Old Time Radio

Amateur Radio and its associated growing pains

J.M. "Huck" Huckabee, AA5BU

My first Amateur Radio license arrived late in 1940 - that was the greatest thrill of my life! I was a late teenager and the same day I sent a dollar bill to Allied Radio Corporation for 100 QSL cards. The cards arrived and the red-on-white W5KCI was the most beautiful picture my eyes would ever see in a lifetime! And I suspect each of you had the same thrill on "that first day" of Amateur Radio.

Times were hard, but some good Ham friends were helping me. I was ready. Everything was home-built on a "breadboard." The little oscillating receiver had three tubes, and a single tube crystal oscillator was the transmitter. A double-pole, double-through knife switch was used to switch antenna and high voltage from transmit to receive.

I called CQ by the hour on 40 Meters CW. On that very first day I received a reply from the adjacent state - a distance of about 40 miles. I was on my way to "working all states!"

And that's when my "growing pains" began to hurt. With no keying monitor, that first contact could not copy my "sorry fist" very well. After asking him to QRS (slow down) several times, he asked if I would relay a message. Wanting to do it all, I said yes. What a mess! I was never sure what the message was, or who it was for. I wanted to cry, but was ashamed to admit that I bungled my very first contact! Heartbroken, I wondered if Amateur Radio could ever become fun. That first contact made my body hurt and my heart ache more than a long day of hard labor.

My Ham friends helped me get together a little keying monitor and things began to improve. The stress was so great that I needed to rest after each QSO. Soon the situation improved, and I received my first QSL card. I was so excited that I was spending late hours at night trying to work all states - and waiting for the morning mail for another QSL card.

About two months went by and "The Big QSL" arrived. It was from the Grand Island, Nebraska, FCC monitoring station. It required a reply to explain why I was talking to HR1MB down in Honduras. In those days the war clouds were heavy and we were not permitted to work stations outside the U.S. I was told my license was subject to recall. Now I was really hurting! I sent a transcript of my log. Fortunately I was talking to a U.S. station - which the FCC later confirmed.

Amateur Radio growing pains were tough in those days. On 07 December 1941, all Amateur Radio operation was suspended for the duration of the war. In my one year of operation I had worked all states and was on the way to being a high-speed CW operator. But, alas, "young Huck" was off-the-air, and off to the armed forces during WWII.

Several years passed - radio, radar and microwave communication schools and vast experience with military equipment moved that W5KCI operator to Germany by the end of the war. The Signal Corps decided to issue Amateur Radio licenses in Germany. "Sergeant Huck" was in the head of the waiting line. I appeared before the chief signal officer along with a young lieutenant from my unit. We were a witness for each other, and received our licenses on the spot. I was now D4AER. And I relived the joy of my first ticket.

With the war over, a vast amount of American and German radio equipment scrap was available. In a few weeks I was on the air with 25 watts on 10 Meters. That was the maximum power permitted, and the only band. 10 Meters was wide open. I worked all continents two times on a single Sunday afternoon. But the whole world caved in on Sergeant Huck.

Everyone in Europe wanted to work a phone patch to the U.S. Everyone also wanted to know if jobs were available to soldiers as we returned home. Are automobiles, gasoline, tires, food supplies, transportation and housing available? But the U.S. amateurs would not talk about those things. All we could hear was "send me a QSL by air mail." It was impossible to talk to a U.S. station without a breaker saying "just repeat my call please." If I did so, it was "I need your QSL for -" and I wished for a power failure about that time. Where did those people think I could get a QSL card printed in a war torn country? Being a prize DX station was almost as painful as not being able to get on the air at all!

I suspect that all of our senior citizen Amateur Radio operators have experienced similar growing pains. And each young operator, regardless of age, has had, or is having, Amateur Radio growing pains. But no matter how painful growing up in Amateur Radio may be, we all would love to do it again!

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