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| RTTY Model 15 |
Hello Bill,
Greetings from a fellow
ham in Northern Virginia. I have enjoyed the
SolderSmoke podcast for a few years now, and I just heard your recent
presentation to the Vienna Wireless Society. We have a lot in common so it is
about time I reach out to make your acquaintance.
I was born in NYC and
grew up in Northern NJ. I was first licensed in 1969 as a high school student
(51 years ago! Goodness!). My novice callsign was WN2JFX, and I progressed from
Novice and then to General and Advanced as WB2JFX, and then eventually to Extra
(in about 1990 -- while the 20 WPM code requirement still existed). At that
point I put in for a 2X1 callsign and received WX2J, which is a nice twist on
my original call.
I was fanatically active
in my early years in ham radio. My Elmer (George, K2VVI, SK) set me up with a
DX-40, and my parents provided a brand new Hallicrafters S-120 (you could copy
the whole 40 meter band without changing the frequency!). I think I Worked all
States as a Novice and learned that the human brain is the most amazing audio
filter on the market. When I made General, George lent me an old Hallicrafters
SX-25, and then I was really in good shape. Besides CW, I was also very
interested in RTTY. I had my own Model 15 leaking oil in the basement and had a
blast watching the magic of that thing printing messages out of thin air. I
have always been a home-brewer, and one of the first serious things I built was
a two- or three-tube RTTY demodulator from the Handbook. Aluminum chassis, chassis
punches, tube sockets -- the whole works. I have no idea what the real
inductance was of the inductors that went into the filters but somehow if the
signals were strong enough, and on 850 Hz shift, it could actually demodulate
signals. I probably still have that thing around here somewhere.
Another local ham
bequeathed me his entire collection of 73 magazines - 10+ years starting with
the first issue (~1960). I read them from cover to cover so many times I
probably have them memorized. I became a real fan of Wayne Green, W2NSD, who
was always ornery and controversial but a very interesting guy. I met him at a
hamfest many years later and we had a great chat.
In any case I wanted to
mention some other things that resonate with me as I listen to your podcast. As
a kid growing up in the shadow of NYC in those years, you can bet that the Jean
Shepherd broadcast was a regular part of our life. My dad used to listen to it
every night -- 10:15 p.m. I believe, on WOR -- and we both used to greatly
enjoy his stories of lighting up the fuse panel and nearly blowing up the house
as he and his old man were playing with radios, etc. It was a common theme in
our house too when my ham radio signal would blast into the TV set or I dangled
new antenna wires off the house and out of the trees -- "You're going to
blow this house up!" I studied electrical engineering in college and was
commissioned in the Air Force upon graduation. I served a 20-year career in the
Air Force and stayed somewhat active in ham radio. I was licensed and operated
out of Okinawa (KA6TF) and England (G5ERE) during tours of duty in the early
1980s. Always an HF guy, in about 1982, in Japan, I bought myself a new Icom
IC-720A, and this is still my primary rig. I was an early adopter of PK-232 and
did some extensive building and experimenting with it. Sadly though, in the
last 25+ years, my ham radio experience has mostly been vicarious as my work
and family obligations have just not left much time for ham radio. I do have a
G5RV wire antenna strung up but very rarely jump on the air -- sometimes during
contests.
In high school we made a
field trip to ARRL HQ in Newington, CT. While there we did all the things
people do on such a visit, but one of the high points for me was meeting Doug
DeMaw. I can just hear how Shepherd would describe it -- "I turned the
corner and there he was! In person! The high priest of homebrewing! Doug DeMaw.
In the flesh!" Cue the kazoo. I actually also met Shepherd at a book
signing (Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories?). I remember presenting him
with a computer-printed banner of his callsign -- K2ORS -- produced by one of
the few functioning computer programs I had written in high school. I also
heard him on the HF bands one night -- I think he was in Florida -- and
actually made contact with him, if barely being able to exchange callsigns can
count as a contact.
Well, more than you
wanted to know. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy your podcast and can
personally relate to very much of what you say. Although I am steeped in
Hardware Defined Radio, I am also a software guy so I expect that my future
includes SDR. I hope you and Pete are able to continue the podcast for a long
time to come because I need the full HDR-SDR spectrum to be covered -- hi.
73,
Tom Fuhrman, WX2J
Some of my earliest ham radio memories are of 73 Magazine. Perhaps this has something to do with the electro-erotica cover shots of the early 1970s! I used to buy copies at "Electronics 59" in Spring Valley, New York. I remember struggling to understand the magazine: Why were these guys so obsessed about going to Navassa Island? Why was there a column entitled "Never Say Die?" Why was the classified section entitled "Caveat Emptor?" In time, all this would become clear to me. Occasionally, I'll come across an old issue and will suddenly remember it from when it first came out. I must have read these things cover-to-cover. (Jean Shepherd recalled reading even the grommet ads in the old QSTs.) 
Mike, VK3XL, has been helping me track down the article that led to my traumatic failed teenage receiver-building project. He found this very interesting index for 73 Magazine articles. A quick look through the 1975-1978 period revealed several suspects, and hit me with a wave of nostalgia. What a great magazine 73 was! Sure, it was a bit wacky, but it had really wonderful technical content, at just the right level for truly amateur ham radio operators. Take your own walk down memory lane:
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