H A 2 M N
|
H A 2 M N
|
| |
|
|
| One of my schoolmates - in the primary school more than 4 decades ago - mentioned that a radio receiver could be constructed of a few components at home. I have ever liked the radio theatre and cabaret broadcasts late evening. Our family receiver was switched off by bedtime at 8 pm. Well, I decided to overcome this problem and to be a stealth listener of plays scheduled late hours. The radio must have been hidden into the pillow so it was time to enter the radio constructing business at age 12. It should have happened earlier as I say now. A coil, a capacitor, a galene crystal and headphones are needed for a radio only. It is still true today even though many of hams may not be aware of it I guess. I finally built it and the radio worked! Wow!!! But having a short antenna between the first and the third stories of the building I had to grow the audio level somehow. Well, let's optimize it! Tests, tests, tests and it went on by the time of meeting my first valve, later on my first transistor. Then a new world opened its door up to me. The world of optimization everything which is in associtation with electronics and radio. A never ending but enjoyable procedure. Tuning the 3+1 valves family AM broadcast receiver I found a transmission on 40 m, a Sunday morning HAM QTC in the mid of '60s. I became interested in receiving distant stations: even way that leads to the ham radio hobby. You should not think that I understood the ham slang at all. Decades' much study and experience needed to be at home a bit more of it. While attending college and having some experience of valve-based constructions mainly I saw a poster to propagate a ham radio operator course. I entered and some month later had a basic HF exam (Class "A" with 8 WPM code knowledge). A year later I upgraded to Class "B" i.e. about the same with the general level with 16 WPM. I submitted the application for a license in 1967. While waiting for it I operated a club station as well as listened to the bands (SWL HA 5 181) with homebrew converters and broadcast radios. My license was issued with the callsign HA5JB two years later. It was 1969. After graduation less and less time could be devoted to the hobby. Career, family, extra jobs, etc. All hams in the same shoes must know the story. In mid of '70s I designed and constructed a CW/SSB transceiver for 20m with about 60 W into a folded dipole on the roof. Due to moving to the Hungarian district HA2 (Esztergom, Komárom-Esztergom County) my callsign must have been changed at that time so HA2MN (and HG2MN for VHF operation till 1991) was issued in January 1979. This callsign has also very frequently appeared as HA2MN/3 and HA2MN/5 in the bands since then. From mid of '80s I operated different low power military equipment occasionally. That gave a great experience for dxing. Hardly more than a year ago I got a vintage Kenwood TS-530SP but in lack of real HF antennas I operate it with an original 2 m FM vertical i.e. very similar to Diamond. And it works really, from 10 m to 30 m, sometimes on 40 m as is. In the lower bands I use the whole system as a vertical long wire. It is a happiness that I have been able to return to HF and make Qs at all. Enjoy if you can... June, 2005 |
| *** VIEW GESTBOOK! SIGN GESTBOOK! *** |
  
|