SOS at Midnight

During my 7^th grade year at Memorial Jr. High in Kingsville, I came across a book in the school library, SOS at Midnight. The hero in this book was Tommy Tompkins, a high school senior who was also a ham operator. The author, Walter A. Tompkins, assigned his call, K6ATX, to Tommy. As I read this book, ham radio came alive in a literary sense.

Through Boy Scouts & Boy's Life magazine, I had been exposed to ham radio & I had learned the Morse Code. Now I was reading about the adventures of K6ATX with his Heathkit DX100B & his homebrew mobile rig. Tommy was a regular ham radio detective as he used his electronic ingenuity to outsmart the bad guys.

In my last installment, I told the story of the Space Spanner regenerative shortwave receiver that I built following Christmas 1959. With the help of Mickey Edens, K5QWT (SK), and Rick Hoffman, K5SBU, the cold & shorting solder joints were cleaned up, and I began to listen to the magic of shortwave radio. Up and down the bands from broadcast to 30 MHz, I listened to foreign broadcast, Morse Code (CW), AM ham stations, and teletype.

Of course, this little primitive radio was not very selective or sensitive, and it could be overloaded easily by a nearby station. In fact, W5ERC-Johnny King, was a local ham who was retired from the railroad, and he loved to chew the rag with his buddies on 40 meters. When Johnny was on the air, I could hear him up and down the dial - everywhere. I heard W5ERC and only Whiskey 5 Erupting Radio Channels. Johnny's rig was a Viking 500 & his 500 watts from a mile away saturated my little radio. Later, I would find that Johnny's 500 watts that came on the air with an audible clunk would shut down some of my early Novice QSO's.

Well, the hook was set. Now, I was reading everything I could find regarding ham radio. One a January Saturday morning, I was sitting out on the curb at Mickey's house when his mother came out to get the paper about 7 a.m. What are you doing here? She asked. Waiting for Mickey, was my reply. Well he won't be up for a couple of more hours, she said. (Thirteen is an age of great curiosity and boundless energy)

Mickey helped me get started with the ARRL Novice License Manual, & I began to come to his house every school day afternoon and Mickey would give me about 20 minutes of code practice and answer any questions I had from the license manual.

The license manual contained questions about FCC regulations, radio theory, and operating procedures. Being a 7^th grader, I had not taken algebra, yet, but Mickey took the time to explain various radio calculations in a way that I could understand. Soon, I was able to use the Ohm's law and -wave dipole formulas to do basic calculations.

After about 2 weeks of daily practice and study, Mickey announced that I was ready to take my Novice test. On the appointed day, I arrived after school about 4 p.m. Mickey asked if I would like to do a practice run on the code before the test. I said, Sure.

Mickey sent the code at 5 WPM (25 characters per minute) and after a couple of minutes of practice, Mickey reviewed my copy and he said, You passed; I don't need to send any more!

Really? I was so excited. I was almost a ham. Now, I had to pass the written test.

Mickey opened the envelope, and I began to work the questions, one by one, just like they were in the license manual. There were questions about the proper frequencies for operation, calculations for a -wave dipole antenna for 7.2 MHz, and other questions of basic radio theory and FCC regulations.

When I finished the test, Mickey reviewed my answers and announced, I believe you passed. We'll send it back to the FCC, and you should have a formal response from them and your new license in about 6 weeks.

Now, I began to dream about a transmitter coupled with a -wave dipole antenna that would allow me to communicate with hams across the U.S., perhaps, even around the world.

(Next installment - the ticket arrives & building my first transmitter, the DX-40)