1961: Jim Cain, K1TN






1966: Brian Wood, W0DZ

1961: Richard Pumphrey, WN9DDV

1962, Walt Beverly, W4GV

1961: Rick Roznoy, K1OF

1962, Steve Meyers, W0AZ

1951: Bill Weinhardt, W9PPG

1955: Paul Johnston, W9PJ

1964: Michael Betz, WB8ZFQ.

1967: Pete Malvasi, W2PM

1962: Terry Schieler, W0FM

1969: John Kosmak, W3IK

1953: Dan Girand, W5ARB

1975: David Collingham, K3LP

1961: Jim Cain, K1TN

1957: Bill Tippett, W4ZV

1961: Bob Lightner, W4GJ

1956: Bernie Huth, W4BGH

1952: Dick Bender, W3SYY

1951: Dale Bredon, W6BGK

1963: "Sig" Signer, NV7E

1958: Jeff Lackey, K8CQ

1953: Dan Bathker, K6BLG

1961: Rick Tavan, N6XI

1956: Bill Penhallegon, W4STX

1958: John Miller, K6MM

1959/1993: Tom Carter, KC2GEP

1966: Kelly Klaas, K7SU

1976: Mary Moore, WX4MM

1970: David Kazan, AD8Y

1957: Paula Keiser, K8PK

1971: Charles Ahlgren, WB6IYM

1952: Tom Webb, W4YOK

1964: License Manual - Chapter 2, Novice

1964: Advertisements

1970: Jim Zimmerman, N6KZ

1987: Matt Cassarino, WV1K

More - Mike Branca, W3IRZ (sk)

1953: Bill Bell, KN2CZZ

1952: Ron D' Eau Claire, AC7AC

History - 1950s: The Beginning

History - 1960s: Mid-Peak

History - 1970s: Late Peak

(sample story) My Elmer

1954: Novice Logbook (Dick Zalewski, W7ZR)

1961: Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA

1953: George Marko, K2DWL

1964: How to Become a Radio Amateur

1967: ARRL Handbook

1963: Learning the Radiotelegraph Code

1955: Jack Burks, K4CNW

1979: Ann Santos, WA1S

1952: Ron Baker, WA6AZN

Welcome to the Novice Historical Society Home Page!

1952/1955: The CQ Twins (Clint, W9AV & Quent, W6RI)

1956: Mike Branca, W3IRZ

1959: Don Minkoff, NK6A

History - 1980s: Early-Decline

1990-2000: The End

1976, Rick Palm, K1CE

1978: Larry Makoski, W2LJ

1961: Gary Yantis, W0TM

1955: Al Cammarata, W3AWU

1951: Bob McDonald, W4DYF

1951: Charlie Curle, AD4F

1953: Kenny Cassidy, WN2WNC

1951: Jim Franklin, K4TMJ

1953: Rick Faust, N2RF

1973: Greg Harris, WB9MII

1957: Mickey LeBoeuf, K5ML

1957: Jim Cadien, KC7ZMV

1976: Tom Fagan, K7DF

1953: Fred Jensen, K6DGW

1957: Tony Rogozinski, W4OI

1961, Novice Roundup Award (Art Mouton, K5FNQ)

