The AM Forum

Welcome to the website of the Novice Historical Society. Earlier versions of this website were started in the mid-2000s when Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., AC6C noticed he was having the same conversation over and over again with his fellow hams, gee what a great time I had when I was a Novice. Cliff had a great time as a Novice too when he started as WN6JPA in 1975. He was not in scouting, but instead his elmer Ted Ryan, WB6JXY (sk) taught him good values through amateur radio in the electric shop at John Burroughs Jr. High School in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. In these conversations Cliff had, hams consistently said the year(s) they spent as a Novice gave them the most fun they had in ham radio. They discovered our hobby. Everything was new and exciting! Other hams went out of their way to help and teach them. Cliff set-up an early version of this website in the mid-2000s so he and his friends could record the stories for history and to teach newcomers what ham radio is about. Hams trained in the Novice era's great traditions are passing away. This history needs to be preserved.

http://www.novicehistory.org/

Don,

That is a great website.  Thanks for passing it along.

My novice days were full of excitement as well.  I still have all my old novice QSL cards and going through them bring back many fine memories.  I know some Ham's skipped the Novice Class of license, but I would have not missed those Novice days for anything.  I did skip the technician class so for me it was Novice, General then incentive licensing at which time I upgraded to Advance and then Extra when they still had the 20 WPM code exam.  A very fun ride!

Joe, W3GMS

When that thing was new I got a spam kind of email inviting me to contribute a reminiscence.  I wrote back privately telling him I didn't think anyone would want to remember their novice days explaining that mine stank--I had poor equipment and lousy antennas because I was a novice and didn't know what I was doing etc.  Without my permission, he posted my semi-rant publicly on that website, has ignored my communications in the past and continues to send me this spam email about his stupid novice glory days website.   Well I guess i was wrong--most folks are misty eyed over their novice days but I am angry still, about his use of my private correspondence and his lack of response to me.  That was a few years ago and I gave up but maybe I should try contacting him again.  He didn't even get my novice callsign right.

My Novice participation was roughly 330 days. I remember it like I remember my first date  ???

I took my Novice exam in June '59. I built a homebrew 30 watt transmitter while waiting for the ticket to arrive, which happened in August. Operated on 3714 kc/s (the only xtal I had) for 3 months until I upgraded to General in November. Upgraded ticket came exactly one month after I took the General exam at the FCC quarterly exam point.

My novice receiver was a converted 1930s broadcast receiver that had a couple of short wave bands and a long wave band.  I removed the power supply components from the chassis and rebuilt the PS as a separate unit, and built a homebrew BFO in the space on the receiver chassis where the power supply had been.

The novice ticket allowed many hams to get on the air, who otherwise would never have achieved the 13 wpm code speed with nothing but a key and tone oscillator. It created a boom in the amateur radio population during the 50s.

By the late 50s and early 60s, there was concern that amateur radio was growing too fast, with no prospects on the horizon for additional operating frequencies. Incentive licensing was largely a reaction to that concern. It worked; after IL passed, amateur radio growth slowed to a trickle.

Sorry to hear that; it was a nice state.

Amen.  I hated CW, was struggling with a HW-7 (couldn't afford anything better) that I never managed any contacts with.  I have NO good memories of being a novice at all.  I couldn't wait to upgrade.

Novice in 1968.
I learned a lot and like you Johnny, I didn't have the best equipment.
My receiver was an S-38C to start. I ended up making a copy of the Heath Q multiplier for it.
The difference was night n' day. I actually made a good number of contacts with that and a Handbook 6DQ6 transmitter.
Within months I aquired the Viking Bud and began my strapping endeavors!!

Novice time was a great time in 1964. A tremendous challenge. Things like calling CQ on 3716 for three days with a shorted Gotham vertical -  wihout a single answer....    

Calling CQ with a DX-20   * without a receiver *  for a week  just to get a fix - cuz I couldn't afford a RX at the time.

Putting up a 20M dipole and working European DX on CW as a boot until my ham uncle one mile away busts me.

Using paper route money to buy 170' of ChannelMaster telescoping mast - actually attempting to put it up in one piece.

