Having fun with amateur radio
Last spring, I reported on my trip to Cape Cod. Well, about a week ago, while going through some things that had been donated to WA2HOM, I found a brochure produced by the National Park Service that described the South Wellfleet station.
I had scanned the whole brochure and made a PDF file from the scans, but then I found a color version of the brochure on the National Park Service website. It looks much nicer than the scan I made.
On the 100th anniversary of the establishment of ZLW, the Wellington maritime radio station, Radio New Zealand broadcast this documentary. It features an interview with Clyde Drummond, One of the first operators. Drummond reminisced about ZLW’s role in World War I.
It also includes interviews with Peter Baird, Graham Turner, and Alan Burgess, operators who worked at ZLW from the 1960s through the 1990s. They discussed the HF setup that ZLW had during that time period. One interesting segment had to do with how telegram traffic to and from ships at sea was handled.
Do you have fond–or even not so fond–memories of making Heathkits? If so, Make: magazine wants to hear from you. Editor Phillip Torrone is writing a Heathkit-related column and wants to include comments from folks who grew up making these or have/had interest in them!
My first Heathkit was a DX-60B transmitter that I bought when I got my Novice ticket. Unfortunately, it didn’t work correctly after I finished it, but after a trip to one of the local Heathkit stores (there were actually two of them in the Detroit area at the time), it worked like a champ until I sold it to help finance my HW-101. I can only imagine the number of wiring errors and/or cold solder joints that the technician found.
“Innovation” is a word often thrown around these days. Back in the old days, you couldn’t find an organization more innovative than Bell Labs. They could certainly afford it, though. They had a monopoly on the telephone system!
At any rate, all of the issues of the Bell Labs Journal from 1922 to 1983 are now online. Within the pages of these journals you’ll find papers on:
Overall, it’s pretty cool stuff.
Major General Frank E. Stoner, Chief of the Army Communication Service of the Signal Corps. Photo courtesy of the Missouri State Archives
One interesting factoid is that ACAN had a capacity of 100,000,000 words per day. In 1945, the network carried about 50,000,000 words per day. Today’s communications networks, of course, carry billions times more data than this network.
After the war, Stoner became the United Nations’ Chief Communications Engineer and set up a radio network to broadcast news of the UN. At one point, Stoner enlisted the help of amateur radio operators to keep the network on the air:
In May of the following year, the United Nations broadcasting network that Frank Stoner had set in place with such care and foresight was at risk of going silent. For economic reasons, the United States Congress was considering reducing the funding for the State Department channels used to send programs abroad, channels which had been made available to the United Nations. With resourcefulness and ingenuity, Frank Stoner turned to the world’s amateur radio operators to relay the news of the Parliament of the World to the people of the world. Not only was there an elegant grass-roots symbolism in having amateur radio operators serving as a direct link between the United Nations and the people, it would also enable the United Nations to maintain communications in the face of possible interference — whether political interference or from natural causes — in the existing commercial systems. K2UN, with its networks of ham operators, went on the air on 17 May 1948.
Does anyone know if Stoner himself was a ham? I Googled him, but couldn’t really find anything that said one way or the other.
I’d also be interested in more information on the K2UN operations. Googling turned up an article from the August 9, 1947 issue of the New Yorker titled “Cooperative Hams,” but you have to be a subscriber to view the article.
About a week ago, I was in Lowe’s looking at doorbell switches. They had several reasonably priced switches, most marked with the Heath-Zenith brand name. That sounds familiar, I thought. The logo looked familiar, too.
Well, I finally got around to looking at the HeathCo website, and found this on the history page:
The History of HeathCo
Originating from the Heath Company, best known for designing and marketing electronic kits and controls to the early do-it-yourself market, HeathCo’s foundation is built from over 100 years of finding and applying innovation to develop new products. In the 1980’s, as part of the Zenith Electronics Corporation, Heath began marketing products under the brand name of Heath/Zenith. These two great American brands were both established by offering quality products that are innovative and easy to use.
Since the late 1980’s, intelligent lighting, door chimes, and wireless lighting controls have been the product categories of focus. Today, under the Heath/Zenith brand we offer a broad selection of specialty electrical products built to meet the needs of today’s consumer. Our products are designed to complement any decor and install with ease for even the most inexperienced do-it-yourselfer.
HeathCo LLC is a subsidiary of Duchossois Industries, Inc., a privately owned, diversified, multinational holding company, headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois.
How do you like that?
Google recently digitized all of the back issues of Popular Science. In the September 1948 issue, they ran an article on the new electronic device the transistor. This could be the first article in a commercial publication on the transistor.
Here are a couple of quotes:
Now, of course, transistors are on the order of microns, and in integrated circuits cost a small fraction of a penny. And all this happened in about sixty years.
From the 12/9/09 issue of IEEE-USA’s Today’s Engineer
Electronic Marvels on Display at National Electronics Museum
By George F. McClure
A valuable, but little known, resource tracing the development of electronics for defense, space, and other applications is located near the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the BWI Rail station.
The National Electronics Museum (NEM), renamed in 2009 from the Historical Electronics Museum, is a treasure trove of radar, sonar and other electronic technology, with an emphasis on phased array antennas and countermeasures. It also operates an annual two-day Pioneer Camp program for school children between the ages of 8 and 11 to help them appreciate the role electronics plays in our lives.
There is a complete amateur radio station, K3NEM/W3GR, fully equipped with vintage and modern communications systems. A temporary exhibit last year, called “Hallicrafters and Heathkit – the H in Ham Radio,” chronicled the history of these two companies and their contributions to amateur radio.
From the 11/5/09 IEEE Tech Alert:
The American Museum of Radio and Electricity, located in Bellingham, Wash., contains a unique collection of interactive galleries and artifacts. The museum shares photographs from their new book, Where Discovery Sparks Imagination: A Pictorial History of Radio and Electricity. View photos of a rare multibulb Geissler tube, a Volta canon, a combination Oudin/Tesla coil, and many more antique electronics.
The translucent beauty of the ones in the Atwater Kent Number 4333 “Compact” Receiver is so great as to render its functionality almost superfluous—which is a good thing. Shortly after this device was introduced in September 1923, the range of U.S. broadcast frequencies was expanded, rendering it almost useless. Today the 4333 is highly prized by vintage radio collectors.
I have just discovered Bill Wilkerson’s Heath Company website. The table of contents reads:
One of the cooler things on the site is this collection of stories about Heathkit by employees and suppliers.
Thanks to my latest donors!
Paul, KW1L; John, KR4RO; and Sandro, IT9PWM
Donate $5 and get this cool sticker. Measuring 5-3/4-in. W by 4-1/4-in. H, it's perfect for your car, your shack, or wherever!
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