Home movie film from the early 1950s Field Day activities at W3OK/3. Mel Snyder who shared these on YouTube says "Found in the attic of my dad, the "real" W3PYF, Clarence Snyder - a short piece of 8mm film of a Delaware Lehigh Amateur Radio Club Field Day from, I am guessing from the cars, 1950. I recognize my dad's 1950 Dodge as one of the "shacks." The heavy-set guy is the "real" W3OK; my father is the guy running around in the undershirt. I recognize Bill Werner and the faces of a few others. Hope you all enjoy seeing what ham radio was like in the war surplus era; you could buy a pair of "Command" sets for about $10 back then on "radio row" in NYC where the World Trade Center once stood (you could buy them for less at hamfests, if the original owner screwed them up)." This is a silent movie - no sound - but a real glimpse into what ham radio was like in the post-WWII era when surplus was king. |
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- Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted: 08/226/2024
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Anyone who caught one of the Emergency Action Notifications (EAN) transmitted by the US Air Force on the HF bands remembers this phrase.But not many know how the EAN is actually used by our military. This re-creation of a Minuteman III Launch Control Facilitliy (LCF) in Utah provides a realistic view of what happens when an EAN is received by a missile control crew, 60 feet under... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted: 04/93/2024
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If you're a long-time ham you might know what the smeary figure-8 pattern is....Back in the Novice era, many used crystals purchased from suppliers like JAN Crystals who purchased large quantities of military surplus crystals and reground them for the ham bands. That's why they were cheap, but also why you couldn't get a specific frequency as they'd grind by a formula and is long... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted: 01/22/2024
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Ron K5HZ has been building equipment since he first got his ham license in the early 60s, and while he has other transmitters, all it took to build a new one was finding a "free to good home" power transformer at a hamfest. It also gave him a chance to try using a couple of Compactron tubes that had caught his eye - the 6T10 dual pentode and the 6GE5 beam power pentode that was d... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted: 12/364/2023
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If you build almost anything electronic, chances are good you've purchased parts from DigiKey Electronics. But did you know that DigiKey - now one of the world's largest electronics distributors - started out as a ham radio company?"More than 50 years ago, a digital electronic device designed to generate uniform Morse characters and spaces was made available for sale by amateur radio enthusi... READ MORE
- Robert Nickels (W9RAN)
Posted: 12/341/2023
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