dozen red roses
I became enamored with radio as a child. I was only about four years old, when I discovered radio. Prior to that, I had never heard a radio. One of Dad’s brothers had built a crystal radio with earphones. We were visiting them and one of the early Joe Louis boxing matches was broadcast on radio. They let me put on the earphones and listen for a few moments. They also had a party-line telephone, which was the first telephone I ever saw.
A cousin showed me how he connected two tin cans with wire and it was like a telephone. I could half-way understand that sound could carry over a wire for a telephone, but through the air invisibly for the radio was a mystery to me. Radios fascinated me from that time on and I have made a living in electronics.
About that same time, my grandparents bought a radio, which really fascinated me. We only lived a couple of houses from them and I loved to sit and listen to their radio. I remember the broadcast about Germany invading Poland very distinctly.
When I was six years old, Dad bought a Truetone radio, which also tuned some of the shortwave bands and I really became intrigued. Radio was fantastic entertainment for people during those years. Television was still a few years in the future. I remember playing outside the house during the day and hearing some of the soap operas that Mom listened to on the radio. Two that I can remember are Portia Faces Life and Just Plain Bill.
Mom also listened to a radio program that her Uncle John had on WBAP. He played gospel music on the air. He and two of his daughters had their own singing group. He even introduced a group on WBAP that he had met at a church near Sweetwater where both groups were singing and the group got their own show on WBAP. The Chuck Wagon Gang went on to become world famous. We also heard The Stamps Quartet from Dallas each day at noon on KRLD.
After school, I listened to my adventure radio shows. Little Orphan Annie, Jack Armstrong, Terry and the Pirates, Hop Harrigan and Tom Mix were some of the shows I heard, but my favorite was Captain Midnight. During the summer of 1946, Sky King came on the radio. A few years later, it became a TV show.
During the evening, we heard several different shows. On Sunday evenings, we heard The Green Hornet and The Shadow. We also heard the Lone Ranger, which may have been Sunday evenings, also. There were other shows, such as, The Great Gildersleeve, Duffy’s Tavern, Lum & Abner, Amos & Andy, Mr. District Attorney and Truth or Consequences.
When none of us were listening to our normal radio shows, I would tune the shortwave bands. I could listen to shortwave broadcasts from other countries. I also listened to many Ham radio operators and became fascinated with the concept of Ham radio. I could not hear Morse code on our radio, only a swishing sound as the dots and dashes were transmitted.
I memorized the Morse code, which was bad for me later. When I began actually copying code as a radio operator, I found myself counting dots and dashes instead of hearing each letter as a sound. That limited my copying speed to about 18-20 words per minute. I knew several operators who could copy 30-40 words per minute and I was never able to reach those speeds.
I built a crystal radio using an oatmeal box as the form for the coil when I was about 13 years old. When I was 17, I convinced Dad to sign for me to enlist in the Navy. I was interested in being a radio operator and also wanted to fly, so the Navy promised me Aviation Radio Operator’s school. About that time, the Navy changed some schooling concepts and combined the Aviation Radio Operator and Aviation Electronics Technician School. Therefore, I spent my first year in training and became an Aviation Electronics Technician.
I spent most of my time in the Navy as a radio operator and some time as a teletype operator, because I enjoyed the operating job. I was on duty in the communications center on Okinawa when the cease fire announcement came in during the Korean War. The following year, I flew as a radio operator in P2V-5 Neptune patrol bombers, flying patrol off the coast of China. We flew the same basic patrol mission that the P3C Orion was flying in 2001 when it went down on a Chinese island after being buzzed by a MIG.
At Okinawa, we had new operator fresh out of radio school who could copy 50 wpm. The newcomer had been a Ham operator (W4TFR at that time) since he got his license as a young teenager. He had learned Morse code when about eight years old, because most of his family were commercial radio operators in the Norfolk area. He could consistently copy above 50 wpm. Press stations sent at above 40 wpm and he coasted while copying press for the fun of it.
