Subject: GLOWBUGS digest 188

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 22:28:13 -0500 (CDT)

GLOWBUGS Digest 188

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) What books got you started?
	by [email-masked] (michael silva)
  2) Re: What books got you started?
	by "Robert J. Hurle" <[email-masked]>
  3) re: What books got you started?
	by [email-masked]
  4) Re: What books got you started?
	by [email-masked]
  5) Re: What books got you started?
	by [email-masked] (Jeff Kilgore)
  6) Re: BA/GB Net
	by [email-masked]
  7) Re: What books got you started?
	by "Gable, Edward M" <[email-masked]>
  8) Re: What books got you started?
	by Roy Morgan <[email-masked]>
  9) The books that got me started
	by Jeff Duntemann <[email-masked]>
 10) Boatanchor Model-T Furrd Kit Funzies
	by [email-masked] (Chip Owens)
 11) Starter Books
	by Conard Murray <[email-masked]>
 12) Heath Catalog & starter books
	by [email-masked] (Glueck)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 22:23:32 -0700
From: [email-masked] (michael silva)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Hi gang,

Besides old radio stuff I really enjoy old (aka tube) radio books, due 
no doubt to the enjoyment I got reading them as a kid.  One of the 
books I got way back then was "Electronics Made Simple" by Jacobowitz.  
I still remember my complete fascination as his explanation of a 
tickler feedback oscillator sunk in.  After that was "Getting Started 
in Amateur Radio."  Boy did I want that 25-watt transmitter -- went to 
bed for many nights reading that book.  Got my first handbook soon 
after, the 1967 edition.  As a boggle-eyed 12-year-old I poured over 
that one for months.  Luckily the first book somehow survived and I've 
found copies of the other two.

So, what were the books that you couldn't put down?

73,
Mike, KK6GM

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 08:14:29 -0400
From: "Robert J. Hurle" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

michael silva wrote:

> So, what were the books that you couldn't put down?
> 

Try Elements of Radio by William and Abraham Marcus. 

Its what gave a lousy math student the impetus to learn
the times tables. Hi.

If anyone has an extra 2nd edition of this Id be interested.
Willing to trade a first edition.

-- 
Robert J. Hurle (K1CJJ)
415 Roast Meat Hill Rd. Killingworth, CT 06419
[email-masked]     voice : (203) 663-1052

------------------------------

Date:       14 MAY 96 07:34:14 EDT
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Subject: re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Interesting topic.
  For me, it was my Dad's copy of the 1963 Allied Radio / Knight Kits 
catalog.  I was 
starting as an SWL with the old floor model family radio.  I drooled over 
the Knight Kit
radios for month.  That Christmas I received the 1964 Radio Amateur's 
Handbook and
Hints and Kinks.  I just about wore out those two books.  They now reside 
in the shack
on my "vintage gear" desk.
73 de Dennis, KG9DO
[email-masked]
-------------
Original Text
>From C=US/A=INTERNET/DDA=ID/mjsilva(a)ix.netcom.com, on 5/14/96 12:37 AM:
Hi gang,

Besides old radio stuff I really enjoy old (aka tube) radio books, due 
no doubt to the enjoyment I got reading them as a kid.  One of the 
books I got way back then was "Electronics Made Simple" by Jacobowitz.  
I still remember my complete fascination as his explanation of a 
tickler feedback oscillator sunk in.  After that was "Getting Started 
in Amateur Radio."  Boy did I want that 25-watt transmitter -- went to 
bed for many nights reading that book.  Got my first handbook soon 
after, the 1967 edition.  As a boggle-eyed 12-year-old I poured over 
that one for months.  Luckily the first book somehow survived and I've 
found copies of the other two.

So, what were the books that you couldn't put down?

73,
Mike, KK6GM

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 10:41:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked] (), [email-masked]
Subject: Re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

A very interesting topic.  It is the twistes de fates that steers us.....

My first book was a coverless, extremely dog-eared, 1941 Radio Amateur
Handbook.  I picked it up as a pre-ham SWL in the barracks back in the
dark days.  I used to read it from cover to cover as a GI, while sitting
on the crapper, for lack of better things to do.  It really fired my
imagination and caused me to think about BA style radio and the delights
of Glowbugging your way to fun and fortune.  I still have that book
sitting on the shelf, and still drag it down, every now and again for
a refresher tour back into dejavu land.  As a pocket-pencil-protector,
white-shirted-with-tie, brown-softside-satchel-carrying 10-yr-old geek
kid (yeah, I know, it were a burden on me psyche.....(:+}}.....)
I used to read all of Morgan's classic Boy's Xth Book of Radio or
Electronics, and try to build all the various xtal sets therein described.
But, it were that 1941 dog-eared handbook that made me what's me is today!

