Lots of good stories - I couldn't resist adding mine.
I grew up in a poor family, and got my novice license in 1961 - WV2VFV (hows that for a cw call).
My first reciever was a Lafayette three tube regen. receiver ($15 was within my Christmas present limit). I saved up for a DX-20 and a couple crystals. I quickly found out that the regen receiver was NOT going to work very well, and managed to upgrade to a used S-20R.
When I got my general I built a homebrew pair of 807's - cw only of course. After that I built a QST article transmitter - a pair of 6GJ5's plate modulated, got me on phone (SSB was just starting to take hold in the early sixties). I can still recall the excitement of my first phone contact with Europe (France).
I later found a brand new Geloso G-212 (I think) which I bought from Arrow Electronics in Mineola, NY. They had imported the Geloso receiver-transmitter pair with the idea of selling them. These initial two units were as far as they went with the Italians. My next rig was an Heath SB-102 - and I thought I died and went to heaven <smile>.
Always knowing that I was struggling to make the hobby work on a very restricted budget somehow added intrigue to the effort. I learned how to make due with what I had and squeeze every ounce of performance out of meager equipment. Still going strong in the hobby with a K3 with a very good 'ol L-4B at its side.
73, Wayne N1WR (ex WA2VFV, WA1RFI, N1WR/YV5, N1WR/KP4) _______________________________________________ Drakelist mailing list Drakelist@zerobeat.net http://mailman.zerobeat.net/mailman/listinfo/drakelist