He and I worked together to set up a Ham station in the back room of our communications center with a BC-610 transmitter and a Hammarlund SuperPro receiver. He got his license for that area, KR6LX. He really increased my interest in Ham radio. I vowed to get my Ham license.
After returning to the states and being assigned to Whidbey Island, Washington, I managed to get into the Seattle FCC office on a day they would give the Amateur Radio examination. I knew my code speed would be more than needed, but had not studied a license manual, so was afraid to try the General class exam. Instead, I took the Novice exam.
I copied five minutes of code at five words per minute without an error. When the sat me down at a code key to check my sending, I asked if I could warm up a moment. I cut loose as if I were calling one of the stations from our communications center on Okinawa. The examiner asked me what my job was and passed me without anymore sending. I passed the written test and received my Novice license, WN5FBB.
A few months later, after studying the license manual, a Chief Petty Officer in our squadron who was a Ham, administered the General Class examination and I received my Conditional Class Ham License, W5FBB. It had all the privileges of a General Class, but the word Conditional indicated the exam was administered by mail.
I became active with our Navy club station, W7UMX, at Whidbey Island. We were not officially a MARS station, but did relay messages from squadrons deployed from Whidbey Island to their families. For the last several years, W7UMX has been a MARS station.
While at Whidbey Island, I performed magic shows at the Navy clubs, USO and several other clubs in the area. I became friends with the commanding officer of NAS Whidbey, Captain Dufek, When he was in the audience, I would call him up and use him for a trick or two. He was a good sport and would let me do things that would cause the audience to laugh at him and applaud me. He would even make comments that things better work or he would get even and get another big laugh.
A couple of weeks before I got out of the Navy, Captain Dufek came to one of our Ham Club meetings. He told us how he had served in Little America (South Pole) with Admiral Byrd. He was going back on a new expedition with Admiral Byrd and was looking for volunteers. After the meeting, we socialized drinking coffee and eating doughnuts.
Captain Dufek tried to convince me to reenlist and go with him to the South Pole. He said my duty assignment, with a few others, would be to operate a Ham station at the South Pole. We would operate the Ham station around the clock to send messages home and also respond to calls from all over the world looking to make contact with the South Pole. He suggested that I might also do a little entertaining for the troops, also. He said he would promise me any assignment I wanted after 18 months at the South Pole.
At that time, I was still trying to decide if I wanted to reenlist or not. I also did not like the idea of serving 18 months in the extreme temperatures at the South Pole. Captain Dufek became Admiral Dufek and in charge of the expedition after Admiral Byrd died. I did not reenlist. That assignment at the South Pole would have been quite an experience, but I would probably not be married to the wonderful girl I met when I got out of the Navy.
When I was discharged, I bought an Elmac A-54 Ham transmitter from one of the local Hams in the Seattle area. We shipped it to my home address in Oklahoma. When I got home, I met the only Ham in Snyder, Oklahoma. He and I worked as storm chasers in that part of Oklahoma.
I had met the girl who became my wife my first night home at church. A time or two, the other Ham would come into the movie theater and get us because of storms in the area. We would go to his house and operate from his base station while he went out chasing storms. I also stood her up a time or two because we would be chasing storms.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was one time when her parents left her and two of her sisters at their house out in the country while they went somewhere else and would return late that night. They expected me to pick her up that evening and I could drop her two sisters at their aunt’s house.
A horrible storm rolled in and I ended up working with the other ham chasing storms. They were left alone at the house during that horrible storm and did not have a telephone. She and her two sisters finally got into an old car with the window on the driver’s side broken and drove through the horrible storm to their aunt’s. She developed a distaste for Ham radio. I sold my Elmac transmitter.
My Ham license expired while I was downrange and not operating Ham radio. At that time, the license renewal included a statement that a person had operated a certain amount of time during the preceding year before expiration. Since I had not operated and my wife did not like Ham radio, I never renewed my license.
I considered taking the exam and getting my license again a time or two over the years. I even checked on my old call sign and when I checked, it had not been reassigned. I never did take the exam and my old call sign has been reassigned the last time I checked a call book.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2009