[NJARC] Novice rigs

[David Sica]

On Fri, 14 Jul 2006 07:53:38 -0400 "Robert Flory"
<robandpj at earthlink.net> writes:
> John, John, and everyone else that lived it.
> It would be fun to know what everyone's novice rigs were.
 
WN2AWD (sadly that's as far as I ever got!) ran a home brew 6L6 rig
cobbled together using parts scavenged from TVs I brought home from the
dump and assembled on an old octal AA5 chassis. RX was a Heathkit HR-10B
which I built myself. 

My high school buddy George, WB2DYB, a fellow member of the high school
radio club and a year ahead of me was my "Elmer" and I recall him
actually talking me though my first QSOs with him on the landline so I
could find his signal on the air.

I re-acquired an HR-10B via eBay a few years ago to add to my collection.
I still have the original transmitter, in modified form. After
experiencing little success in getting anyone to answer my CQs without
also having them on the telephone, I kinda lost interest. Being "wild"
teenagers (yeah, right!), we decided it would be a great idea to convert
the CW transmitter into a pirate AM radio station. Lots of enthusiasm,
but an undeveloped sense of theory ended that venture in a hurry. As we
rode our bicycles around the neighborhood with transistor radios strapped
to the handlebars to perform "field tests" of the signal strength, we
were about a mile away when suddenly the music died. Racing back to my
house, we were confronted with a smoke filled bedroom and a charred
modulation transformer. I'm lucky I didn't burn the house down. (Probably
also lucky the darn thing died before the FCC came knocking on the door!)

I'm sensing that a "public embarrassment time" section of the website
might be an appropriate endeavor. www.njarc.org/rearviewmirror.htm/
currently offers only some photos of a very geeky me circa 1970, but
please feel free to submit anything that casts you in a
less-than-favorable light in your earlier days: long hair, bell bottoms,
Nehru jackets etc. would all be very appropriate.

--Dave Sica