Posts Tagged ‘Vintage Radio’

See You In The ‘Linc’!

courtesy: WØVLZ
This coming week will provide two great opportunities to fire-up your older radios and enjoy some pleasant CW exchanges with other like-minded vintage radio users!

The Antique Wireless Association's (AWA) annual roll-out of the Linc Cundall (W2LC) Memorial CW Contest takes place this coming Wednesday and Saturday. Activity starts at 2300Z on both days and continues for 24 hours. Linc Cundall was one of the the three founders of the AWA, back in 1952, along with Bruce Kelley (W2ICE) and George Batterson (W2GB).

Over the decades, the AWA has been one of the chief proponents for the preservation of radio history, in all of its forms ... including the restoration and active use of vintage radio equipment. The AWA celebrates vintage amateur radio with several 'on-air' events each year including the premier event, the '1929 Bruce Kelley Contest'.

The annual 'Linc' CW party encourages all amateurs, including non-AWA members, to utilize their pre-1950 radios ... those designed and built before 1950 as well as homebrew reproductions of popular pre-'50's designs. Participants are encouraged to call 'CQ AWA AWA' on 160, 80 or 40m CW... suggested 'window frequencies' are outlined in the rules page which can be found here. Active discussion and promotion regarding the upcoming event may be found on Yahoo's AWAGroup reflector.

If you have an older radio (receiver or transmitter) that qualifies ... this includes any of your WWII surplus! ... hopefully you can spark-up for the event.

No older gear? Don't let that stop you from getting in on the fun, as modern rigs can be used as well, with the object of working as many AWA vintage stations as possible ... no excuses!

The above photo illustrates some of the beautiful homebrew work being done by Neil, WØVLZ, who was the chief inspiration for my own involvement in '29 activity. It will be hard to visit his amazing pages without getting hooked, so you have been warned!

My present 'vintage on-air' shelf beside the main operating table has been occupied now for several years by my Tri-Tet-Ten but with the likely demise of further 10m work, it's time to exchange it with something that I can use more often.

I hope to set up my homebrew 'Longfeller', shown below, inspired by the original design published in July, 1946 QST. My Longfeller operates on all bands from 160-10m, and should be ideal for the upcoming activity nights.


Please do consider getting on the air for this annual event, no matter what radios that you have ... it's especially nice to hear the sounds of these old radios that are fast disappearing. Events like this keep these great sounds alive.

See you in the 'Linc'!

See You In The ‘Linc’!

courtesy: WØVLZ
This coming week will provide two great opportunities to fire-up your older radios and enjoy some pleasant CW exchanges with other like-minded vintage radio users!

The Antique Wireless Association's (AWA) annual roll-out of the Linc Cundall (W2LC) Memorial CW Contest takes place this coming Wednesday and Saturday. Activity starts at 2300Z on both days and continues for 24 hours. Linc Cundall was one of the the three founders of the AWA, back in 1952, along with Bruce Kelley (W2ICE) and George Batterson (W2GB).

Over the decades, the AWA has been one of the chief proponents for the preservation of radio history, in all of its forms ... including the restoration and active use of vintage radio equipment. The AWA celebrates vintage amateur radio with several 'on-air' events each year including the premier event, the '1929 Bruce Kelley Contest'.

The annual 'Linc' CW party encourages all amateurs, including non-AWA members, to utilize their pre-1950 radios ... those designed and built before 1950 as well as homebrew reproductions of popular pre-'50's designs. Participants are encouraged to call 'CQ AWA AWA' on 160, 80 or 40m CW... suggested 'window frequencies' are outlined in the rules page which can be found here. Active discussion and promotion regarding the upcoming event may be found on Yahoo's AWAGroup reflector.

If you have an older radio (receiver or transmitter) that qualifies ... this includes any of your WWII surplus! ... hopefully you can spark-up for the event.

No older gear? Don't let that stop you from getting in on the fun, as modern rigs can be used as well, with the object of working as many AWA vintage stations as possible ... no excuses!

The above photo illustrates some of the beautiful homebrew work being done by Neil, WØVLZ, who was the chief inspiration for my own involvement in '29 activity. It will be hard to visit his amazing pages without getting hooked, so you have been warned!

My present 'vintage on-air' shelf beside the main operating table has been occupied now for several years by my Tri-Tet-Ten but with the likely demise of further 10m work, it's time to exchange it with something that I can use more often.

I hope to set up my homebrew 'Longfeller', shown below, inspired by the original design published in July, 1946 QST. My Longfeller operates on all bands from 160-10m, and should be ideal for the upcoming activity nights.