1956: Woody Pope, ex-KN5GCM

1967: Larry Rybacki, WA2ARA

1955: Gene Schonrock, W6EAJ

1955: Dave Germeyer, W3BJG

1983: Harry Weiss, KA3NZR

1970: Paul Huff, N8XMS

1976: John Yasuda, WB6PTC

1953: Alvin Burgland, W6WJ

1966: Neil Friedman, N3DF

1976: Lyle Heide, WB9VTM

1968: Leigh Klotz, Sr., N5LK

1956: Ken Barber, W2DTC

1977: Keith Darwin, N1AS

1959: Tom Wilson, K7FA

1956: Wayne Beck, K5MB

1984: Paul Conant, WQ5X

1970: Ward Silver, N0AX

1982: Christopher Horne, W4CXH

1953: Paul Signorelli, W0RW

1954: Ray Cadmus, W0PFO

1957: Norm Goodkin, K6YXH

1959: Glen Zook, K9STH

1970: Ken Brown, N6KB

1962: Fred Merkel, AK7D

1972: Rob Atkinson, K5UJ

1955: David Quagiana, K2MTW

1952: Sam Whitley, K5SW

1967: Frequency Chart

1983: William Wilson, AB0VG

1953: Jim Brown, W5ZIT

1958: Al Burnham, K6RIM

1952: Gary Borri, K9DBR

1961: Bill Husted, KQ4YA

1955: Dan Schobert, W9MFG

1976: Charles Bibb, K5ZK

1979: Bill Brown, KA6KBC

1965: Ken Widelitz, K6LA / VY2TT

1975: Tim Madden, KI4TG

1972: Steve Ewald, WV1X

1969: Mike "Jug" Jogoleff, WA6MBZ

1964: Phil Salas, AD5X

1954: John Johnston, W3BE

1968: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU

1975: Last of the Distinct Novice Callsigns (Cliff Cheng, AC6C; ex-WN6JPA)

1987: Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV

1966: Tom Morgan, AF4HL

1954: Dan Smith, K6PRK

1954: Novice Callsign History License (Dan, K6PRK's License)

1975: First of the Non-distinct Novice Callsigns (Cliff Cheng, AC6C; ex-WA6JPA)

1957: Doug Millar, K6JEY

1954: Dick Zalewski, W7ZR

1962: Steve Pink, KF1Y

1975: Cliff Cheng, AC6C

1966: Tom Napier, AI4QV

1965: Novice Code Test (Ken Widelitz, K6LA / VY2TT)

1954: Bob Brown, W4YFJ

1977: Russ Roberts, KH6JRM

1958: Jeff Wolf, K6JW

1964: John Shidler, NS5Z

1972: Rick Andersen, KE3IJ

1977: Barry Whittemore, WB1EDI

1967: Grover Cordell, WB5FSP

1959: Val Erwin, W5PUT

1953: Bob Rolfness, W7AVK

1953: Paul Danzer, N1ii

1969: Dennis Kidder, W6DQ

1971: Jonathan Kramer, W6JLK

1959: Chas Shinn, W7MAP/5

1961: Mark Nelson, AJ2K

1978: Alice King, AI4K

1965: Gary Pearce, KN4AQ

1988: James Kern, KB2FCV

1958: Jay Slough, K4ZLE

1954: L.B. Cebik, W4RNL (sk)

1997: Novice Question Pool.

