I have had a ham license since October of 1969 when I got
WB5AGZ as a Technician.  I could not quite get things together to get
on the air right then, but I upgraded to General and finally had my
first contact on ten meters in March of 1970.  I remember hearing
W1LTS calling CQ on Ten AM one afternoon and nervously calling him
back on my Knight T60 which was kind of a trick to tune up.

        He came right back to me and we chatted for a few minutes
about Heaven knows what, but it was probably the usual ham greetings
and signal reports.

        My receiver was a Halicrafter's SX100 which was a general
coverage receiver that went from 540 KHZ through 34 MHZ with a small gap
around the first IF at 1650, more about that later.

        The SX100 had a crystal calibrater at 100 KHZ and I later
built a 10-MHZ crystal oscillator to which I attached a string of 7490
IC's to divide it down to 1 KHZ.  I also had wired the first 7490 to
divide by either ten or two depending upon how one flipped a toggle
switch.

        I didn't know enough then about RF design so I had a lot more
trouble with the oscillator than I should have had, but I did get it
working by 1975 and used that along with the 100 KHZ calibrater when I
wanted to be really accurate.

        In 1971 I bought a Halicrafter's HT37 HF transmitter which I
still have to this day.

        I upgraded my receiver to an ICR71 in the mid eighties and I
sure enjoyed being able to enter and read the frequency directly.  I
could punch in the frequency and put the HT37 in spot mode and move
the VFO down the band until I heard the carrier sweep past.  Tuning
the HT37 is done as follows:

        I built a switch box to engage the antenna relay as if one was
transmitting.  I put the HT37 in Spot or Calibrate mode which does put
a little RF in to the air, but very little.  I then adjust the drive
and plate for a strong signal peak and I am tuned.  I can also set the
carrier null controls by listening in the receiver to the transmitted
signal and making sure there is no carrier.  At that close range, you
do hear noise in the receiver, but the carrier nulls right out as you
carefully turn the little knobs.

        After that, I would turn up the audio gain and change that
switch box I built to allow the relay in the HT37 to actuate the
antenna relay and I am ready to go.

        As I originally said, my old SX100 had a first IF at 1650 KHZ.
I feel sorry for all the old-time radio buffs who have those or other
receivers that have a 1650 KHZ IF because that is now right in the
middle of the AM radio broadcast band.  If you live in a town that has
a station on 1650 or gets a strong signal from one, you have an extra
BFO you never bargained for.  My heart goes out to you.

73

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group