Please do consider getting on the air for this annual event, no matter what radios that you have ... it's especially nice to hear the sounds of these old radios that are fast disappearing. Events like this keep these great sounds alive.

See you in the 'Linc'!

David’s Time Machine



A quick read of the latest postings on the excellent "The RadioBoard Forums" revealed a recent donation, by RadioBoard regular Graeme Zimmer, of his extensive collection of scanned vintage radio books to The American Radio History website. For those not familiar with this site, it is a superb and extensive archive of radio-related magazines and publications developed and maintained by the very dedicated David Gleason. There are probably very few radio or electronic magazines of the past that you could name that won't be found on David's website.



Graeme's donation was extensive enough to garner its own page listing and many of the book titles will ring-nostalgic to a lot of us baby-boomers that were grabbed by the magic of radio while still in our formative years.

I was delighted to see one particular author's name in the list of publications, Alfred P. Morgan ... a name that many of you might recall with fond memories. I remember checking out many of his 'Radio For Boys' series of books from the top-floor school library when still in elementary school. I longed to construct some of the simple radios but at the time I was really too young to gather the needed resources and components to put something together. I had yet to develop any of the needed skills, other than the yearning desire to learn as much as I could about these complex-looking one-tube receivers ... but it was already too late I think, and like thousands of other young 'radio boys', Alfred Morgan had planted the seed that continues to flourish some sixty years later. Thanks to Zimmer's donation of over 100 different titles from various authors, many of those hypnotic publications can now be found on David Gleason's amazing time machine!

courtesy: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/

David’s Time Machine



A quick read of the latest postings on the excellent "The RadioBoard Forums" revealed a recent donation, by RadioBoard regular Graeme Zimmer, of his extensive collection of scanned vintage radio books to The American Radio History website. For those not familiar with this site, it is a superb and extensive archive of radio-related magazines and publications developed and maintained by the very dedicated David Gleason. There are probably very few radio or electronic magazines of the past that you could name that won't be found on David's website.



Graeme's donation was extensive enough to garner its own page listing and many of the book titles will ring-nostalgic to a lot of us baby-boomers that were grabbed by the magic of radio while still in our formative years.

I was delighted to see one particular author's name in the list of publications, Alfred P. Morgan ... a name that many of you might recall with fond memories. I remember checking out many of his 'Radio For Boys' series of books from the top-floor school library when still in elementary school. I longed to construct some of the simple radios but at the time I was really too young to gather the needed resources and components to put something together. I had yet to develop any of the needed skills, other than the yearning desire to learn as much as I could about these complex-looking one-tube receivers ... but it was already too late I think, and like thousands of other young 'radio boys', Alfred Morgan had planted the seed that continues to flourish some sixty years later. Thanks to Zimmer's donation of over 100 different titles from various authors, many of those hypnotic publications can now be found on David Gleason's amazing time machine!

courtesy: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/

St. Joseph, Missouri – The Patee House

This past Sunday, we decided to take a small trip north to St. Joseph, Missouri. St. Joe is full of history and one of my favorite places to go there is the Patee House Museum. Two parts of the museum I enjoy the most:

(1) A railroad telegraph office with a nice collection of telegraph keys

(2) An amazing display of vintage radios as well as an old amateur radio station

Julius B. Abercrombie, W0NH (ex 9NH) was a member of the Old Old Timers Club and first got on the air back in 1906! It looks like Julius was one of the original Midwestern Big Guns.

I really enjoyed his collection of convention pins (…open the image below to see the details of the pins)

AM Fone -Where the Heavy Iron Meet

For some time, I have admired and loved AM radio. I worked at an AM broadcast station for 12 years. So I fell in love with that full sound. It has always appealed to me. And there are other out there who enjoy that too. And if you have ever wanted to be a part of that world, you can be. There is even a website for people who love AM as well as home brewing radios.

Screen Shot of AMFone.net

Screen Shot of AMFone.net

I have been a lurker on AMFone.net for a while. I originally found it through the AM Window website. It has articles and files on how to get a top notch AM station on the air and sounding good. You can also have a look at the classifieds on the website to find equipment to supplement your existing AM station to to find that right receiver or transmitter to get your station started. There is even an area for restoration of old radios as well.

And not to leave out the folks who like new radios, there is also a section for modern rigs. Tips and modifications to get that modern solid state radio to be top notch on AM. And if you’re like me and want to just learn more in general about Ham Radio from a more technical side, this is an awesome site to do it from as well. Reading and asking questions is how to learn. And one of the things I have found on this site is a lack of old farts telling you “How it should be done”. Instead, I have found helpful people willing to share their knowledge.

Definitely check out this website if AM has been a mode you have been curious about. It’s well worth the look and you’ll be happy you did.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

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