From glowbugs@theporch.com Tue Dec 5 20:50:31 1995 Return-Path: glowbugs@theporch.com Received: from uro (localhost.theporch.com [127.0.0.1]) by uro.theporch.com (8.7.3/AUX-3.1.1) with SMTP id UAA16463; Tue, 5 Dec 1995 20:47:47 -0600 (CST) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 20:47:47 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199512060247.UAA16463@uro.theporch.com> Errors-To: ws4s@midtenn.net Reply-To: glowbugs@theporch.com Originator: glowbugs@theporch.com Sender: glowbugs@theporch.com Precedence: bulk From: glowbugs@theporch.com To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: GLOWBUGS digest 39 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: Please send list server requests to listproc@theporch.com Status: O GLOWBUGS Digest 39 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) Re: A Good Home by ralph.hartwell@emachine.com (Ralph Hartwell) 2) back on line by hammerlund@usa.pipeline.com (ROBERT FOWLE) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 05:40:00 GMT From: ralph.hartwell@emachine.com (Ralph Hartwell) To: glowbugs@theporch.com Subject: Re: A Good Home Message-ID: <9512050115475561@emachine.com> >I have to take issue with you on this. We're not talking about toasters, >hair driers, or shoes here. We're talking about Johnson Viking, Collins, >Hammarlund, National, and any number of other marques that a lot of us >consider classics and worth preserving. Personalizing it makes it all the >better. Indeed! I remember my first Real Radio... Many years ago, as a much younger Ham, I purchased a used Collins 75A-3 receiver from another Amateur operator who had just picked up a 75A-4 for himself. It seems that the ham who originally owned the '3 was a Silent Key, and my friend had obtained the rig at the previous owners estate sale. When I got the radio home, I looked it over carefully, and I noticed his name and call were carefully written inside of the manual. I saw how he had repaired the unit from time to time and taken excellent care of it. Apparently the receiver had kept him company for many an evening, for the paint was slightly worn in places where your fingers would naturally fall on the front panel while carefully tuning for the weak ones out there. I noticed that my friend from whom I purchased the receiver had also inscribed his name and call in the manual. Eventually, I added mine there inside the cover, too. As the years passed, I used many other receivers, but that prized 75A-3 was always prominently displayed in the shack, ready for action. After some years (more than I care to think about) had passed and I obtained other more "modern" equipment, I eventually relegated the faithful old '3 to an unceremonious exile in the garage and stored it there in a box, carefully wrapped in plastic - I just couldn't sell it; at least, not quite yet. Maybe someday. Maybe never. One day, while chatting online with a young caller who was online on my BBS, I discovered that he was quite interested in becoming an Amateur Radio Operator. It seems that he had discovered an old (for him) 1950'ish ARRL Handbook, and was amazed at the fascinating things you could do with vacuum tubes. Some days and a few more online chats later, he and his father came over to see the shack and talk about Ham Radio. During their visit, I found out that he did not have a receiver to use, and that he was looking for something to use to listen to the HF bands while he was away at college. Slowly at first, I told him about the 75A-3 and how I had come to acquire it, and what it had meant to me over the years. "Would you like to see what a real radio looks like?" I asked. "Sure!!" he replied. Well, to make a long story short, about an hour later, one very happy, eager, bright-eyed young prospective Ham was lugging my faithful old 75A-3 out of my garage and into his dad's car. Oh, sure, I had some doubts about parting with it, but I decided that this was a much better use for the venerable old workhorse than sitting in the garage, cold, dark and unused. Now, several years later, another Ham has placed his name and call in the 75A-3's manual. He knows the tradition of helping someone else become a Ham, and even more, he knows the thrill and mystery of sitting there in the shack alone in the night, headphones firmly in place, listening to voices from places he's only dreamed of come softly out of a box that glows in the dark. Yes, the magic of Amateur Radio is still alive, thanks in part to an old piece of gear passed on from one generation of Hams to the next. He says he'll do the same when his time comes to part with it. And you know, I think he will... This, I think, is far better than having it in my estate sale. Ralph W5JGV --- þ QMPro 1.53 þ I'm leaving my body to science fiction. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 20:31:14 -0500 From: hammerlund@usa.pipeline.com (ROBERT FOWLE) To: glowbugs@theporch.com Subject: back on line Message-ID: <9512060131.AA23248@> just a note, to say I'm back on line after 8 days off. -- ROBERT FOWLE the HAMMARLUND historian ------------------------------ End of GLOWBUGS Digest 39 *************************