Born To Be a Newspaper Man

by Martin J. McGowan Jr.

Ham Radio

For most of my adult life my principal hobby has been amateur radio, usually called Ham Radio. The origin of that term is obscure. Some say it came from England where the natives often add h's to some words and take them away from other words. The idea here is to add an h at the beginning of amateur.

In my grade school days, I tried stamp collecting, like many children of that age. As an adult I became more involved in collecting but I had to narrow the area of concentration. It is impossible to collect all the stamps in the world so one must choose a particular field or country. When foreign stamps seemed to be too large a field I finally narrowed the choice to United States commemoratives.

For a while I tried to buy a complete sheet and a corner block of four off a full sheet of all U. S. commemoratives as they were issued. When the Postal Service realized stamp collecting is a money maker for the department they began to issue commemoratives for any and all historical events or people. This was too much so I sold what I had and gave the proceeds to our son, Brendan.

As a high school student I began to have a fascination with radio. We bought what was called a converter and connected it to that $100 Philco console radio mentioned earlier. With that device we could hear some local broadcasts in the area. Alvah Crosby, a local electrician in Appleton, put a station on the air without a license. It was a novelty for a while but was shut down before long.

The big Philco also had some short-wave bands on it that enabled me to listen to foreign stations. I sent letters to some of the stations to report reception, which they were anxious to receive to learn how wide was their coverage. In return they sent me confirmation cards.

I subscribed to the national ham radio magazine and read it avidly, hoping someday I would be on the air.

One of my father's friends was John Nolf, manager of the local W. J. Jennison flour mill in town. He had been a radio operator in World War I and had an old transmitter. I asked if I could borrow it to study. He loaned it to me but it was so primitive that I did not learn much from it.

The big hang-up for me becoming an amateur operator was the Morse code test for a license. In 1954 it was necessary to be able to send and receive the dots and dashes at 13 words per minute. In addition, there was a written test on radio theory that had to be passed. Because I lived more than 75 miles from an office of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in St. Paul, Fargo, N. D. or Sioux Falls, S. D., I could take the exam administered by a ham in my area.

There was a farmer in my area who was a ham and he was agreeable to giving me the test. He got the exam papers and when it came time to take the code test he said I probably could pass the test and he didn't bother to see if I could. I did take the written test and passed. So I became a ham.

I was given a license with General class privileges though it was called a Conditional class license because I had not been examined by the FCC. This meant that I was subject to being called in to the FCC office to prove that I was qualified. Years later when the regulations were changed it became possible to obtain a beginner's license, called a Novice license, by sending Mores code at 5 words per minute and passing a 10-question written test.

Over the years I moved up the license classes to Advanced and finally to the Amateur Extra class. This one requires Morse code proficiency at 20 words per minute and a stiff written exam. More recently the license has been made so easy that anyone can obtain a license at 5 words per minute and get Extra class privileges and a two-letter station call sign that had been reserved for Extra class licensees.

With the number of amateurs declining these changes were made to make it easier to obtain a license and to keep the hobby alive. Computers and cell phones became popular and no license was required. This downgraded the quality of the ham licensee I worked 40 years to achieve, but I still maintain my license.

When I started it was necessary to acquire some equipment. I forget what kind of receiver I bought but I remember the transmitter. The E. F. Johnson Co., in Waseca, Minn., made kits to assemble. I bought their Viking Ranger kit and managed to get it assembled. I did have a few contacts using the Morse code but never liked it. I wanted to talk to the fellow at the other end of the contact. I recall how thrilled I was to connect with a ham in Iowa for my first voice contact.

It helped to discover a ham in nearby Bellingham, Minn. Henry Strege. There was another at Canby, Minn., and two in Milbank, S. D.

Another in South Dakota was Frank Huffman at Gary, S. D., and the one who was sort of the leader of the pack was Stan Burghardt who ran an amateur radio supply store in Watertown, S. D. Another member of the group was a medical doctor at Morris, Minn., When this was written all these men are gone except Stan and me.

Later a Benedictine brother, Brother Bernard, came to the area to lead in constructing a Benedictine abbey at Marvin, S. D. He became an active member of the group until he left the order, resumed his name Frank Lane, moved back to Massachusetts, married and had a son. This group used to have contacts up to four times a day at 7 a. m., noon, 7 p. m. and 10 p. m.

My major interest was in long range contacts, so I did that in addition to the local contacts. Over 46 years of operating in Appleton, St. Paul, Blue Earth, rural Kimball, St. Cloud and Pequot Lakes I have confirmation cards of contacts with 231 countries. I also operated portable during winter vacations in Sierra Vista, Ariz., and while holding a temporary winter job in Everglades City, Fla.

I operated using other methods than voice transmissions. I did some teletype, satellite and packet. That method involves typing out a message and sending it in digital bursts that are called packets.

I finally achieved a long-desired goal of seeing the person at the other end of the conversation when I operated slow scan television. It is called slow scan because it can take up to eight seconds for the full picture to unroll on the screen. This is in contrast to what might be called fast scan television, the kind used in commercial TV where the picture is instantaneous and allows movement while the picture is showing.

It was interesting to note the changes that have occurred over the years. When I started hamming the Russians were very limited in their operation during the Stalin years and shortly thereafter. The only operation permitted them was in club stations where the operation could be observed. All requests for confirmation cards went to Box 88, Moscow. Now individual stations are permitted and confirmation requests can go to hams at their home address.

The Chinese also came along slowly. They also began with club stations but now more individual operation is permitted.

The Japanese have more stations than the United States. For a time they knew only enough English to give their name, address and signal reports. Now they speak more English, which is becoming the universal language. Only the French are reluctant to speak much English.

After doing just about everything I wanted to do in amateur radio I lost interest. In addition, when the rotator on my beam at the top of my 64 foot tower broke and it cost $500 to repair, that seemed like a good time to bow out. An imminent move back to St. Paul into a retirement home where I could not operate like I did with the high power equipment, tower and beams also played a factor in y decision. So I sold most of the equipment to a ham dealer in Shoreview, Minn., the beams to members of the Brainerd radio club and traded the tower back to the TV dealer who put it up. I kept the small transceiver in our car for occasional contacts while Betty drives and I operate the radio.

Years ago I signed up for a life membership in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). It cost me $68 at the time. Now it is several hundred dollars. So I lucked out to live long enough to beat the odds. I receive the monthly magazine of the organization called QST for life and I still read it with interest. I don't think I will ever lose complete interest in ham radio.

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