1952: Steve Jensen, W6RHM

1989: Michael Tracy, KC1SX

1979: Matt Tinker, AA8P

1965: Dan Gaylord, W7IDG

1956: Chuck Counselman, W1HIS

1976: Scott McMullen, W5ESE

1961: Joe Park, WB6AGR

1955: Jack Schmidling, K9ACT

1969: Bill Continelli, W2XOY

1962: Bob Roske, N0UF

1963: Glenn Kurzenknabe, K3SWZ

1969: Phyllis Webb, WN4IIF

1956: Dan Cron, W6SBE

1954: Carl Yaffey, K8NU

1967: Ted White, N8TW

1982: Penny Cron, W6SBE

1961, Kent Gardner, WA7AHY

1970: Brad Bradfield, W5CGH

1976: Steve Melachrinos, W3HF

1994: Brian Lamb, KE4QZB

1958: Operating an Amateur Radio Station

1965: AL LaPeter, W2AS

1961: Rick Swain, KK8o

1956: Keith Synder, KE7IOW

1951: Elmer Harger, N7EL

1987: Lou Giovannetti, KB2DHG

1966: Dave Fuseler, NJ4F

1976: Marcel Livesay, N5VU

1965: Bob Jameson, N3LNP

1951: Byron Engen, W4EBA

1956: Cam Harriot, KI6WK

1965: FCC Exam Schedule

1962: Joe Trombino, W2KJ

1956: Ray Colbert, W5XE

1964: Geoff Allsup, W1OH

1977: Tom Herold, N9BUL

1951: Hank Greeb, N8XX

1959: Dean Straw, N6BV

1970: Alan Applegate, K0BG

1957: Richard Cohen, K6DBR

1971: Ronald Erickson, K0IC

1965: Jan Perkins, N6AW

1953: Charlie Lofgren, W6JJZ

1960: Art Mouton, K5FNQ

1955: Dan Marks, ex-K6IQF

1958: Mike Chernus, K6PZN

1960: Bob Silverman, WA6MRK

1951: Richard Schachter, W6HHI

1953: Joe Montgomery, W1DWJ

1958: Richard Dillman, W6AWO

1968: Bob Dunn, K5IQ

1988: Jamie Markowitz, AA6TH

1952: Jim Leighty, W6UJX

1955: Matt Wheaton, W1EMM

1957: Dick Newsome, W0HXL

1956: Slim Copeland, K4KCS

1959, 1993: Tom Carter, KC2GEP

1968: Bill Byrnes, AB9BD

1971: Jeff Angus, WA6FWI

1956: Dean Norris, K7NO

1972: Dennis Drew, W7RVR

1958: Stan Miln, K6RMR

1958: George Ison, K4ZMI

1978: Fred Soper, KC8FS

1956: John Fuller, K4HQK

1961: Riley Hollingswworth, K4ZDH

  


1961: Jim Cain, K1TN


Jim Cain, K1TN (formerly WN9AUM, 1961)

I was fascinated by the new "transistor radios" and in about 1958, when I was nine years old, I convinced my parents to buy me a Zenith Royal 500, which I promptly took the back off of to see what was inside. It was hand wired. I discovered that if I wrapped some wire around its internal loop antenna and then strung the rest of the wire around, I could increase its sensitivity. It cost about $55 in 1958, which is $400 in 2007 money!

My parents were not rich, by any means; my mother was a factory laborer (she assembled cords in a Belden Wire and Cable plant) and my dad was a casket factory supervisor.

At about the same time I built a crystal radio (actually, a germanium diode radio) from a little kit, on a cardboard base. My town had only one AM broadcast station, so selectivity was not an issue. I was fascinated with this device. The science museum at Earlham College, up the street from me, sold mineral samples. I bought a hunk of galena, for probably a quarter, borrowed a safety pin from my mother, and learned how a real crystal detector worked.

I learned Morse code from the Boy Scout Handbook when I was 10 or 11 years old. A friend, Steve Bartz, learned it too. We used plastic telegraph keys and buzzers bought at the local electronics/radio and TV repair store. Later, we built code practice oscillators with all-new parts from the store, including two vacuum tubes! This was a very interesting exercise but it seemed that we'd learned a skill (the code) with no practical use.

Steve says that he and I used to pass notes in class, in Morse code. I hate to think that we learned the code in written form rather than by sound but I suppose it's true.

Mostly, I was busy playing Little League baseball and learning to play tennis, too, so radio was low on the priority list.

I had been lusting after a short-wave receiver that I kept seeing in the window of the radio store, and sometime in early 1961 I had saved enough paper-route money to buy a Hallicrafters S-120, a five-tube blooper. ($65 then, $450 today.)

Somehow, I knew that amateur radio existed. In those days, QST magazine was sold on newsstands, but in our small town the only place to buy it was at the railroad station. I do not remember ever buying, or seeing, a copy there. I must have bought copies of "How to Become a Radio Amateur" and "The Radio Amateur's License Manual." The radio store had ARRL books (but not QST) prominently displayed on a rack on the sales counter.

I did not know any hams in town but, not far from our house, on a hilltop (of course), sat a 100-foot windmill (Vesto) tower with a giant beam antenna (Telrex, probably).

My friend Steve Bartz had lost interest, or wasn't ready, but I pressed on. My dad drove us to the house with the tower and we just went to the front door. The occupant was Les Fraser, W9DD (SK). He was probably in his 50s. Les's brother was a ham, on a religious mission somewhere in Africa, and Mr. Fraser had put up the antenna so he could talk to him. Oh, man, what a station inside: a Hallicrafters HQ-170 and a Central Electronics 200V. I don't remember an amplifier. Mr. Fraser gave me the Novice exam and sent the paperwork off to the FCC.

