Hi Winston,
Thourhly enjoyed your comments.Thomas Wolfe not withstanding,you can go
home again.Have recently acquired my first "real" ham rcvr that I got while
a Novice in 1961-an RCA ACR-155(albeit a clone!).Got itv rebuilt and it
works great.Am building a replica of my original Novice 6AG7/6L6 rig that I
used with that old RCA,and guess what!As an Extra "lite",I'm pounding brass
with an old E.F.Johnson straight key and actually like using CW.
So there is hope for us guys that learned the code just to pass the test and
never used it again until now(But does anyone have the a good W2AZL 2m
converter and "522 they want to get rid of?).
73 de Bill W4NJF (ex KA6CGF,ex VQ9WF,ex WA2UUV) been a ham since '61.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Winston F. Jones" <winjones@ix.netcom.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Power Mite Odyssey
> This story illustrates a simple fact: Inexpensive rigs will do more than
> anything to get young people into ham radio.
> As a 16-year-old novice back in 1960, my rig was a homebrew 1625 final,
> built with the help of my elmer, and an old used Heath AR-3 receiver.
Total
> cost was about $50, including two Texas Crystals 40-meter rocks and a
> folded dipole I built from salvaged TV twin lead. It took me all summer,
at
> $1 per day, to earn the money.
> That was ham radio at its best! Nothing can compare to the thrill of
working
> that first station. My Ten-Tec Jupiter is fun to operate today, but not
> nearly as exciting as my old $50 novice setup. I'm sure there's lots of
> stories like mine out there.
> 73, Winston K4CWQ
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <johnwiseman@davidbowie.com>
> To: <tentec@contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 9:29 AM
> Subject: [TenTec] Power Mite Odyssey
>
>
> > Thought some of you Ten Tec QRP fans might enjoy this story -
> >
> > Back in '69 and '70, my dad used to go to the local radio store in
> > Peoria to get crystals for his police radio. While there, I fell in
> > love with a Midland 11-500 SW/AM table radio. That radio got me
> > going into the hobby of radio, and later, electronics in general.
> > After discovering "hams" on both of our radios, I started to
> > investigate that hobby. "Too expensive", said Dad. "Too weird",
> > said Mom. But I found an ad in the back of one of the ARRL
> > publications that Dad bought me at the radio store for a Ten Tec
> > Power Mite.
> >
> > Man, I loved the looks of that radio. Simple, elegant lines. It
> > didn't do phone, but hey, I could live with that for a while. After
> > all, the price was right. So I sent away for the catalog. Even
> > today, I still have the booklet with the torn out coupon missing.
> > But it never happened. Unfortunately, I had no Elmer. I had no idea
> > what the theory questions were asking for, and I was unable to learn
> > more than a few morse characters from the series of vinyl records
> > that Dad had bought me during his latest trip to the radio store.
> > Eventually, motorcycles and girls came on the scene, and the ham
> > radio dream got put on hold for a while. About 15 years, actually.
> >
> > Fast forward to 2003. After being fairly inactive for several years,
> > I started getting into QRP homebrewing. What a thrill it was to work
> > stations with a radio of my own design and construction! Then the
> > nostalgia bug hit. I still had my original Midland, but it hadn't
> > worked in years. Changing all the electrolytics, realigning the
> > tuned inputs, and changing the dial lights brought the old radio back
> > to life, in full splendor.
> >
> > At the same time, I had been looking on Ebay for some parts for my
> > son's minibike. Glancing around in the amateur radio section, I saw
> > a new listing for a mint Ten Tec Power Mite 2. There were 6 days
> > left in the auction, but I decided right then that this radio was
> > meant to live in my shack. 6 days later, after a final flurry of
> > last-second bidding, it was mine for $142.50.
> >
> > It was in better shape than I hoped for when it finally came, in it's
> > original box, with the original manual and schematic. Like an
> > episode from the Twilight Zone, I thought for a moment that I was 15
> > years old again. Over the next few days, I cleaned it up, fixed a
> > few crusted over switches and aligned the oscillator with my scope
> > and frequency counter. Hey, this thing might just work after all. I
> > even got it putting out a whole 1 watt peak power on 40 meters. Then
> > reality hit me. I had never used a direct conversion receiver
> > before! What's a "zero beat"? Receive on the upper sideband? Hey,
> > I'm a superhet guy...
> >
> > So I practiced zeroing in on strong signals, and again tuned the
> > oscillator so I could hear the receiver and transmitter oscillator on
> > a close-by Icom rig. It seemed to me that this thing was alive. But
> > I turned it on at night, and Whoaaaa, baby! Every SW station on 40
> > meters came blaring through. I could hardly hear any CW. Obviously,
> > this receiver is not of the quality of even my first homebrew. OK,
> > daytime might be the ticket here.
> >
> > And of course on Saturday afternoon, things were much better. The
> > band was fairly active with lots of east coast stations on, so I
> > figured it's now or never. I started calling CQ. After the 2nd try,
> > I was stunned to hear W2BVH return to me. I was so floored that this
> > thing had actually worked, that my code copy speed instantly lost
> > over 5wpm, and I barely got his call! He patiently explained to me
> > that other than a 100 Hz. random frequency shift, all else was well.
> > Thanks Lenny for putting up with my nervous fist on a straight key!
> >
> > After tuning around a bit I came across a very interesting sounding
> > CW signal that had quite a bit of chirp in it. I got the call as
> > NX2ND, and looked it up. Interesting - a WWII submarine now a
> > permanent museum, and with all restored original radio equipment. I
> > had to work this one on the little Power Mite, so I called him when
> > he finished his current QSO. Again, success! He came right back to
> > me and I found it quite appropriate that our two aging radios were
> > managing to do quite well together.
> >
> > But what a thrill! So many years later, to actually get my Power
> > Mite, and to successfully put it on the air has been one of the
> > highlights of my radio days. But as I thought about it, I realized
> > that there was NO WAY that I could have used this radio as a kid! I
> > never would have figured out the nuances of direct conversion, or how
> > to tune the oscillator. It's probably just as well that I never did
> > mow enough lawns to afford it back in '70.
> >
> > But I finally have it, and now it resides in a place of honor in my
> > shack, right next to my fully restored, original Midland radio. Life
> > is good.
> >
> > Who says you can never go home again?
> >
> > john
> > KE3QG
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > TenTec@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/tentec
>
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