Hank,
Thanks so much for writing. While I still feel a bit sad for having
missed the Golden Age of Amateur Radio, without the work done by you
and your contemporaries, it's possible that I might have been left
with nothing at all. Some of my first experiences with the "guts" of
Ham Radio came from re-purposing old public service radios for Amateur
use. In the beginning, most of that was done by carefully following
the instructions passed down from your generation of Hams, who had
learned what to do and what not to do the hard way.
I have a very satisfying career in electronics, thanks in part to
learning from the work done by those who went before me, and I'd like
to say thanks to all of you who fall in that category. Regardless of
what I go on to accomplish in Amateur Radio or professionally, I
gratefully acknowledge those upon whose shoulders I stand.
Jeff/KD4RBG
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Hi Jeff - I have been a ham for 57 years now -
Yes , I think there was a golden age of Ham Radio and I think it was about
1960 and before. A lot of it is society - back in the 50's all you had to do
was mention you were gonna put up an antenna or tower - and 5 cars would
show up at your house on a Saturday am to get it up. (And you would do the
same for others ). I just had my KT34 and a rotary dipole and my 80 meter
inv vee put back up after spending a few months rebulding everything - it
was all originally put up by myself and two friends in about 1971 - but
somehow all of us got old in the past 37 years and can't climb anymore. I
belong to a big DX and contest club - and asked on the club reflector about
who did antenna work - and said I did not expect a freebie - just needed to
get it back up - got no response - Finally found a couple guys who charge
$100 an hour and charge for driving time to your house - so it cost me about
$800 for the two sessions (taking down everything so I could rebuild it and
then putting it all back up ) Big difference . Seems like nobody has any
time anymore. Of course some is the big city - maybe small towns still do
like we did in the 50's.
Field day was always a lot of fun - and Hamfests were dawn to dark - now
they are dawn to about noon around here and everybody is gone.
Oh well an old geezer just remembering .
73 de Hank K7HP
BTW I am 74 retired from Motorola Semiconductor RF Operations in 1998.
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