I've always been a heaver, not a hoarder, but somewhere in my archives I do have my original Novice license. It arrived right around my 13th birthday, in early October, 1961 -- WN9AUM. I went to the radio store, where several hams worked (I had learned since meeting Mr. Fraser), and when I told them my call sign one of them said "WN9 Awfully Ugly Mug." I liked this moniker.

The hams at the radio store thought that my call sign would change to W9AUM when I upgraded. Wrong! When I ordered my first printed QSL cards, I had them printed W9AUM and filled an N into the space.

My first QSL cards were homemade. A few years ago, Norm Keon (now W8AWE), who has one of those cards from me, scanned it and sent the scan to me. I treasure that scan more than the rarest DX QSL in my collection.

I missed getting a KN9 call sign by about a month (which would later have made me a K9). So, I suffered with a six-character call sign for 16 years, until I got my (current) K1TN call sign, in 1977. I had passed the Amateur Extra exam in 1968 but in those days that wouldn't even get you a 1X3 call sign. In those 16 years I was extremely active on the air, and always resented that people who had not even passed the General (much less the Extra) exam had better (shorter) call signs than I.

It was more than a month before I had a transmitter and could get on the air. Mr. Fraser dug out a late-1930s QST with a schematic for "The QSL 40," the ubiquitous 6L6 40-meter CW transmitter. He gave me some parts, including a giant war surplus coil wound on a heavy ceramic form, and I bought the rest at the radio store, including two Bud chassis. One of the hams at the store gave me a power transformer and a few other parts that he'd rescued from dead TV sets. I bought a Greenlee chassis punch for the tube socket, and set to work building.

I finished this transmitter and it actually worked. I had two 40-meter crystals, both of them right on Radio Moscow frequencies, of course. The big crystals we used for transmitting cost five dollars (34 dollars today). I put up a dipole with TV twin lead feed line and set up the station on a workbench in the basement. Mr. Fraser showed me how to tape a short piece of twinlead with a small light bulb wired to it onto the feed line, so I could tune the transmitter for maximum brightness.

I had to sit on a high stool to reach the workbench. One day my mother was in the vicinity when I got across the high voltage, probably 250 volts, and got knocked right off the stool and onto my butt. I'm lucky my ham radio career didn't end on the spot, not because I could have been electrocuted but because my mother could have put her foot down. She didn't.

Steve says he remembers that this transmitter had a lot of RF on the key. There may have been more RF in the basement than outside on the antenna. Maybe this exposure is what led me to major in English in college instead of Electricity.

I didn't have much luck making contacts. The best time, I discovered, was four to seven a.m. I used an alarm clock that had a flashing light to wake me and, to this day, I can remember/see that light. To this day I also usually wake up around four a.m.

My transmitter may have put out only ten watts or so. It didn't have a meter, so the only hint I had that some power was getting to the antenna was that stupid light bulb. It's no wonder I wasn't having much luck making contacts. A local ham, Joe Holinko, K9ZUJ (SK) offered to sell me his Novice transmitter, a DX-20. 50 watts! With a meter. Joe sold it to me for a good price, I guess, and my success on the air went way up. I pounded brass like mad every morning. On Christmas Day, 1961, I worked California for the first time. I got in the February 1962 Novice Roundup and made 35 contacts. Wow.

Joe Holinko died not long thereafter, of a heart attack. It was reported that he had been on the roof of his house, working on an antenna on a very hot summer day, then had gone in and drunk a pitcher of ice water. His heart attack was attributed to that.

I joined the ARRL on January 1, 1962, and have been a member ever since (and a Life Member since 1972). I guess that means I will get a 50 Year plaque in January, 2012. Oh, man, I always thought that people who got those plaques were really old, ancient geezers. Now, I know better.

Sometime that winter the local newspaper published my photo and a story: "Local boy earns license as operator." The photo above is a scan of that newspaper clipping.

Steve Bartz got his Novice license a couple of months after me -- WN9DVS. While I was a CW wizard and a technical idiot, Steve was just the opposite. Steve built a Heathkit HX-11 (an upgraded DX-20) and got on the air a little. Later, he got a Tech license and built a Heathkit Two'er and then left ham radio. Steve came back a few years ago and is now AD5UQ.

