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Jack Blair, VE6ARQ
National HRO 5 Receiver Heath Kit DX 35 1965 Calgary, AB |
Jake's Hamming Days Living now, in this new millennium, with all the communication technology at hand, it is hard to believe that my interest in radio developed so long ago, when an electronic device meant glowing tubes and high voltages. Back then, a bad switch on the next-door neighbour's stove or a faulty insulator on the power pole in the lane, rather than commercial broadcasts and 'spy' radar coming over the horizon, usually caused interference on the ham bands. I now have relatively recent technology in my radios, modest but good antennas, and lots of time in retirement. With all those positive aspects, I still don't seem to be operating as much as I did back in the 60's, nor do I find myself involved in local club activities. I am at a bit of a crossroads with my hamming and, as I started thinking about what ham radio is to me now, I could not help cast my mind back over my experiences in this fascinating hobby. Thinking is good, but is virtual to anyone but the thinker himself. I have children and grandchildren, who might, one day, wonder what the heck I was doing in my formative years with this hobby for geeks. I thought, why not write it down and tell a story? I was amazed how the memories flowed back once I started and I found it necessary to limit myself for fear that I would never finish. I think my first interest in radio was sparked when I sat in the front seat of my Dad's 1949 Monarch, twiddling the chrome knobs on the car radio to pull in distant stations such as Great Falls and Sacramento while parked in our garage in Regina. However, the first concrete memories I have about ham radio are from my mid-teens, when I started to understand technical books. I finally bought a used Amateur Radio Handbook by the ARRL and that was the final catalyst to launch an enthusiastic desire to have my own radio and talk on the air. The theory came easy to me, but the code did not. I languished for a few years, built my Knight Kit Space Spanner receiver, and then got a great deal on an old HRO receiver that had been used by the RCAF. At the time, I thought that old 2.5-volt filament tube radio was one of the best things I could ever own. It allowed me to practice my Morse code and listen in on ham radio much easier than with my regenerative Space Spanner.
Knight Kit Space Spanner
During this period, in the late 50s and early 60s, before University, my friend and I did all sorts of 'radio' activities. There was one incident from those early days that I will never forget. We use to regularly visit the two war surplus stores in East Calgary. One day we went in with $10 earned by shovelling walks and discovered a pile of yellow coloured 'Gibson Girl' emergency transceivers, complete with intact hand crank generators and a great length of very high quality antenna wire purposely made to fly a kite with so the antenna would get to a reasonable height if you were trying to transmit from a lifeboat at sea. We bought one, took it home, stretched out the antenna into a tree, and started cranking the generator. In a few moments, we were thrilled to find the signal on the shortwave radio in the house. We played with this several weekends until, one Sunday afternoon, we noticed a car driving by with a funny antenna that looked like a hoola-hoop on the top of the roof. We almost went out to the car to talk to the men inside, but thought better of it. We went in the house and had a look in my ARRL Handbook to see what kind of antenna they had on their car. We found it. So, my introduction to direction finding antennas was when one of them was being used to locate my illegal operation. Probably the added concern was that the Gibson Girl would send out SOS automatically, which was not a good thing. We never turned the crank on the Gibson Girl again, but it did provide a few good parts when we took it apart. That incident started an interest in RDF work, so we built a DF loop that summer and entered a few Fox Hunts. I couldn't afford a mobile, so our operation consisted of the HRO in the trunk along with a long extension cord. We would drive around, and when it came time for the Fox to transmit, we would find a service station and ask to use their power. The only trouble was, because of the time it took the tubes to warm up we had to stop about 4-5 minutes early to get the rig operational. That only gave us about 5 minutes to drive to the next site and find a service station. Needless to say, we never won. I built several circuits in those days, from CW oscillators to audio amplifiers. The amplifiers usually turned out to be oscillators as well, but I could never figure out why. I built a 20watt CW transmitter during that period and ended up throwing it away in a rage just after I got a high voltage shock from it that launched me across the room, uncontrollably. About this time, my interest in sports and girls took thoughts away from radio, but when I went to the University of Alberta for my last two years of engineering, I joined the ham club on the pretence of meeting people. The licensed members of the club spurred me on to get my license, so in the spring of 1965 I went to work on my code and theory, and successfully sat the exam. In those days, the exam had three parts to it: one, written theory and regulations; two, code; and three, a verbal exam on theory and regulations. At the end of it all, the examiner in the Department of Communications confirmed that I passed and congratulated me on doing so well. It was then that my mouth just about got me in trouble. I noted to the examiner that I was surprised that there weren't more probing theory questions, to which he responded, "Oh, what sort of thing were you expecting?" "Well," I said, "I expected some questions on such things as automatic volume control and superhet theory." "That is a good point," he said. "OK, we better go over AVC now before I sign off on your license." If I hadn't been so well prepared, my heart would have fallen into