[R-390] Shortwave Start

[Steve Toth]

Wow!  Does this bring back some old memories!   I got hooked on shortwave listening in grade school because one classroom had a big old wooden, floor standing, console radio with AM and shortwave bands.  It must have had a loop antenna built into the cabinet.  The teacher would sometimes let me listen to the shortwave bands during recess and I got hooked.
 
The first receiver I owned was a Hallicrafters S-38E.  I saved up for a year so I could get the $60 together to buy it new.  It opened up the world with all the old standbys - HCJB in Ecuador, Radio Moscow, the revivalist statons; Radio Cuba, Voice of America, the mysterious "numbers stations", good old WWV and it's foreign equivalents, the russian "woodpecker", etc.  I still like to just cruise the bands to see what's there - doesn't seem to be as "target rich" since the internet became popular, but it's still fun.
 
After that it was my novice license, an HQ129X that I picked up used, a Globe Chief transmitter (used) and various ARC-5 receivers and transmitters (really used) in original condition that I converted, all using wire antennas on 80 and 40 and then "stepping up" to a rotatable one element center loaded aluminum dipole for 15.  I still have my original J-38 telegraph key.
 
Man, what fun that was!  Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!








-- Steve 
"A democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for lunch.  A republic is the same scenario with a well armed sheep." - based on a quote by Benjamin Franklin