Author: Bill_L

Heathkit’s lunchboxs were the twoer, a 2 meter transceiver model number HW-30, the  sixer, a 6 meter transceiver model number HW-29A  and the 10 meter transceiver HW-19 known as the tenner….

Heathkit_HW-30_review_QST_2013

Marconi liked his boat so much that he named his daughter after it. Elettra is the Italian version of the Greek word Electra.

The Post-War Years, 1945-1975 “The Glory Years of Amateur Radio”

The Atlantic City International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Conference of 1947 (the ITU had changed its name in 1932), reallocated some call sign blocks, and granted a few developing island nations their own prefixes. Meanwhile in the US, the call sign districts were moved around to equalize ham populations.

During the war the Midwest , and West coast industrial centers had greatly increased the amateur radio populations in those areas. As a result, a new 10th call district formed for the central Midwest, allowing Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana to have the 9^th district to themselves. The 6^th district was changed to encompass California only. The remaining states that used to be part of the 6^th district (Nevada, Arizona and Utah), were moved into the lesser populated 7^th district. As licenses were renewed, the new call sign districts were mandated, and often entire call signs changed as a result. A new call was assigned to denote the new district, but one “might” keep their old suffix if it was currently unassigned in the new district. If the suffix was already assigned to somebody in the new district, a new suffix was assigned as well. For example, pioneer Charles Newcombe, 6UO, in Yerington, Nevada became W6UO in 1928, but had to change to W7VOwhen the state became part of the 7th district in 1947 as W7UO was already in use. The rule allowing special call sign suffix dispensation lasted until 1978, when the systematic call signs program began. (More on that later.)

Also at this time US Possessions had own unique prefixes assigned, ie: KP4 for Puerto Rico, KH6 for Hawaii, and KL7 for Alaska.

More at EHam, history of ham radio

The Fleming valve, also called the Fleming oscillation valve, was a thermionic valve or vacuum tube invented in 1904 by Englishman John Ambrose Fleming as a detector for early radio receivers used in electromagnetic wireless telegraphy. It was the first practical vacuum tube and the first thermionic diode, a vacuum tube whose purpose is to conduct current in one direction and block current flowing in the opposite direction. The thermionic diode was later widely used as a rectifier — a device which converts alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC) — in the power supplies of a wide range of electronic devices, until beginning to be replaced by the selenium rectifier in the early 1930s and almost completely replaced by the semiconductor diode in the 1960s. The Fleming valve was the forerunner of all vacuum tubes, which dominated electronics for 50 years. The IEEE has described it as “one of the most important developments in the history of electronics”, and it is on the List of IEEE Milestones for electrical engineering.

More at Wikipedia The Fleming Valve and also at Wikipedia Vacuum Tube

In 1965, Garriott was one of the six scientist-astronauts selected by NASA. His first spaceflight, the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, set a world record for duration of approximately 60 days, more than double the previous record. Extensive experiments were conducted of the Sun, of Earth resources and in various life sciences relating to human adaptation to weightlessness.

The Prankster

On September 10, 1973, controllers in Houston were startled to hear a woman’s voice beaming down from Skylab. The voice startled capsule communicator (CAPCOM) Bob Crippen by calling him by name, and then the woman explained: “The boys haven’t had a home-cooked meal in so long I thought I’d bring one up.” After several minutes in which she described forest fires seen from space and the beautiful sunrise, the woman said: “Oh oh. I have to cut off now. I think the boys are floating up here toward the command module and I’m not supposed to be talking to you.” As the Skylab astronauts later revealed, Garriott had recorded his wife, Helen, during a private radio transmission the night before.

His Youngest Son

Owen Garroiott’s youngest son Richard flew aboard the Soyuz TMA-13 mission to the International Space Station as a private astronaut, returning 12 days later aboard Soyuz TMA-12. He became the second astronaut, and first from the U.S., to have a parent who was also a space traveler.

More Can be found, Wikipedia, NASA

Marconi received the Nobel prize for physics in 1909, IEEE Medal of Honor in 1920, John Fritz Medal in 1923, Silver Medal of the International Mark Twain Society in 1927, John Scott Medal and Premium in 1932, Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft in 1932, Lord Kelvin Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineering in 1932

For more about CQD (click here)

Heath kit catalogs (click here for available catalogs)

 

 Tokuzo Inoue (call sign JA3FA) founder and still President became a licensed ham after amateur radio was again permitted in Japan in 1952. The first amateur radio built was a mobile radio FDAM-1 in 1964 and was assembled by Yoshitaka Iiboshi (call sign JA3LOQ) who still works for Icom…. Read the Interview by CQ Amature Radio Magazine… ICOM Company History