about - KN8MWA / K8MWA
The Years 1958-1968
How I got started in Ham Radio:
I was probably twelve years old and when I first encountered "Ham Radio". I had gone to the home
of a couple friends whose parents had a shortwave radio (one of those table models with several
bands). The sliderule tuning display showed several services like "police", "aircraft", "BBC", etc.
I asked the guys if they ever listened to the police? "Nope" they answered so we decided to give
a listen. Nothing was heard on the police frequencies (about 5-MHz as I remember) but we started
hearing a bunch of conversations when we tuned down to 4-MHz (probably the old 75m AM-band).
We listened to these guys talking for a few minutes and then some others. I had an old AM radio in
my upstairs bedroom that I had listened to faraway broadcast stations late at night, but the idea of
talking on a radio to other people just fascinated me... I had to find out how I could do this!
I do not remember how I actually found out about ham radio but probably stumbled across adds in
the back of Popular Science or maybe the library had some ARRL books? There were no hams
in our little farm community, but there was a teacher in the town 6-miles north of us who was
(probably my Dad discovered this knowing my interest and he being a high school teacher in
our town).
The next year I saved my allowance all spring and summer to buy a Knight 3-tube "Ocean Hopper"
shortwave receiver. It was a whopping $19.95 so it took some time saving my $2 per month
allowance! It was a kit, so for my birthday I received a brand new Wen soldering iron
(my Dad, again) and I proceeded to learn how to solder on my first electronic project. I got it
assembled and turned on the power but only got hissing noise. I fiddled a lot and looked at my
wiring and could not find the problem. So I sent it back to Allied Radio, in Chicago with $6.75
to have them repair it! They fixed it quick and back it came. I had cut one wire too short so
soldered two wires together to make a connection ... yep, a cold solder joint!
Now I had my working shortwave radio in the fall of 1957. I made from TV twinlead a 40m folded
dipole and strung it between the trees and ran it into my upstairs bedroom window to the radio.
Now I was listening. That was just in time to hear Sputnik that was launched in October.
I was already a science fiction "buff" so it was real neat to hear a real life "space satellite"!
I was so angry that our gov't guys got beat by those Russians! Later my childhood hero
Werner Von Braun and his german rocket engineers who fled germany after WWII finally
got our first satellite launched after many embarrassing failures by the Vanguard rocket bunch!
How lucky to have a new shortwave radio in the sunspot peak of 1957-58! I could listen to stations
around the world. Lucky for me that school teacher ham held some amateur radio classes. My Dad
drove me up to the next town for six weeks so I could attend. In fall of 1958 I passed my Novice exam
and November 11, 1958 my FCC license arrived...KN8MWA. My Dad surprized me again!
He arranged with Chuck, the ham teacher, to buy his Heath DX-35 for $35. Chuck wanted to get
a DX-100 so that worked out well for everyone. Holy cow! I was on the air. My very first contact
was on 40m cw with a ham in Texas and here I was this 14-year old kid in rural Michigan...yahoo!
About three years ago my parents sold their farm and moved into a new home they built on a corner
parcel that they retained. My mother mailed me a bunch of old papers, school albums, and photos
that she came upon in the process of sorting thru the accumulation of near 40-years of living in the
old house. In there were some old photos of my first ham station and activities. I'll share a couple
here [1958 Ocean Hopper/DX-35, 1959 HQ-100/DX-35, my Elmer]:
K8MWA - Technician Class
Back in the 1950's the Novice Class License term was one year and not renewable, so in 1959
I studied for my Technician Class License. At that time it was the General Class written exam.
Chuck, my elmer for Novice administered my exam, and I passed getting the upgrade to K8MWA.
I tried several times to pass the 13-wpm morse code exam to get my General Class but never could
quite do it. The old dark paneled FCC offices in Detroit were a bit intimidating to a young man.
On my second try, my Dad had planned to reward my efforts with a surprise: a new radio receiver.
Well, even though disappointed that I failed again, we went to the ham radio store and I came home
with a brand new Hammarlund HQ-100! Wow, what a difference from the original 3-tube regen set.