Plastering my wall with "Brownie" sample QSL cards [and fake comments] to look cool until I got real ones.


My Novice theme song:  "If I only had a brain."

T

 CW was a ball ! The main reason to upgrade was to get the added CW band segments. The infatuation with phone is fading fast . But CW was always magic.

And it was great for hams that had/have squeaky voices.

 As well as not having to listen to the squeaky voices . Then there are the people who think their voices are so special thay need 10KW and 25 KC to do it justice . Not so with CW  ;D

I find it amusing that I don't see any of the hams, who say the novice year was the best year of their ham life:  1. getting rid of all their gear that has VFOs, 2.  getting rid of anything that runs more than 75 watts, 3.  getting rid of anything that has anything to do with phone, and 4.  confining themselves to 50 kc backwater segments in 80, 40, 15 and 10 (and 2 meters IIRC) where they can send rockbound CQs and tune the sub-band band listening for replies.   I mean, if they really think being a novice was so WONDERFUL
no one is stopping them from living the dream all over again.  :D

Me, when my ticket came with WB5KUJ on it, I felt like I had gotten out of jail.

I was only a novice for a few months (late winter '75) before upgrading to general.  The good news was I got a response to my very first CQ (on 40 meters), the bad news was it was a station telling me I was out of the novice band :(  

The Johnson Valiant my parents bought me for Christmas came with two crystals in it and I used them and the procedure in the manual to calibrate the VFO with the help of my trusty SX-62 receiver.   Note to self:  sometimes people grind crystals to a new frequency WITHOUT bothering to note that on the outside of the crystal :)  Using this mislabeled crystal will create calibration problems.

After one week with the SX-62 I upgraded to a SX-101 and discovered the fun of 15 meters.  My second CQ on that band netted a contact with a VQ9 (Seychelles).  

After a couple of months of this I received a general and acquired a Heathkit SB-102 with sticking relays which made VOX unusable and is probably the reason I have never felt the need for VOX.  Even with the SB-102 I stayed mostly on CW and had fun with DX on 20 meters.  Many years later in 1994 I received tenure at the university and put together a decent DX/contest setup and fairly quickly grew bored with this version of radio.   I decided to recreate my novice station hoping to also recapture some of the fun of those days.   I never used my original Valiant on AM but the one I bought in 1994 has spent more time on AM than CW.  Unlike my original setup I do use a relay now for T/R.  In novice land going from transmit to receive involved killing the HV on the Valiant, switching the antenna to the receiver, and flipping the SX-62 from standby to receive, 14 year olds are pretty fast!  Back in those days the hum from the plate transformer was my keying monitor.

 I have a lot of novice transmitters. In fact MOST of my transmitters are novice limit and I still use crystals often . However I actually only kept my novice for 1 month and the General for about 2 months. No great love for the ticket per-se, just good memories of the early contacts, not so much the gear itself. The novice ticket however did give me cause to get up to the 20WPM and earn the Extra ticket in just a few months total.

  People expressing the joy of the novice days are quite welcome to enjoy what ever gear and mode their ticket allows. No need to get rid of the new gear in order to still use and appreciate the simpler gear. In fact , when the gear does start to leave I will dump the more modern, high powered , VFO stuff long before I let go of the earlier, basic gear.

  I am very thankful my roots were CW not CB  ;)

<<<Unlike my original setup I do use a relay now for T/R.>>>

I forgot about TR switching  :)

I used a DPDT knife switch on a ceramic base which I may still have around here somewhere, but I used it with coaxial cable, which shows you how much I knew at the time.  Fortunately on 40 and 80 it didn't matter much, but eventually I figured out that I could get away with separate tx and rx antennas and experienced the life changing bliss of full QSK.

I did the same thing. Thought I had my act together until someone showed me a coax TR relay!