73/ZUT DE NA4G/Bob

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 96 09:19:01 CDT
From: [email-masked] (Jeff Kilgore)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

I got interested in ham radio when the postman misdelivered the neighbor's
Heathkit catalog (1970) to our house. I saw it when I came home from school 
and began casually leafing through it. When I saw the ham radio equipment,
I was awestruck. I had never heard of ham radio before, but I realized 
you could talk all over the world with this stuff. I mentioned it to my
dad that evening and he disappeared into the attic for a while, then came
back with some old ham radio books. Turns out that he had been studying
for his license back in 1958, but then I was born and he never got around
to getting his ticket.

I especially liked the 1958 edition of "How to Become a Radio Amateur,"
and I really liked the two-tube regenerative receiver described there.
I still have all of my old radio books, but alas, I have no Heathkit
catalogs left from those days. Sure wish I did. Incidentally, does
anyone recall if Heathkit packed a catalog in their kits back then?
I do have an unopened Heathkit IT-18 transistor checker kit, and if
I knew there was a catalog in there, I would probably open it. Not
build it, mind you, but I would sure like to look at an old Heathkit 
catalog.

73,
Jeff Kilgore, KC1MK

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 10:50:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked] (Jeffrey Herman)
Cc: [email-masked] (), [email-masked],
Subject: Re: BA/GB Net
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

> 
> Hi Bob, could you pass the complete BA/GB net schedule to me (times
> and frequencies).
> 
> Thanks and 73,
> Jeff KH2PZ
> 

OK...

-----------------------
Generic BA/GB NET INFO:
-----------------------

QTR 0000/0100 UTC QRG 7051

QTR 0200/0300/0400/0500/0600 UTC QRG 3579R545

Calling sequence:    CQ BA CQ BA DE yourcall yourcall K

Call from on the hour to about 5 or 10 minutes after the hour.

The ``net'' or ``roundtable'' is informal (highly) and open to all
at any QRQ.  If you don't hear anyone at a particular QTR, all again
on the next hour.

If NA4G is not there, by all means, go ahead anyway.....(:+}}....
Grapples ye up yer tin cans atop yer noggins' and readyes ye yer
keys at the fore......

73/ZUT DE NA4G/Bob UP

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 96 11:06:00 DST
From: "Gable, Edward M" <[email-masked]>
To: glowbugs <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

The books that got me to reading were the original Tom
Switft series.  Oh the memories; Ned Newton, Eradicate
and Boomerang, Mary Nester.  I read and still have them
all, the whole series.  It was the Morgan books "The Boy's
First book of ...."  that really got me past listening to the old
Silvertone floor model radio.  That crystal radio with 100
turns of wire on a heated and waxed 2x2 as a tuner was my
first home brew radio.  Cheated with a 1N34A detector, tho.
A book I still use today is a very dogged looking, brown
covered Allied Electronics Data Handbook, 1966.  I bet
most of us have one of those around.  73,
Ed K2MP/WPE2JR  <[email-masked]>

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:33:05 -0400
From: Roy Morgan <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: What books got you started?
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

At 12:27 AM 5/14/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi gang,
>
>Besides old radio stuff I really enjoy old (aka tube) radio books, due 
>no doubt to the enjoyment I got reading them as a kid. 
..
>
>So, what were the books that you couldn't put down?

My copy of the 1959 Handbook is so tattered that I have made an archival
book storage sleeve for it.  It was the first book I had as far as I know,
and others followed it.

-- Roy Morgan/Building 820, Room 562/Gaithersburg  MD 20899
(National Institute of Standards and Technology,  formerly NBS)
301-975-3254 Fax: 301-948-6213  [email-masked] --

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 09:23:49 GMT
From: Jeff Duntemann <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Subject: The books that got me started
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Like a lot of other people, I started by taking Alfred Morgan books out of
the library:

The Boy Electrician
The Boy's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Books of Radio and Electronics

Another one was Using Electronics, by Harry Zarchy, which had a lot of
simple crystal, regen, and 1-transistor sets.  All of these were suitable
for an 11-year-old.  I took other books out of the library but they were a
little deep for me at the time; our library had several Abe Marcus books,
including Radio Projects, from which I built a couple of things, and learned
that certain radio parts (like line cord resistors) were history even as far
back as 1963.