That year we moved to Sandusky, Michigan when my Dad changed jobs, so I began to hang-out at
the local TV shop. The repair technician was a ham named John, W8IDT, and he helped me modify
a surplus AN/ARC-1 AM VHF aircraft radio. It used two 832 tubes to produce 20 watts. But it got
me back on the air (remember Techs could not operate below 50 MHz back then). I think I paid
$15 for the radio. Next the TV shop owner, another ham, sold me a 35-foot TV tower for $30 and
I wire brushed and painted it. My Dad and I got it up by the house and I placed two home-made
stacked 8-element yagis for 2m fed with TV twinlead. The elements and the phasing lines made
from aluminum ground wire that a local welding shop brazed.
I didn't get far, only working about 15-miles with a tube front end which probably had 10-dB
noise figure. But I was happy. One really good night I worked into Flint, Michigan, about 35-miles.
That was the best 2m DX I would ever do from home.
College Years
High school went by and I entered college in 1962 at MSU, in East Lansing, Michigan as an
EE major. There was no extra cash in college and I did not buy my first car until my senior year.
I did operate the Engineering Dept's ham station, W8SH, though. They had a full Collins S-line
including 6 and 2m SSB. I had some fun using that station. In the mid-1960's SSB was not very
common on VHF.
I struck up a friendship with a fellow engineering student, Don K8MFO, who sarted up an informal
ham club called the E. Lansing DX Club. We had some good times at his off-campus rented house
ham shack! I bought a Heath Sixer that year with a Halo, and ran it mobile in my 1965 Mustang.
Spring break 1965 my college roomate and I took a trip down into Kentucky and I had some fun
with the "sixer". We had in mind to go to Florida but with only $25 between us we didn't have enough
for gas (it was about 20 cents/gallon back then).
First Job and on my own - 2-meter AM!
In my senior year my grades dropped too much so I voluntarly left school for awhile and took a
job in the defence industry with a small electronics company in Jackson, Michigan as a R&D
Electronic Tech. That was fun as we mainly tested out prototype equipment and found bugs
and their fixes. That also included pre-testing units for Navy acceptance reviews.
During this time, I rented a small cottage near one of the many lakes in that area. It was tiny with a
living room, kitchen-dining, bedroom, and bath. Being single, the living room became the ham
shack. I now had some money and I bought a Ranger-II, Viking 6N2, Clegg Interceptor-B 6 and 2m
receiver, the Clegg HF adaptor, and a 60-foot EZ-Way crank-up tower that I placed a 5-element
Telerex 6m yagi, a 2m 8-over-8 skeleton-slot yagi. Later I swapped the Ranger-II for a DX-100
and used the power supply and modulator to produce 150w "plate-modulated" AM on 2m.
I made friends with local ham, Brian, WA8VHG (now K8BR), and we had nightly skeds on 2m.
Often we talked with both stations in Detroit (80-miles) and Chicago (100+ miles). Our stations
were strong enough to make that a regular event.
I often hung out at Brian's (he had a separate apartment behind his parent's house) and had Friday
night pizza and watched Star Trek. Brian and I challenged each other on who could work farther and
we both were interested in 432 and EME. Brian built a 20-foot stressed dish and 4CX250 amp
for 432. We often worked the VHF contests and the many tropo openings. My best DX on 2m
was St Louis at 500-miles. I eventually bought and built a Heah SB-110 for 6m SSB.
By spring of 1968, I was getting burned out working as a tech so re-entered college that summer
to finish up my degree. To finance that, I sold all but the SB-110. That summer I took a reading
course (senior level research) on radio astronomy. That almost led to my studying at Ohio
State with John Kraus, W8JK. Unfortunately I could not secure a draft deferment so after
graduation I took a job as an engineer with Hughes Aircraft in southern California. Read about
those years and how I got started in microwaves.
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K8MWA - Technician Class
Back in the 1950's the Novice Class License term was one year and not renewable, so in 1959
I studied for my Technician Class License. At that time it was the General Class written exam.
Chuck, my elmer for Novice administered my exam, and I passed getting the upgrade to K8MWA.
I tried several times to pass the 13-wpm morse code exam to get my General Class but never could
quite do it. The old dark paneled FCC offices in Detroit were a bit intimidating to a young man.
