I thought this went to the list ahead of my other message about 15 meters, 
but it only went to Phil.

I began short-wave listening in the summer of 1966 with a borrowed
Halacrafter S120. That fall, my roommate at the school for the blind brought
one to school with him, and we were both pretty worthless from that point.
We used the window screens for an antenna, and listened to the world!

For Christmas that year, I was given a Zenith short-wave receiver, the model
number of which escapes me. It had a bfo, and would tune SSB okay through 20
meters, but wasn't very stable above there.

Thus, I spent a huge amount of listening time on 15 and 10 meter AM. Those
bands were so good that it was nearly 2 years later before I discovered 160
meter AM, again on my roommate's S120.

On 15 meters, I remember often hearing a gentleman named John, from San
Diego, who had MS. I can't remember his call, but I think he was a K6.

There was also a lady named Irene in the Detroit area who ran a Viking
Ranger 2, and worked the world with it.

The biggest signals I remember on 15 meter AM were from Bob, W7LUN, Tucson,
who ran 100 watts to a rhombic. He was loud on 20 and 10 as well.

There was also a guy in Montana who ran a KW into a large beam.

While I enjoyed the really big signals, I was also amazed at what just a few
watts would do on 10 meters. I heard many people using converted cb rigs,
and the Lafayette HA410, which ran 20 watts input to a 2e26 final.

I bought one of those Lafayette rigs on ebay awhile back, and hope to get it
going in time for this cycle.

Mike, K5XU