[JMS] Society Update - December 11, 2003

[Don Buska]

JMS Membership Level
--------------------

One new member since last months update, we now have 52 members in the society.  


Webpage Update
--------------

Spending a couple of weekends at the Milwaukee Central Library doing some old radio 
research I came across a couple of additional Millen articles that got scanned 
and placed on our website.  They are:

An A.C. Receiver and Power Supply By James Millen;  Radio Broadcast, November 1925

How to Use Meters in Your Receiver By James Millen;  Radio Broadcast, December 1925


Tom Smith, N5AMA has provided some nice pictures of his late version 90821 High 
Voltage Power Supply.  This is the version that has the high/low voltage switch on the 
back panel.  I was able to include these in the equipment picture area of the site
and update the text for a better description of the two variations of this supply.



QSL Cards
---------

A few emails arrived with support and provide ideas for the JMS QSL card.  Support 
seems strong for making the front look like the end-box logo used on most of the 
Millen component boxes.  Now I'm waiting for some real graphic samples to come from 
the membership.


Pictures and Bios for Website
-----------------------------

Nothing received since the last update.  Hope you are making plans to send me a 
digital picture (or non-digital via snail mail) and some brief bio info.  I would like 
to have more of these for our Membership Roster area.  Make it a New Years resolution 
to get me this stuff.



2BYP Station
------------

The following appeared last month, but no responses to it.  Maybe not worth pursuing.

Who is 2BYP?  Well that's our Mr. Millen and his first ham callsign.  Wouldn't it be 
great to find out what equipment he used and built for his first shack?  Wouldn't it 
be great to create that same setup and put it on the air?  Perhaps using the W1HRX 
callsign?

Well, if you know of any vintage QSL collectors out there see if they might have a 
2BYP card.  If you live close to the AWA Annex maybe a group effort to go through the 
thousands upon thousands of vintage QSL's in their possession would be a viable 
project (hint... hint...)  Hey if someone does this contact me I have a few other 
calls I'd love to find, hi.  During my recent research for an article I've been 
thoroughly going over 1920's vintage QST's and other period magazines.  I kept my eyes 
open for 2BYP in the "Calls Heard" column and elsewhere, but alas no mention.  So 
either James did very little operating under 2BYP or I just missed it.  Those old 
"Calls Heard" columns have pages and pages of callsigns listed.

Your ideas on how we can proceed finding out what Millen's first station was comprised 
of our welcome.  Heck even an old photo from the 2BYP period would probably provide a 
good starting point.

Hey, by-the-way, W2BYP is an available callsign if your considering a new vanity call 
in the future.

Vanity Calls
------------

Not sure what your views are on Vanity Calls.  For those who have considered it, here 
is something that has struck me as interesting.  As many of you already know the 
callsign suffixes that began with the letter X used to be for experimental stations.  
This was especially prevalent during the 1920's and 30's.  I was surprised that most of 
these calls are still available in the vanity callsign program.

Some famous calls like W2XMN is registered to the Major Edwin H Armstrong Memorial 
Radio Club out of Ventura, California.  Not to sure how many members this "radio club" 
has but they grabbed up Armstrongs experimental FM operations call.  However, so many 
of the early three letter suffix experimental station calls still exist.  This is 
especially true for TV station calls.

I have even considered doing this myself.  Although I've had the N9OO call now for 
over 25 years.  Yep it's a pre-vanity call so I don't have to pay the extra renewal 
fee's, hi.  So many friends have advised me kindly using the subtle verbal comments 
such as "Are you Nut's" when I mentioned changing calls.  So for now I'll keep the 
ol'OO call sign, even though I get rather tired of people using zero's instead of the 
letter O in emails and such.

So if your considering a new call via the vanity program please consider those old 
experimental suffixes.  You may need to add the letter W in front, but it may get you 
a call that has real historical significance for your area of the country.  Plus, 
you'll learn alot of radio history when you investigate the calls lineage.

Final Thoughts
--------------
Not a whole lot done Millen wise, except for those couple of website additions and 
normal membership processing duties.  I hope to get started on my NC-101XA real soon 
now and have it added to my Millen setup in replacement of the HRO-5TA1 receiver.  The 
NC-101XA matches the Millen line much closer in looks.

Hope some of you had fun in the AWA's 29 contest a couple of weeks back.  Was not able 
to get on from my shack, but I know we have a few regulars in the JMS ranks.  A great 
time to test those early Millen-National era SW-3's (2,4, and 5's too), FB7's and even 
the rare AGS receivers if you lucky enough to own one of those.

My best this holiday season es 73

Don N9OO
President - The James Millen Society.