16
General Radio Discussion / Re: Earliest DX Memories?
« on: May 09, 2014, 2258 UTC »
Thank you. No, I never replaced the Zenith. I have put a few on watch on eBay, but never bid on one, at least not yet anyway.
Looking back: Part 5
Well I now had a nice CB, and was starting to get involved a bit with it. I was even picking up a little spending money doing mobile installations, and antenna adjustments. I was already missing shortwave and had been looking at a revolutionary new radio called a Barlow Wadley XCR-30. It used a here-to-fore unheard of tuning system developed by the British in WW2, called a Wadley Loop. This was a highly stable and precise system, with tuning accuracy, that up to this time was only found in very expensive military radios. The XCR-30 had very impressive specs, and I wanted one. Unfortunately, there was none to be found in my neck of the woods, and I was not comfortable with mail order with no return policy. I knew I wanted a transistorized set, but I wanted one with better tuning accuracy. With the appliance store now gone, it seemed I would have to make a trip to the Circle City 60 miles away. Then one day in early November, we got our annual Sears Christmas catalog. Now I had for a short time considered the Com Trek, but it wasn't what I wanted. As I was browsing the catalog, I saw a new radio pictured under the Com Trek. At first I started to pass it up, when something caught my eye. What was that? Uses the Wadley Loop system! It was a Sears branded version of a new radio from a unknown new company, called Yaesu, the FRG-7(Frog 7). After some research I ordered one. It arrived toward the end of Nov. I set it up and began to put it through its paces. Wow! It was everything that I had read about it. Sensitive, tight, and very precise tuning. With this radio I started logging new, controversial stations known as pirate radio. I successfully logged Voice of the Voyager, Jolly Roger Radio, WFAT, Radio KAOS, and more. The pirates were so close together on other radios, that they garbled each other. But now, they could be separated, even as close as 3khz apart. I used the Sears/Yaesu for several years. It was everything I wanted, small footprint, easy to tune, and it didn't get hot. What could be better?
In Nov, 1979 we purchased a house in a nearby town. Also in 1979 we got a new electronics store on the bypass on the edge of town. It was called Radio Shack. Most of their products didn't interest me yet, but in the spring of 1981, I was browsing the store and saw a radio on clearance. It was being discontinued and was 60% off. Just $155 ! It looked a lot like the Frog, but with a red digital readout. Perfect! Digital, and obviously using the Wadley Loop, what could be better? I listed the Frog in the paper, and sold it the day the ad appeared. I hurried to Radio Shack, and managed to get the last radio in the store. A Realistic DX-300. Basically a Frog with digital readout. I set it up and tried it out. While the sensitivity was on par with the Frog, selectivity was definitely not! The front end was virtually nonexistent. We had a local 10KW AM radio station in town and it was all over the place on this radio. Even worse powerhouses like WOR, VOA, and HCJB, splattered 10-15khz on both sides of their assigned frequencies. There was a wide/narrow switch on the radio, but it was nothing more than a two position tone control. There was one bandwidth for AM, and a slightly narrower one for ssb. It was the worst radio I ever used, and would eventually turn out to be the second worse radio I ever owned. Ironically, the worst one would turn out to be another offering from Radio Shack, but that is another story. I learned how to use this radio by setting the mode to ssb to tune difficult stations. I did the best I could with the radio, with an, as I now found out, pseudo-digital readout. I would not be able to get another radio for some time.
