Thread: Licensed ham

I haven't even lurked for years but believe that SKN (Straight Key Night) still runs on 80 somewhere on New Year's eve. Slow enough for everybody.
VE7APC

This looks a bit like an intro thread, so here goes ...

I built up a Geloso VFO feeding an 807 and had "worked all continents" on CW in 1964 when still in high school.
I couldnt claim the ARRL WAC because I got my licence two years later in 1966!

I recently bought another AWA key,the same as I had way back then.

73 mike VK4xx

Originally Posted by mike48

This looks a bit like an intro thread, so here goes ...

I built up a Geloso VFO feeding an 807 and had "worked all continents" on CW in 1964 when still in high school.
I couldnt claim the ARRL WAC because I got my licence two years later in 1966!

I recently bought another AWA key,the same as I had way back then.

73 mike VK4xx

Imagine kids at high school today doing that type of thing, instead , they do this in their spare time

I played around with valve car phones for a while. I had a few 1960's taxi and police radios on the 2 m band . Vinten , PYE and AWA and a few other brands . I'd come up on the repeaters using a valve set , fun . The hum of the DC converter would always be heard on the carrier .

Giday.. I started out with a novice call when first introduced and went on air with an AM 10 watt xmitter built mainly out of salvaged tv bits xtal locked on 3565 with an AR7 receiver and a G5RV antenna. Getting the full call a bit later was a whole new game and gave me access to the world on 20m mainly using the same antenna and a Kenwood TS 140.Since then like most hams I've had many radios and played around with different antennas but also like most I never got interested with CW. When confusers came along I really got hooked on AMTOR which was a lot of fun with home built modems but after moving to our present QTH which is a black hole where radio signals are concerned I handed my license in and sold the last of my gear. I was feeling the loss a while back and thought about getting my old call back but someone else had snaffled it ( VK3BBC )and I was less than impressed with the attitude of the CWIA with my enquiries and the cost involved so I forgot the idea. I hope others might like to tell a bit of their radio history on this forum as always interesting to hear from others. 73 Laurie

I got my novice licence about mid 70s using an FT101ZD, but when I moved to Williamstown I never got round to installing an antenna partly due to a power line crossing the backyard.
We are now in another house & I got to thinking it might be nice to get back on air recently, especially now the novice licence has been upgraded with more power & frequencies.
I have always renewed the licence so it's still current.
Just got to get an antenna put up & pull out the old radio, but not sure of what antenna I can fit in & with limited finances.

I think(?) that the sunspot cycle is warming up.
Anybody got any appetite for stringing up simple 15m dipoles for a QSO?
I have loads of RG213 that needs to be warmed up.
Perhaps we should give it a whizz. Phone, my CW is paleological.

Jeezlies! If you looked back in the archives, I ran VK3ZZZ for a month in 86(?).
The year that EXPO was in Brisbane. I hauled a 2M rig to Melb and back.

I have very fond memories of all the contacts I made over the years on 15. Why 15? I do not know. Not the vomit of 20. Not the faint echoes of 10, I suppose.

Well well, you never know who's around do you...

I been tinkering on and off with home brew stuff some 70cm some 1296Mhz and of course 2m since the 1970's... doesn't seem that long though

Good to know there are a few of us fellow hams hanging out here...

73's de VK3YNV

Ray

You'll find me lurking on 10m FM......yeah yeah I know, we're all different

Full call VK1 here.

I have a new antenna on the way.
Need to figure out the mast fixing & get the coax into the shack & I'll be ready to go.
15m was my favorite band back in the novice days, reached all over the world with it.
10m was too flaky & 80 was just for Australia.
Looking forward to getting back on the airwaves.

Years ago, I lived in the city. Me and another ham decided to have a little cross-town CW laser QSO. Two good laser pointers. Two rifle scopes with detectors with reasonable gain, hooked into the lounge room stereo. Tape the pointer to the scope. We discovered the approximate part of the sky where we could both see the same cloud. Don't even remember the designated code for that transmission type. Worked best in the evening. Hit & miss at night and must have been too weak for daytime.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Years ago, I lived in the city. Me and another ham decided to have a little cross-town CW laser QSO. Two good laser pointers. Two rifle scopes with detectors with reasonable gain, hooked into the lounge room stereo. Tape the pointer to the scope. We discovered the approximate part of the sky where we could both see the same cloud. Don't even remember the designated code for that transmission type. Worked best in the evening. Hit & miss at night and must have been too weak for daytime.

A

Another wacky idea . During WW2 the German army used a modulated light beam system for communications , it was line of sight and it worked . Not sure if it was for code or voice but a chap in Norway has one in his collection . link below ..Mike

GERMAN, WWII, WW2, Lichtsprechgerät 80/80

It was for voice Mike (sprech=speech)

Some more info here

lichtsprecher LiSpr80

morrisman, thanks for the links. As there's a transmission mode listed for that here in Canada, I didn't think that we were really pushing back the frontiers of science.

wacky?
Maybe so. BUT, the American Armed Forces have been using point-to-point IR laser communications for decades. Can't be seen, can't be intercepted without revelation.

CQ CQ CQ
This takes me back to 70's, I was studying electronics so I could repair the electronic organ my wife played.
The instructor was keen on AR so radio was often included.
I sat for my N call and then full.
The joys of 15 metres into Japan on a dipole when Spain came through off the back.
Great to see this group up and running

73's Barry