[bars] Fwd: Radio Book

Sun Jan 19 11:49:18 CST 2025

Early ham calls were number and 2 or 3 letters, e.g.:
1AW.  The W prefix was added when country prefixes came into being, so 1AW became W1AW.  When the 3-letter combinations became exhausted in a particular district, they switched to using a K prefix.  When I was licensed, we had W1, K1, WA1 and WN1 (for the novice class).  It was pretty easy to tell the OT and OOT hams from the newbies by simply looking at the prefix.  Also, back then your number had to match the district you lived in.  The vanity call scheme has totally messed that up.

I remember W1HH telling me he was operating on HF one day in 1941 when war was declared and suddenly there was this humongous signal that covered the whole band telling everybody to QRT.

And, yes, I can solder (at least if I can see it!).

I miss the older editions of the ARRL Handbook.  They had nice construction articles.

de WA1GSF (licensed — technician class — in 1966, now extra), certified old fogey.

Me ke aloha
-- Marla

On January 19, 2025, at 08:55, Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:

Rick, yes, hams were silenced during WWI and WWII. QST still published but it was probably not full of transmitter construction. :)

200 Meters and Down early history of ham radio is a dry read and I confess I’ve only started it. You can read it online at

200 Meters & Down : Clinton B. DeSoto : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

Andy

KA1GTT

On Dec 30, 2024, at 8:12 PM, Richard Heckbert <richard.heckbert at gmail.com> wrote:

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Juan,

I also spent time learning soldering in lovely Millington.  I was a little before you (Feb 78 – Dec 78).  I can attest to the quality of soldering taught there.  I ended up working repairing black boxes (actually, mostly gray!) in the fleet and we only had 1 tech qualified/permitted to solder aircraft equipment in the whole workcenter so I got tagged to go to soldering school and become his backup.  I ended up teaching electronics at a local trade school for a few years after getting out of the Navy and for some reason I had the least dropout rate (and trade schools are all about fannies in seats) so I taught the intro to electronics module most classes (lather, rinse, repeat).  One of the skills taught in intro was soldering.  Best way to learn a skill is to teach it!

I remember the Iranian students well – they would do anything to extend their stay and most if not all of them had way more money than brains (or so they tried to appear).

NAS Memphis was actually great duty.  I had just turned 19 and had a motorcycle that I went all over that corner of Tennessee (as well as Mississippi and over the bridge to Arkansas) on.

Andy,

You mention hams were prohibited from using what is now the AM broadcast band.  Weren’t hams thrown completely off the air shortly after 1938?  I thought I read WW II put a complete kibosh on ham radio.  Everything prewar was different including call letter format.  From what I’ve read, ham radio really took off post-war with a lot of surplus radio equipment and a lot of ex-military trained on radio equipment.  I’m amazed they were able to work the old equipment as well as they did.

Rick

W1OLU

From: bars <bars-bounces at w1hh.org> on behalf of Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com>
Date: Monday, December 30, 2024 at 6:48 PM
To: w1hh <bars at w1hh.org>
Subject: [bars] Fwd: Radio Book

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 16:36
Subject: Re: [bars] Radio Book
To: Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com>

"Sometimes I feel like I am one of the few club members left who knows how to solder."

You're not. I graduated from the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Millington TN in 1979. We were taught how to solder, with lots of practice. I finished quickly near the top of my class. Not the Iranian officer candidates. Those kids took a minimum of two weeks to get through the initial one day Basic Aviation  Introduction. One of them crashed an RV on a clear sunny day with no traffic. Told the officers the autopilot didn't work. There's your sign... 😜

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 13:48 Andy Wallace <soldersmoke01 at gmail.com> wrote:

Juan, bravo for finding this great book. And cheap, too. 

Folks, you can read the entire PDF at the link below. My favorite sections are the receiver and transmitter construction. 

See the 1938 Frank C. Jones Radio Handbook here:

ENGINEERING HANDBOOKS MISCELLANEOUS: Radio engineering reference books

worldradiohistory.com

Error! Filename not specified.

Main site:

Radio Music Electronics Publications ALL FREE

worldradiohistory.com

Error! Filename not specified.

(The person behind World Radio History deserves an award for scanning in thousands of radio books and magazines. You can spend days exploring here.)

I’m a BARS member who enjoys using and fixing old gear. What Juan has discovered is the appeal of what came before. Before FT8. Before FM and repeaters. Even before single sideband. 

Sometimes I feel like I am one of the few club members left who knows how to solder. 

Does 468/f(MHz) mean anything to you? Regardless of when you got your license, it should! And it’s in the 1938 Jones handbook. It’s the length of a half wave dipole. So you should know if you’re going out to operate Parks on the Air you might need supports 66 feet apart to operate 40m….so maybe 33’ on 20m might be wiser. 

In 1938 it had been about a decade since hams were thrown off what’s now the AM broadcast band to operate “200 meters and down” - HF. People didn’t realize they gave us the bands which would allow easy worldwide communication by skywave and the ionosphere. 

Things were still being discovered and invented in radio in 1938. Look at that Handbook and you’ll see construction articles where a handful of parts got you on the air. Simple receivers. Simple transmitters. It’s like making an iPhone in your basement in 2005. High tech. 

We learn by what came before. That’s important. Even in a day when Venmo buys you a carton full of electronics to do FT8. 

Andy

KA1GTT

Dec 29, 2024, at 4:03 PM, Juan Jiménez <k1cpr at bd5.com> wrote:

Picked up a copy of The Radio Handbook, 1938 edition, for a couple of bucks several weeks ago. I started reading it today and realized it beats the ARRL handbooks by a long mile. Easy to read, concepts well-explained. $1.50 in 1938 would be $31.95 today. 

Error! Filename not specified.

73,

K1CPR

Juan

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