[GreenKeys] how did it start

[Lee Mushel]

Dear Folks,

My interests in RTTY and amateur radio are so tightly intertwined that at this point in my life I would have difficulty describing this chicken or egg situation.   For what it's worth I will start at the beginning with the hope that someone will recognize that they might be unconsciously directing the life of some child in their lives.   

Without doubt, as a four or five year old,  my interest in radio was started by my grandfather who had purchased a crystal radio from some magazine offer.   He carefully explained how it needed no batteries and didn't have to be "plugged into the wall."   He demonstrated how to "hunt for a place to attach the antenna for loudest reception.   And, after he tired of it, it was mine.  For a boy in northern Wisconsin with a technical interest the only connection with the world was through the Sears catalog.   And I found a really super-looking thing called a clock radio.  It was discared long ago but I must admit that I missed it so that I kept watch for one on ebay and after several years of searching did find the same model and color and it now sits in my shack next to my first heathkit, the Model AT-1 transmitter.

At this point I have to explain to those of you under the age of 60 that there was no such thing as television and the concept of TV in a child's room would have been considered in the context of a joke.   So that clock radio was, to me, a truly technological marvel.  With that start when I heard of a school science club project to study radio I wasted no time joining.   The first project was to build your own crystal radio.   And then to add a one tube audio amplifier.   It was the search for parts for this that took me to the local Radio-TV repair shop and friendship with the owner who would give me my novice test five years later and who, by the way, 53 years after that,  still receives several emails from me every week!  The code was taught in the same science club and first knowledge of ham radio came from CQ magazines I found at the local drug store.

I can't be sure where the interest in things mechanical came from.   I never had the interest in cars that the other boys had.   But one grandfather was a blacksmith and the other an inventor of what my grandmother called "contraptions."   Maybe love for such things has a genetic origin.  I had a friend who was an announcer at the local radio station and I would visit him those nights he worked and immediately took note of that strange typewriter which was kept in a closet because of the noise it made but which brought all the latest world news to that little town.

I think the hook was set.  So when CQ magazine had an article on RTTY everything came together and I do believe I built my first terminal unit before I took the Novice test!   It was another decade before I made that memorable trip to pick up my first machine and, yes, it still sits in my shack along with the others, a total of eight, all different, not including the fox box.   Yes, they all work perfectly.  

Work and family took me away from ham radio for nearly 30 years and I only recently returned as my retirement hobby.   You have no idea how shocked I was to find that we now have such a thing as a "glass machine."   My XYL, who also vividly remembers the trip to get that model 15, wondered how anyone could claim to use RTTY without a proper machine!   And I certainly share that view!

Today the machines are largely silent---but still loved and cared for!   Software Defined Radio and the 600 meter project now occupies most of my hobby time.  If you want any photos you will have to send me your email address.   I have no interest in constructing a web site!

73

Lee    K9WRU