Amateur Radio Stuff

Over there on the right you now see my E. F. Johnson Viking 500 (actually, just the RF deck), as it currently sits in the main operating position here at WA3FLE. Took a while, but there it is. How I came to own this sweet example of 1950's engineering is an interesting story.

As a Johnny-Novice (WN3FLE), back in 1965, living at my Mom's house in Gulph Mills, PA, some 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia, I was aware of the BIG SIGNAL in the neighborhood, who reeked havoc on me, my then-fellow-Novice buddy Glenn (KN3ZCQ), neighbors on either side of his house for several lots, and the Pennsylvania State Police. I'm talking about Joe Crockett, K3KUL, who ran this Viking 500 and an SX-115 into a tribander on 15 meter AM from a little property on Route 23 (in those days), which was parallel to the Expressway, and just near enough to the State Police 40+ MHz repeaters to be a real problem for old Joe. So when the 500 finally broke down for the last time, I think he tired of the fight, and the word went out--500 for sale. Haul it away.

Man, I had to see that thing. But to get into Joe's shack, you had to go down a flight of stairs into his basement shack, and pass by the wierdest anti-theft device I've ever seen. Joe had built into the stairs a home-made Zip-gun of sorts out of copper tubing, with a spring-loaded hammer that would shoot a .22 short into your foot if you stepped on a triggering pad he had put on a step on the stairs. I think the law was being somewhat circumvented, here.

Joe was nothing if not eccentric. He would tell his neighbors what planet to get off in a heartbeat if they were to complain about TVI. To say that they were happy to see that 500 scoot off his premises is probably an understatement. But I digress.

I looked at the 500 in Joe's basement, listened to that gravelly voice of his tell of countless hours of DX worked, and offered him $100 to bus it out of there. Who knew what it needed? A couple of sweaty trips up those stairs and into the back of my VW Rabbit it went. This must have been in 1975. I think it ended up needing all new HV supply electrolytics, and eventually a new modulation transformer, which I got from Peter Dahl for $95 a couple of years later. Still later, I blew the thing up, fixed it, blew it up, and so on, and it lay dormant for a house move and a total of maybe 10 years until I just revived it this last time. It still has a bit of hum in the speech amp, mostly a result of too much gain, but generally, it's happening. I love it. It's been a real companion, even in its dormancy. I never forgot about it, and gladly hauled it around until I could get a shot at bringing it back for good.

Anyway. OK, what else is up here? Well, resources--where do you go for the good stuff? Of special interest should be the Boatanchor list, which is a digest you can subscribe to by emailing "listproc@theporch.com", with "subscribe" (don't use quotes) in the body of your message. The only problem is, the list is now by subscription only, with something like a $20 per-year subscription fee. The problem with this approach, I'm afraid, is that it deprives the subscribers from a potential wealth of information possessed by non-subscribers (like me) that can no longer participate in the list. I fear that it will degenerate into a closed universe of finite resources that will eventually run its course and peter out. Oh well, that's life, I guess. On the other hand, I wish them well, although I have other reasons for not subscribing--I think the list administrator is somewhat of a butt-head, and I'll be damned if I'll give him any of my money, as he tends to scold the group whenever anyone does something out of line, whatever that is. That's going to get real old real fast after money starts changing hands.

Let's get real for a second about this "somewhat of a butt-head" stuff. The list administrator IS a butt-head, yet in the month he announced a 75% price increase, seemed to have taken a charm course, prefacing his public admonitions with words like "gentle nudge" and other little warbles, which to me only verified his "for-profit" operation. Formerly, he would write a page-long diatribe on the inappropriateness of a four-line message from an unsuspecting PAYING subscriber with good intentions, and nothing burns me up more than reading that kind of self-righteous bullshit. And what work does he do? Criticize complete requoting, while he lets double, triple, and quadruple postings through? Yet his self-effacing "gentle nudges" are almost more disgusting, as it seems that it wasn't just a crusty old redneck with some character that we were dealing with, but a self-aggrandizing power-monger in love with the adoration his periodic missives seem to engender, and who had perhaps a twinge of GUILT from his ripoff of poor older Hams. Or, maybe he just had a change of heart. Let's see, 900 members at $20 each--I guess $18,000 can buy a new heart somewhere on the planet. Are you listening, Jack?

Ah, I feel better, now. Gee, it's great having your own website.

There is a little secret to this, however. You should be able get copies of the digests up on the Boatanchor Archive Site. Beyond that, there is also now a Boatanchor newsgroup (rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors), and a free Boatanchor reflector (I have to get the info on that for you).

While we're on the subject of buttheads and other pain in the ass things that should be shared (well, we weren't really on that subject, but we are now), another thing I find particularly aggravating is predator resellers, who claim to be "hobbyists", that sell desirable gear at inflated prices as a supplemental or even primary source of income, but offer none of the protection of a dealer, and all of the risk of an anonymous deal. Note that their equipment is always in MINT condition, and that they seem to buy very little, mostly peddling their seemingly endless flow of goods. They market extensively on mailing lists, newsgroups, CompuServe, AOL, in Electric Radio, QST, and the like. They suffer none of the overhead of a legitimate dealer, pay no taxes on the proceeds (I'm sure), and pretend to be collectors (of your money, if they can get their hands on it). Shall I name some of these dogs, or just let you guess? Give you initials, or callsigns, or websites, or how would you like it--the Ten Most Wanted? Some day, we'll talk.

On a brighter note, here are some of my favorite ham radio links--I've got a few of these:

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