[Boatanchors] Novice Transmitter Thoughts?

[Rob Atkinson]

Hi Carl, what do you know!   I have about three memories of that
hamfest.  The first already mentioned was the bug.   The second was
some restaurant in Peoria that was inside a caboose or passenger rail
car somewhere near downtown Peoria (I wonder if it is still there).
The third was buying a huge mil. surplus knife switch, DPDT with the
blades and clip contacts up on 2 or 3 inch high white porcelain
insulators and each pole separated by about 3 inches in all
directions, blades three inches long and all hardware silver plated
copper.  That became a TR switch (impedance bump, what's that) then
after I knew better I hung on to it because in the back of my mind I
figured I'd never see another one, and I was right.  I still have it
and have a plan for it that won't meet with OSHA approval, hi.

73

Rob
K5UJ

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Carl <km1h at jeremy.mv.com> wrote:
> Its a small world Rob as I was at the Peoria Hamfest both those years while
> I was living in Roselle and working for a NH company in Chicago down by
> Union Station on W Jackson. I was also at the first NSRA Street Rod
> Nationals in Peoria in August 1970 in a hurriedly thrown together 36 Ford
> coupe I had found on a S.Wisconsin farm a few months earlier. Talk about
> patina and barn fresh!
>
> Boatanchor related: That car was packed to overflowing inside and in the
> trunk with 20's battery radios and a few early AC TRF's. I still have many
> of them.
>
> Carl
> KM1H
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Atkinson" <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
> To: "Boat Anchors List" <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 6:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Novice Transmitter Thoughts?
>
>
>> I love my parents dearly and don't want this to sound bad about them
>> but they didn't give me any money for radio.  They DID take me to
>> hamfests however, which sometimes involved an all-day trip, like the
>> time they took me to the Peoria hamfest in either 1972 or 71, can't
>> remember the exact year.  I clearly recall that was the hamfest where
>> I bought my WW2 surplus Lightning Bug which I still have and use
>> occasionally.  We lived in the south suburbs.   All my gear was bought
>> at hamfest flea markets, and usually didn't work, but local hams (now
>> mostly SK) showed me how to find the problems and fix them.  That was
>> when every ham had a bench in his shack.    I got somebody's homebrew
>> xtal controlled CW rig (all I remember about it was that it was small
>> but very well built and put out about 15 watts and it worked) for 80
>> and 40.  My rx which I still have, was an Allied Radio branded solid
>> state general coverage rx that wobbled the CW note if you banged on
>> the table.  I got it from a guy with a bonus from the Chicago Tribune
>> for delivering papers through the winter.  One Saturday I took the
>> train into the Loop and walked across it to the C&NW station (Chicago
>> and Northwestern) and got on a train there and took that out to
>> Wheaton.   I felt like I was way out in the sticks.  Somehow I found
>> the Wheaton hamfest and spent the day there and then got back home on
>> the train.  I think that was where I bought the Allied rx but my
>> memory of those days is pretty fuzzy.  All my money for radio came
>> from a paper route.   If parents let their kid take a train alone to
>> Wheaton today they'd probably be prosecuted for child endangerment.
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Rob
>> K5UJ
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