I second the statement by KG8LB about my roots being CW not CB. I got licensed in June, 1972 as WN4AUX, with An Ameco AC-1 with 40m coil and a Drake 2-A. The AC-1 got lost over the years:-(. I built a 6AG7/807 transmitter that put out 40-45 watts on 40m. This transmitter was used at technical college(post-high school). Dipoles at both locations. I am so glad I failed the Tech in 1971 so I could get started the right way. I upgraded to General in June, 1973(had to wait until August, 1973 to get the license which gave me WA4AUX, a call which was re-issued. I got my present call in 1999. I wanted the oldest call in 4-land. I knew W4AAA(now SK)who was at one time W4MOI. His parents were W4AAA and W4AAB in the 1950's(1960's?). There is a contest club that has W4AAA now. Other rigs I used were a borrowed Heath HW-16 which let me get on 15, then borrowed an Eico 723,later bought a WRL Globe Scout 65A, which I used on AM/CW in 1973 until I went slopbucket for a while.I just loved 40m CW. I worked 32 states and Canada with the AC-1 with 7 watts out.I had fun, but my mother and sister were glad I got off code:-). The feeling when someone came back to me when I first got on the air from school was unforgettable. Key fright.
                                                         Joe W4AAB

Being a Novice was a drag except for personal friendships that have endured but I doubt a license class had anything to do with it.

The best thing about my Novice days was a girl named Gloria, and some time in the reeds at the beach..... ;D :-*

Some of the hams most vehemently opposed to expanding the 40m phone band down to 7100 or below explain that they want to preserve the old 40m novice band for "slow-speed CW", even though remaining novices have General class CW privileges and the entire segment from roughly 7060 to 7125 is very lightly used. Most CW ops crowd down into the space below 7060 even during CW QuaRMtests, and just one small group is trying to promote somewhere around 7115 kc/s for members of their CW club.

I guess they are not warm to the idea of making all the bands similar to 160 by eliminating mode base segments.  Even though it seems to work okay on 160.

a walkie-talkie lured me in ham radio - back in the day "skip" was all over the channel 11 but no one heard me - my father knew some ham radio people and ike- w2rgu and kitty-k2she took me under their wings - the hook was set! - never had so much fun at 4 am tapping away on 80 and 40 - tapping these days at that time are fun too - jus' a little different!
greg, n1exi

Same here Greg except Lafayette WTs came on channel 14 (27.125). I had mine apart driving a 12 inch speaker relay switched with an amplified D104 and a groundplane. It actually worked.

You guys got into ham radio through CB? That's it, I can't talk to you anymore.

Not a walkie talkie here . It was the Brumburger morse code set . Got it for Christmas 1957 . It had the International Code embossed on the top . You could use click mode ,buzz mode or the very thoughtful light bulb mode. The light bulb no doubt made those around you a lot happier than the buzzer. They really used up the D cell batteries quickly.(http://www.n4mw.com/cp125.jpg)



    Lucky thing no one ever caught you lurking in the reeds, spying on that sweet young thing  ;D

I know of a couple of hams who petitioned the FCC a few years ago to do just that, and one of them told me it generated a lot of hate mail (both electronic and snail), and IIRC, they said they even received a couple of threats of vandalism and/or bodily harm.

Yes Steve. My very first AM qso was on 27.125Mhz. QRP (ie.... peeeeeiiss weak)

No reply expected!

The thing I remember most about my novice days was receiving my only ever pink ticket from the FCC.   I had just upgraded my 40M dipole to a 14AVQ trap vertical.    These things do wonders on radiating every harmonic available.    I got a real FCC notice (not an ARRL observer) about my CW signal being heard on the 20M band.   This was in 1958 before 11M CB.    I was using a Globe Chief.    I must have had it tuned OK because my log showed a CW contact taking place at the time of the violation on 40M.     I used CW most of the time after upgrading because of the crappy equipment I had wasn't very effective on AM,  SSB at the time was reserved for the wealthy.

I got one as well from the FCC when I was a Novice.  I was using a 80/40 dipole.  I was on 80M and also radiating enough of a signal outside of the 40M Ham band to be heard by the FCC.  I then went back to just an 80M dipole and the problem was eliminated.  