I had been on salary at the factory for twelve years, but in 1982 the economy was in deep recession following the end of the Vietnam War. Many companies were cutting back costs, and Anaconda was one of them. There was a major paring of salary personnel and I was included. In June I was out of work with no prospects. In six months I was in trouble. I was four payments behind on my house, and they were going to begin foreclosure. Then one day at the grocery store, I ran into an old friend I graduated with. We got to talking, and it got around to me being out of work and losing my house. He then told me he could fix it so I could keep my house. How? He said it was simple. He was now a recruiter for the Army Reserve. It seems there was/is a federal law that makes it against the law to foreclose on someone on active military duty. I told him I took an Army physical when I was 19. I had been classified 1y. He said being drafted was different than volunteering and I could get in. I took an aptitude test and tested strong in electronics. No surprise there. I passed the physical and enlisted. One month later I was on a plane to Ft. Jackson SC. After processing, I was assigned to "Hollywood". This was an area of new brick barracks, as opposed to "Tank Hill", an area of WW2 era wood barracks. I started basic training at the age of 32. I passed basic after about six weeks, and proceed to Ft. Sill OK, to begin AIT. My MOS was 31V, radio systems operation and repair. Next day I started radio school. Now the basement level of the school was basic electronics and was supposed to take two weeks. The first class was learning the resistor color code. Now I learned the color code when I was 11! We were set up in groups of two. Each group had a perf board and a box of various resistors. The instructor was showing how to identify the correct resistors, one at a time, to build the required circuit. I was bored, and started reading ahead and building the circuit. I was showing my partner which resistors to pick out. As I was putting the circuit together, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the other instructor, who mainly made sure everyone stayed awake. He whispered, "Private King, come with me". He didn't sound like it was going to be pleasant. He took me to an empty room and gave me a test paper and told me to bring it to him when I was finished. He then sat down at a desk in the room. Ten minutes later I handed him the test. He looked at my answerers and all were right. He then took me to another class and whispered to the instructor there. That instructor took another test out of his drawer, and I returned with the first instructor to the empty classroom. This test was about reading schematics, Ohm's Law, and other basics. Again I finished the fifty questions in about ten minutes. This continued for the rest of the day, til I came to the last class. It was about using test instruments, like VTVMs, and scopes. This test was a piece of cake as well, and I got careless. I forgot to re zero my VTVM when I changed scales, and missed a couple of questions. As he was grading the test, I realized my error, and he knew that I knew what I did wrong. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to test again that day. He sent me back to my barracks and told to report back to him tomorrow. Next day, I took a new test, passed and was taken upstairs where I began the real radio school. I had passed a two week course in two days, and if I hadn't of gotten careless would have done it in one. In three more months I graduated radio school and was now able to repair several military radios, like the PRC 77, ANGRC 106, and the ANVC 242. My favorite radio was the R-392, a mobile version of the rack-mount R-390a. My house was not only caught up, but I was a few payments ahead. I left AIT and went home. Six months later I had a new job in an auto stamping plant. Ninety days later I was in the UAW. This time I would never leave the union. I had learned a bitter lesson I would never forget.
To be continued with Part 6.............
Looking back: Part 5
Well I now had a nice CB, and was starting to get involved a bit with it. I was even picking up a little spending money doing mobile installations, and antenna adjustments. I was already missing shortwave and had been looking at a revolutionary new radio called a Barlow Wadley XCR-30. It used a here-to-fore unheard of tuning system developed by the British in WW2, called a Wadley Loop. This was a highly stable and precise system, with tuning accuracy, that up to this time was only found in very expensive military radios. The XCR-30 had very impressive specs, and I wanted one. Unfortunately, there was none to be found in my neck of the woods, and I was not comfortable with mail order with no return policy. I knew I wanted a transistorized set, but I wanted one with better tuning accuracy. With the appliance store now gone, it seemed I would have to make a trip to the Circle City 60 miles away. Then one day in early November, we got our annual Sears Christmas catalog. Now I had for a short time considered the Com Trek, but it wasn't what I wanted. As I was browsing the catalog, I saw a new radio pictured under the Com Trek. At first I started to pass it up, when something caught my eye. What was that? Uses the Wadley Loop system! It was a Sears branded version of a new radio from a unknown new company, called Yaesu, the FRG-7(Frog 7). After some research I ordered one. It arrived toward the end of Nov. I set it up and began to put it through its paces. Wow! It was everything that I had read about it. Sensitive, tight, and very precise tuning. With this radio I started logging new, controversial stations known as pirate radio. I successfully logged Voice of the Voyager, Jolly Roger Radio, WFAT, Radio KAOS, and more. The pirates were so close together on other radios, that they garbled each other. But now, they could be separated, even as close as 3khz apart. I used the Sears/Yaesu for several years. It was everything I wanted, small footprint, easy to tune, and it didn't get hot. What could be better?
