried a gallium crystal with him from home across Africa, Sicily, Italy 
>and
>France. It was his lucky rock from home and you just were not going to take 
>it
>away from him. He had gotten a heads up and someone told him what to take
>with him.
>
>Roger KC6TRU