I did get another pink slip when I upgraded to General while operating on 75M AM phone.  I was maybe 14 years old at the time and forgot to ID at one of the 10 minute intervals.  They FCC visited my station and took all my logs books to compare them with the tape recordings they were making in the FCC Van just down the road.  Several months later they sent all the log books back and said my logs were very accurate.  I had to send them a letter telling them why I exceeded the 10 minute ID interval and how I was going to keep it from happening again.  I told them my egg timer was found to be inaccurate and with my after school work money I would purchase another egg timer and check its accuracy before operating back on the air.  That was the end of it....While they were there they inspected the station and suggest that my HV wiring be more secured in the back of the rack.  During that time in the 60's a lot of music was being played on 75M and I think the real reason of the extensive monitoring was to see if I was playing music on the air.  That was about the same time frame that Bill, W3DUQ lost his license for playing music!    

Joe, W3GMS      

I once received an FCC notice as a novice for having an audible 2nd harmonic.  It was an advisory notice that  didn't require a response, as I remember. I built up a multi-section low-pass filter for 80m as described in a CQ or QST article and never got another one. Evidently the single parallel tuned tank circuit with tight link coupling directly to a 72-ohm twin lead feeder to a dipole and no additional tuner didn't have enough selectivity to completely suppress the harmonic.

Once while operating from Cambridge, MA, I got a major pink ticket from the Belfast ME monitoring station for going 12 minutes between IDs. They included a verbatim transcript of my entire transmission, which consisted of a hard-core rant pertaining to a highly controversial topic, transmitted on 75m AM in the middle of the day on a weekend.  I suspect it was more an effort to remind me that Big Brother was listening, than any real concern about the extra 2 minutes I went between IDs.

It must be the right of passage for a real ham, getting a Novice pink ticket.   For my harmonic radiation, they required a response.    Being 13 years old I had no idea how to respond.    My ham mentor (before they were called elmers) said I ought to have a low-pass filter.   I went and bought a
TVI low-pass filter probably cutting off above 30 MHz.    Little did I know, I installed it and replied to the FCC.   I went on operating thinking that the filter would take care of the problem, luckily I never heard from them again, but I am sure the 20M harmonics were still there.

That must have been the honorable venerable laudable members of the most noble CTT.   

same here--27.125  35 mw.

I got two notices from FCC, one in Powder Springs GA and the other in Kingsville TX.  These were both around 35 years ago but I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday.   But they were when I was a General or Advanced and one when I was brand new Extra.   the first one was the 80 m. 2nd harmonic and that was a warning.   I made a L network and that took care of that.  (I have heard of guys running BC610s on 160 with no low pass filter; just the link to the antenna and having a hell of a 80 m. harmonic.)  The second one was an ONV for illegally operating in the Extra class subband on 40 m. so I sent them a copy of my license and they cancelled the notice and apologized.   I still have all those notices, all my old licenses and everything in a file here.     

When a bunch of us from our HS club went down to the FCC in St. Paul to take our general tests, one of the guys (WD0DWK) had laminated his novice license to a nice piece of walnut, about 2' long, with shellac.  That caused a lot of consternation and head-shaking from the FCC staff and the other guys waiting to take their exams, but they eventually concluded they'd have to accept it.  Mike and I both passed our Advanced exams at that session, and both of us were glad to leave our Novice days behind. 

I never had a CW contact after that, there being plenty of DX to be made with a barefoot HT-32 and a crappy dipole back in the late 70s  ;D

Was all I was able to do to squeak thru at five words per minute! Glad I won’t have to do that again. Had a Novice license for about three months back in 78 long enough to go and sit for the Technician license at the FCC in Baltimore. Spent many years only using VHF and UHF, building repeaters, packet nodes and satellite junk. Then one day they told me “hay you can get your general if you passed 5 wpm as a tech” remember tech plus? So that’s how I upgraded to tech plus and then general but beyond that I am the Ham they warned you about hate CW, tried and tried but that part of my brain is just too small. So I am the low life “No code” Ham that is ruining the bands for the rest of you old timers. Being a Novice sucks, at least for me.
Ray F

N4MC has a section on his website that allows you to enter your call sign history.  Many people have entered their data and it is interesting.  Look for your call in his Unique Call Sign Search.

www.vanityhq.com

I used to operate a DX-100 on 11M legally ::)