A Bit Of Personal Radio History

It all started with my fathers portable radio in the 1960's when I was about 8 or 9. He used to listen to the ABC (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION)for the news every morning, but left it on the bench turned off for the rest of the day. Being a curious kid, I used to turn it on and, after making sure I knew where to put the line on the dial so my father could hear his station ok when he turned it on, turn the dial to hear other local radio stations. I noticed it had various switches and a big panel with lots of lines marked mw, sw1,sw2,sw3. Not knowing what these meant I changed the switch to see what happened. Tuning through these "sw" bands I found lots of strange and unintelligible noises. Sometimes thudding sounds(cw. the radio was am only. no ssb, no bfo.), sometimes diddly sounds (rtty), and sometimes music and voices in strange languages. To a 10 year old in the sixties, that was magical and amazing. I was hooked!



It wasn't until I was about 15 that the magic of talking to some-one over the radio occured. It was the mid 70's and the CB boom-time. 10-4 good buddy! At first I used my brothers AM CB in his tow truck and talked local, but then at 16 I had saved enough money ( I was working full-time then) and I bought a brand new SSB Pearce Simpson Super Panther. Wow! I talked DX all over Australia, and occasionally the US. Funnily enough I was sort of aware of ham radio before then, and became more aware during this period as we were actually pirating on the 11m ham band (at the time) and would occasionally get berated by some annoyed ham.
I learnt new terms like COAX and SWR. Then I learnt about beams antennas. You needed a beam to talk REAL DX. So up went an 11m beam. I was learning all the time.

Work took over my life for a while and I drifted away from CB. My work took me to Adelaide. While there I became more aware of HAM radio and came into contact  with a ham who was selling an Yaesu FT-200 valve rig. I bought it, even though I didn't have a licence, and believe me or not, I just used it for SWLing hams. I listened in a lot, especially to CW even though I had no idea what was being sent, but I was trying to get my "ear" to pick individual sounds. I moved back to Victoria for work and took the rig with me.

As I learned more about HAM radio, I started studying the Theory and Regulations, and Morse Code. I sat for my first exam in 1983 and almost got a Full Call at the first sitting. I passed the full call theory, regulations, and sending CW at 10wpm, but I just missed out on 10wpm receive with a few too many errors.

What I passed qualified me for a combined call though, and I first licensed with the call VK3KXU. I was at last able to transmit on the FT-200. What a great radio it was for it's time. I had many contacts on cw and ssb on that radio.

At the next available examination opportunity, I managed to pass the 10wpm CW so finally had my AOCP.

I got a 3 letter full call licence for a while, and then managed to get VK3OX, which I was very happy with.

Moving for work again took me to a number of states, and I had a number of call signs (you had to relinquish your call and get a new one in the state you lived in then) - VK1OX, VK5DOC, VK4CTN

I am currently in Victoria and am licensed as VK3UA.

73

Cambo