I tried to get into the 1964 ARRL Handbook, but its complexity scared me,
and our library unaccountably had no other ARRL books.

One thing no one else has mentioned that helped me a LOT was the pile of
Popular Electronics mags that my best friend Art Krumrey got from his Uncle
George.  I built quite a few of their projects, and had more success because
they used contemporary parts I could order from Allied.  My granny gave me a
subscription to Electronics Illustrated in 1965 and that was wonderful, too.

Over the past five or six years I've managed to gather almost all of this
material into my library, with the exception of Marcus's Radio Projects and
the Boy's Third Book of Radio and Electronics.  I have almost all QSTs back
to WWII and cubic yards of other ham and electronics mags. (Including the
very first Popular Electronics from 1954.) Now all I need is time to do the
projects I couldn't afford to do back in the Sixties...

--73--

--Jeff Duntemann KG7JF
  Scottsdale, Arizona

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 10:20:29 -0600 (MDT)
From: [email-masked] (Chip Owens)
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked] (Chip Owens)
Subject: Boatanchor Model-T Furrd Kit Funzies
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

Hi Gang,

Last night our commercial AC power dropped out for several hours.
It made think again about a home-brew transmitter that not only is
reliable, but would also operate "off the grid".

Battery power for the filaments and a dynamotor or old mobile power
supply for the B+ would make sense. This would dictate appropriate
tubes such as the 12A6, 1625, and 6883 types for 12v operation.

24volt battery banks could feed series stringed 1625's and/or the 6159
as well as that military surplus dynamotor.

This sort of rig would also make a handy Field-Day transmitter or a generic
mobile/portable rig for the firebottle lovers out there.

Just a few thoughts that came after being without power for a few hours...

Chip Owens, NW0O

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:36:54 +0800
From: Conard Murray <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Subject: Starter Books
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

-- [ From: Conard Murray * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] --

Hello all,
The biggie for me was a 1958 Handbook I discovered in the junior high
library. I remember looking at the ads in the back and dreaming of what I
could hear with those fancy inhalers. There was also a license manual there
from 1960-something (this was 1975) that promised me the 2m voice band as a
novice! After earning my ticket and joining the local ham club I proposed a
motion (which passed)  that new licensing material be purchased for the
school libraries!
73/ZUT
de Conard ws4s

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 16:38:18 -0500 (CDT)
From: [email-masked] (Glueck)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Heath Catalog & starter books
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>

TO ALL:

First, a comment based on what I remember about Heath catalogs:

snip
>                                                 Incidentally, does
> anyone recall if Heathkit packed a catalog in their kits back then?
> I do have an unopened Heathkit IT-18 transistor checker kit, and if
> I knew there was a catalog in there, I would probably open it.

> Jeff Kilgore, KC1MK
snip

I don't think Heath Co. packed catalogs as a regular thing into each kit box.
I only remember getting a catalog INSIDE the overpack when I ordered a
couple of kits at a time.  Seems like I ordered a DX-40 and VF-1 together
for some kind of "deal" (deal might not have been $$ reduction/special from
Heath, but instead offer to pay for both by my parents; I can't really
remember back to 1959).  As a novice, I knew I could not use the VFO but I
did want to get it so I could have it "ready" to assemble when I passed my
General exam, which I did sometime less than a year later.

As far as books/magazines:  I had to rely on the local newstands in the
small town of Waller, Tx for material.  Additionally, the 1-2 hams in town
and several hams in neighboring towns could be counted on for loan of
particular books like Radio Amateur's Handbooks.  I think I was given an old
coverless copy from before WW II at some point and eventually received a NEW
copy in May 1962 as a high-school graduation present from my uncle, W5GHK
who also provided me with license manuals as needed.

Most intesting magazines were Radio-Electronics-type magazines and Popular
Electronics magazine itself.  Somehow I got a bunch of copies of Radio TV
News that were pretty faded but fascinating.  And then there was always the
periodic HEATH catalog that you HAD to look through; cover to cover, and
within a day or so after you got it!  I always wanted a DX-100, but never
got around to it... with college cost being predominate calling on $$ and
time, etc.  GOOD MEMORIES!!

73,
SKIP / K5ZUA (Howard Glueck; [email-masked])

------------------------------

End of GLOWBUGS Digest 188
**************************