On my second try, my Dad had planned to reward my efforts with a surprise: a new radio receiver.
Well, even though disappointed that I failed again, we went to the ham radio store and I came home
with a brand new Hammarlund HQ-100! Wow, what a difference from the original 3-tube regen set.
That year we moved to Sandusky, Michigan when my Dad changed jobs, so I began to hang-out at
the local TV shop. The repair technician was a ham named John, W8IDT, and he helped me modify
a surplus AN/ARC-1 AM VHF aircraft radio. It used two 832 tubes to produce 20 watts. But it got
me back on the air (remember Techs could not operate below 50 MHz back then). I think I paid
$15 for the radio. Next the TV shop owner, another ham, sold me a 35-foot TV tower for $30 and
I wire brushed and painted it. My Dad and I got it up by the house and I placed two home-made
stacked 8-element yagis for 2m fed with TV twinlead. The elements and the phasing lines made
from aluminum ground wire that a local welding shop brazed.
I didn't get far, only working about 15-miles with a tube front end which probably had 10-dB
noise figure. But I was happy. One really good night I worked into Flint, Michigan, about 35-miles.
That was the best 2m DX I would ever do from home.
College Years
High school went by and I entered college in 1962 at MSU, in East Lansing, Michigan as an
EE major. There was no extra cash in college and I did not buy my first car until my senior year.
I did operate the Engineering Dept's ham station, W8SH, though. They had a full Collins S-line
including 6 and 2m SSB. I had some fun using that station. In the mid-1960's SSB was not very
common on VHF.
I struck up a friendship with a fellow engineering student, Don K8MFO, who sarted up an informal
ham club called the E. Lansing DX Club. We had some good times at his off-campus rented house
ham shack! I bought a Heath Sixer that year with a Halo, and ran it mobile in my 1965 Mustang.
Spring break 1965 my college roomate and I took a trip down into Kentucky and I had some fun
with the "sixer". We had in mind to go to Florida but with only $25 between us we didn't have enough
for gas (it was about 20 cents/gallon back then).
First Job and on my own - 2-meter AM!
In my senior year my grades dropped too much so I voluntarly left school for awhile and took a
job in the defence industry with a small electronics company in Jackson, Michigan as a R&D
Electronic Tech. That was fun as we mainly tested out prototype equipment and found bugs
and their fixes. That also included pre-testing units for Navy acceptance reviews.
During this time, I rented a small cottage near one of the many lakes in that area. It was tiny with a
living room, kitchen-dining, bedroom, and bath. Being single, the living room became the ham
shack. I now had some money and I bought a Ranger-II, Viking 6N2, Clegg Interceptor-B 6 and 2m
receiver, the Clegg HF adaptor, and a 60-foot EZ-Way crank-up tower that I placed a 5-element
Telerex 6m yagi, a 2m 8-over-8 skeleton-slot yagi. Later I swapped the Ranger-II for a DX-100
and used the power supply and modulator to produce 150w "plate-modulated" AM on 2m.
I made friends with local ham, Brian, WA8VHG (now K8BR), and we had nightly skeds on 2m.
Often we talked with both stations in Detroit (80-miles) and Chicago (100+ miles). Our stations
were strong enough to make that a regular event.
I often hung out at Brian's (he had a separate apartment behind his parent's house) and had Friday
night pizza and watched Star Trek. Brian and I challenged each other on who could work farther and
we both were interested in 432 and EME. Brian built a 20-foot stressed dish and 4CX250 amp
for 432. We often worked the VHF contests and the many tropo openings. My best DX on 2m
was St Louis at 500-miles. I eventually bought and built a Heah SB-110 for 6m SSB.
By spring of 1968, I was getting burned out working as a tech so re-entered college that summer
to finish up my degree. To finance that, I sold all but the SB-110. That summer I took a reading
course (senior level research) on radio astronomy. That almost led to my studying at Ohio
State with John Kraus, W8JK. Unfortunately I could not secure a draft deferment so after
graduation I took a job as an engineer with Hughes Aircraft in southern California. Read about
those years and how I got started in microwaves.
Return to Home Page