After six months as a Novice I was itching to upgrade. The code was a non-issue for me. I suppose I studied some of the theory in preparation for the written exam. My dad drove us to Dayton and I took the exam at the 1962 Dayton Hamvention. In those days, the Hamvention was held entirely in the Biltmore Hotel. The FCC gave exams in a banquet room. There were at least a hundred of us in the room. The code exam was via an Instructograph through a public address system. Yikes. I was used to headphones. The audio was way too loud and the room had echoes. But I skated through 13 wpm, which seemed slow. After the code test, I would guess that about 3/4 of the applicants had flunked and left the building. I passed, and had a good feeling after taking the written exam, drawing schematics and all.

My operating as a Novice had been entirely on 40 meters. 15 meters was hopeless with my receiver (not to mention that 1962 was close to a sunspot minimum), and I didn't think I had enough room for an antenna for 80. Besides, I didn't have a crystal for 80. I worked a VP2S and a VK on 40 as a Novice and didn't even know where they were located at first. Years later I learned that a Novice had made DXCC in 1959, on 15 Meters, during the great sunspot peak.

My General Class license arrived and my dad took me to Srepco Electronics, in Dayton, and bought me a Drake 2B receiver with crystal calibrator option and 2BQ Q-multiplier. It cost $285 and, according to my inflation calculator, that is nearly $2000 today.

In 1994 I obtained another S-120 receiver, a clean, working copy of the one I'd used as a Novice. I was curious about what it would sound like. I tried it out on 40 Meter CW and was sort of astounded that I ever managed to work anybody back in 1961. I also obtained a DX-20 and for a little while I had my original Novice station reconstructed. I used a 1960s Hallicrafters HA-5 vfo and made a few contacts, but it turned out that this was a past I relished reliving in my mind, but not on the air. Sort of like driving a Model-T after you've owned a couple of Porsches (which I have).

Richmond, Indiana, was and is, just a small town of about 40,000 people, but it had some neat hams in the early '60s. Charlie Sperling, K9QAN, had built all the big Heathkit boat anchors and had a giant station in his basement: Apache/SB-10/Mohawk, Chippewa linear (pair of 4-400s), test equipment. Charlie even had some military surplus transceiver, an APX-something, that he was trying to get working on the 1296 MHz ham band. He had put a 2-element HF quad on about 70 feet of TV tower, which came down in a windstorm. So, he replaced it with an 80-foot Vesto tower. Charlie had some QSLs printed with all of his equipment pictured on them, sent a big batch of them to the QSL bureau in Moscow, and they were all bounced. They would have been a "bad influence" on Soviet hams back then.

Not long after I got my general, I was at Charlie's house and he let me get on 20 Meters with his monster station. I'd been working a little DX with my 90 watts and a dipole. I called an African station on 20 CW, over and over, with no luck. Charlie said "it's one-way skip." Sometime later I figured out that was just another DXer euphemism for "the other guy is a lid" or "the other guy doesn't want to work U.S. stations" or whatever.

My local Novice CW buddy was Lee Overdorf, WN9AVU. When he got his General he bought or built a Heathkit DX-100 and camped out on 40 Meters AM. I used to listen to him there but had no desire to work phone myself.

Phil Wilson, WN9EFI, built the big Heathkits, too. He was a tool-and-die maker and a shoo-in to handle the mechanical nightmare of the Heathkit Mohawk and Marauder. In 1964, when I had an HF quad up, I tried to convince him that a quad was superior to a yagi. I was 15 and he was about 50.

On evening after dark I rode my bike to the other side of town to visit one of the hams who worked at the radio store (whose name escapes me). His shack and workshop were on a back porch and I remember the porch groaning under the weight of tons of 1930s and later QSTs. I don't remember any fancy equipment or even a working station, but I sure do remember those magazines. I wonder what those local hams, all long gone, would think if they knew that Jimmy Cain would end up spending 20 years of his working life writing for ham radio publications.

Jim Cain, K1TN

Pomona, NJ

 

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© 2008, Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

 

 

 

(c) 2008, Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!