my feet, but, as it was, I knew that theory very well, so I proceeded to explain it to him. That was an inexpensive lesson and I don't ever remember again begging for more challenges when I had something beat. Back in the 50's and 60's, you couldn't buy a transmitting tube let alone a transmitter unless you could produce your radio license. Once my certificate arrived in the mail, giving me the same call sign I have today, I took it in hand, and went to the only ham shop I knew, Smalley's Radio in Calgary. There I bought a used Heathkit DX35 transmitter that they had on their shelves. It came with one crystal, but that was good enough for me. I went on the air with my 35 watts and worked my first station that very night. That has to go down in my books as one of my big thrills in life - one that my wife and kids can't quite comprehend no matter how much I try to explain. Back in Edmonton for the next year university, my cousin let me set up my station in his basement. I only got to operate there about once a month, but it was better than nothing. By that time I had added a Heathkit VF1 VFO, so the bands really opened up for me. When I graduated in Electrical Engineering, I won a scholarship for further study in England. I looked into what I would have to do to operate there, and, at that time, it seemed to be a lot of effort just to get a license, let alone get a station set up. I left my radio equipment in Canada and didn't operate for about three years, but I did meet up with a few clubs out on foxhunts while I was overseas. Back in Calgary in 1969, my interest was renewed. Now that I had a real job and some decent money coming in, I was able to buy the latest radio, which was Yaesu's FTDx400. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. With 200 watts CW and 440 watts SSB, I set up a station on my Aunt's farm south and west of Calgary, complete with my home brew Quad antenna, several lower frequency dipoles, and a simple vertical out in an open field with ample radials. That little vertical, in that location, brought in as many exciting DX stations as my Quad. That same vertical turned out to be next to useless in the city, but out there it was a treat. In addition, although I didn't understand the impact at the time, I was living in the middle of a solar cycle peak so the conditions were great.
Homebrew Quad On My Aunt's Farm
I worked through the time required to get my 10 meter endorsement, which then allowed me to operate voice on 10 meters and then I went on to get my Advanced license as quickly as I could. I also bought a HW20 mobile during that time and set it up in my Triumph TR4A sports car. Running mobile radio in the TR was a lot of fun. I got a lot of funny looks as I drove down the street with my Hustler 80 meter antenna on my back bumper looking like it would tip the car over backwards any minute. I joined the Calgary Amateur Radio Associated and started to get involved with their activities. I met some great guys during that time, but one of the highlights of the club for me was the club participation in Field Day. We operated very portable in those days, trying to demonstrate that we could set up anywhere. All the stations were in tents and there were some incredible antennas erected during those events. Looking back, I think this period holds the best memories of ham radio for me. Good people, good equipment, and great band conditions - what a treat that was. In 1970, I married Leslie, moved into an apartment in Calgary, and discovered how difficult it was to operate from an urban location when compared to the country. The combination of RF noise, surrounding hills, and TV interference ridden, complaining neighbours took the edge off my enjoyment. The harder I tried to make the operation viable, the more discouraged I became until finally, regretfully, I stopped operating HF from the house and tried to make do with two metres. It was all right, but didn't fulfill my needs for DX. Things stayed like this until we moved to Vancouver in late 1970 where I again had an HF station, but other things in my life took over most of my time. In Vancouver during early 70's, two metres was a lot of fun. There was an abundance of hams and lots of repeaters high up on the mountains with incredible coverage. We moved back to Calgary in 1975. I kept up my interest in 2 metres with antenna experiments and Fox Hunts. A good friend of mine, Bryan (VE6COE), got his license and together we grew into formidable challengers at the Fox Hunts. We later went on to be 'the Fox' and had a lot of fun doing that as well. During the latter part of the 90's I noticed significant changes to amateur activities in Calgary. Fox Hunt evenings went from having ten to fifteen cars, down to three or four, then none. The chatter on the 2meter bands around town went from a couple of very busy repeaters to hours of dead time on all the repeaters. The HF world on the weekend became a contest world. I had a brief interest in QRP, but my motivation languished along with this change in on-air activity and stayed that way until I retired in 2004. I now have a nice station set up and good antennas that are a compromise because of my location, but satisfactory. I will continue to operate until the solar cycle starts to peak again, albeit somewhat sporadically, but, after that I'm not sure. I have a lot of great memories. I'm very happy that I grew up in the period of hamming that I did and I'm pleased to see it still grabs the interest of some. I am saddened to see so few young people taking on the hobby past the hand held, 2 metre operation, and I miss the chance to actually repair my own equipment due to the sophistication of the rigs these days requiring so much specialized equipment to carry out a repair.
My Station - April 2007
Nevertheless, the thrill is still there. Whenever I work someone in the next province or on the other side of the world, I go out to the backyard, look at the pipe I have in the air for my antenna and wonder at the magic of radio. I am sure that feeling will never go away. Jack Blair, VE6ARQ 2007