In Nov, 1979 we purchased a house in a nearby town. Also in 1979 we got a new electronics store on the bypass on the edge of town. It was called Radio Shack. Most of their products didn't interest me yet, but in the spring of 1981, I was browsing the store and saw a radio on clearance. It was being discontinued and was 60% off. Just $155 ! It looked a lot like the Frog, but with a red digital readout. Perfect! Digital, and obviously using the Wadley Loop, what could be better? I listed the Frog in the paper, and sold it the day the ad appeared. I hurried to Radio Shack, and managed to get the last radio in the store. A Realistic DX-300. Basically a Frog with digital readout. I set it up and tried it out. While the sensitivity was on par with the Frog, selectivity was definitely not! The front end was virtually nonexistent. We had a local 10KW AM radio station in town and it was all over the place on this radio. Even worse powerhouses like WOR, VOA, and HCJB, splattered 10-15khz on both sides of their assigned frequencies. There was a wide/narrow switch on the radio, but it was nothing more than a two position tone control. There was one bandwidth for AM, and a slightly narrower one for ssb. It was the worst radio I ever used, and would eventually turn out to be the second worse radio I ever owned. Ironically, the worst one would turn out to be another offering from Radio Shack, but that is another story. I learned how to use this radio by setting the mode to ssb to tune difficult stations. I did the best I could with the radio, with an, as I now found out, pseudo-digital readout. I would not be able to get another radio for some time.
I had been on salary at the factory for twelve years, but in 1982 the economy was in deep recession following the end of the Vietnam War. Many companies were cutting back costs, and Anaconda was one of them. There was a major paring of salary personnel and I was included. In June I was out of work with no prospects. In six months I was in trouble. I was four payments behind on my house, and they were going to begin foreclosure. Then one day at the grocery store, I ran into an old friend I graduated with. We got to talking, and it got around to me being out of work and losing my house. He then told me he could fix it so I could keep my house. How? He said it was simple. He was now a recruiter for the Army Reserve. It seems there was/is a federal law that makes it against the law to foreclose on someone on active military duty. I told him I took an Army physical when I was 19. I had been classified 1y. He said being drafted was different than volunteering and I could get in. I took an aptitude test and tested strong in electronics. No surprise there. I passed the physical and enlisted. One month later I was on a plane to Ft. Jackson SC. After processing, I was assigned to "Hollywood". This was an area of new brick barracks, as opposed to "Tank Hill", an area of WW2 era wood barracks. I started basic training at the age of 32. I passed basic after about six weeks, and proceed to Ft. Sill OK, to begin AIT. My MOS was 31V, radio systems operation and repair. Next day I started radio school. Now the basement level of the school was basic electronics and was supposed to take two weeks. The first class was learning the resistor color code. Now I learned the color code when I was 11! We were set up in groups of two. Each group had a perf board and a box of various resistors. The instructor was showing how to identify the correct resistors, one at a time, to build the required circuit. I was bored, and started reading ahead and building the circuit. I was showing my partner which resistors to pick out. As I was putting the circuit together, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the other instructor, who mainly made sure everyone stayed awake. He whispered, "Private King, come with me". He didn't sound like it was going to be pleasant. He took me to an empty room and gave me a test paper and told me to bring it to him when I was finished. He then sat down at a desk in the room. Ten minutes later I handed him the test. He looked at my answerers and all were right. He then took me to another class and whispered to the instructor there. That instructor took another test out of his drawer, and I returned with the first instructor to the empty classroom. This test was about reading schematics, Ohm's Law, and other basics. Again I finished the fifty questions in about ten minutes. This continued for the rest of the day, til I came to the last class. It was about using test instruments, like VTVMs, and scopes. This test was a piece of cake as well, and I got careless. I forgot to re zero my VTVM when I changed scales, and missed a couple of questions. As he was grading the test, I realized my error, and he knew that I knew what I did wrong. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to test again that day. He sent me back to my barracks and told to report back to him tomorrow. Next day, I took a new test, passed and was taken upstairs where I began the real radio school. I had passed a two week course in two days, and if I hadn't of gotten careless would have done it in one. In three more months I graduated radio school and was now able to repair several military radios, like the PRC 77, ANGRC 106, and the ANVC 242. My favorite radio was the R-392, a mobile version of the rack-mount R-390a. My house was not only caught up, but I was a few payments ahead. I left AIT and went home. Six months later I had a new job in an auto stamping plant. Ninety days later I was in the UAW. This time I would never leave the union. I had learned a bitter lesson I would never forget.
To be continued with Part 6.............