[QCWA] First Station

[Tom Loughney]

I started with a Hallicrafter's S-38B (given to me as an SWL) and a home built transmitter using a pair of 6L6 tubes that gave me about 30 watts out on a good day. I was lucky to have 4 crystals and had them mounted to a switch so I could quickly QSY. My antenna was the center line on my mother's clothes line which was about 30 feet long and I replaced it with a piece of wire and two insulators at the ends. I had another piece of wire attached to one end that ran into the home made T/R switch in my basement shack. I tuned it with the transmitter using a light bulb for maximum brightness. I had a "ground" wire attached to the cold water pipe in the basement. I did know that the chassis on the S-38 was "hot" but I made sure the TX was not and painted the RX plug and wall socket to be sure they were plugged in correctly. I used a straight key. This was around May or June of 1956 when I was 12. Most of what I knew came from QST, CQ, ARRL Handbook, and things like Radio-Electronics and other news stand magazines. My call then was KN2S something or other. (It never got in the call book because it was issued for about 2 months. I don't think they ever reissued it either.) I am still looking for an old logbook or the 2 QSL cards from DX contacts I made. Most everything else from when I was a kid was thrown away by someone renting my parents house where all my stuff was stored in the attic. I have found a few things that I had kept myself, but not my Ham stuff. I only had my ticket for about 2 months and voluntarily cancelled it at the the FCC office in Buffalo where I passed the test. My family was moving and they were not sure where we were going to. Since I did not have a new address the FCC said if I cancelled it I could get it back without testing again as a Novice and still have most of the time left to upgrade. As it turned out I never did that and some years later went and took the Tech and Tech Plus tests and have since moved on to Extra.73,Tom AJ4XM