How it all begunAt the end of the 20ties, broadcasting came to my home town and a transmitter for 725 metres wavelength was built with two high masts supporting the antenna. Everybody began to build small xtal receivers after blueprints in magazines like Veckojournalen and Allers. A piece of cardboard was cut and two coils winded and arranged movable to each other. A needle poking at the xtal was tried in different positions to detect the waves of the eter into sounds. A long wire out through the window to the top of a fur tree brought Stockholm and "Farbror Sven" (the reporter) in to the listeners, at first through 2000 ohm earphones, later blarring loudspeakers pumped the sound out over the living room.
Building my own radioI soon got tired of listening to "farbror Sven and Co," and tried to find other stations. With the xtal it was impossible, but I got some ideas about electronic tubes through advertisements in Newspapers and Radio Magazines. One day I saw a VADA reciever at one of my fathers friends. Three tubes gleamed on the top of the set, and there was a lot of knobs and dials on the incleaned front panel. Short,- medium- and long waves were indicated, and I easily got in Kalundborg in Denmark and Königswusterhausen in Germany.I built my first one tube set of a kit from Clas Ohlson Insjön. The tube was Philip's A 415, which I earned through running errands at local radio dealer, filament current source was a scrap car battery with only two cells functioning (enough to give 4 volt), and as 90 volt anode battery served 20 4,5 volt lamp batteries solded together in series. I needed also a transmitter, and as I had heard the shipping trade using spark transmitters, I arranged a spark gap with help of an old T-Ford inductor and keyed in the primary circuit with a 1,5 volt telephone battery. We had fairly good connections within the area until the landlord entered the scene, red in the face, insisting to have a talk with my father. For some reason or other I got interested in very high frequenses, I think I was impressed by the very compact design of the VHF devices. I saw daily the army unit of my little hometown drilling with clumsy contraptions: either 1 W Radio m/30 portable (by two men) or, 30 W Radio moveable (horsedrawn or transported by pack horses). The Hammarlund 1937 Short Wave Manual had a series of articles about compact receivers and there was an article in Populär Radio 1936 about a tranceiver for 112 MHz. I decided to build one. The valves were a Valvo triode L 414 as oscillator/detector and a Philips B 443 as amplifier. Me and a schoolmate built one device each, and with some assistance of the teatcher of physics, we succeded in bringing the two units into resonance. The year was 1939.
|
|
|
|
To the left the author with a 4 tube BC super set, in the middle with a 112 MHz VHF transceiver and to the right with the dog Bill and a surplus unit ½ watt Br m/40 P for 56 MHz.
Once a signaller - signalman foreverI joined the Royal Signal Regiment, was for a period telephone operator, became soon radiotruck mechanic and left eventually the regiment as engine engineer for an Artillery Regiment in north Sweden. During a stay at Linköping in 1948, I got my first certificate and operated mostly on 56 MHz with a surplus device called ½ W Br m/40 P, and I had skeds with Swedish hams (SM5FH, SM5KB and SM5MN) in the surroundings and Italian stations on the continent. My first signal was SM5AOJ. Later I got an SCR 522 radio set from a grounded Liberator, which I converted after all hints and kinks in QST and Wireless World. Then I was moved to the North and became both SM2 and SM3 before I returned to SM5 and joined an American oil company. And here ended my first attempt becoming a real Ham.
Tribology and trainsA civilized life with a lot of travelling around the world begun. There was not much time left for hobbies like hamradio and I lost my licence. However, I came to study the phenomenon about friction and lubrication (tribology in greece), and took pleasure in applying my research on a small narrow gauge museal railway (ÖSlJ) between Läggesta och Mariefred, just south of Stockholm. Even this pleasure took too much time and I had to put it aside. But one day came the day of retirement and it was time to take up my hobbies. Unfortunately my wife was struck with Alzheimers disease, and I had to stay at home; trains was not to think of, I decided to wake up radio again. But it was easier said than done.
Finale - a new signalAn excange of notes with the formal authorities of the Royal Tele Board began. Soon I found that it was easier to pass a new examination and become a T-licence and a new signal, than to argue my old signal back. Said and done, I applied for a test - Ohms law had not changed since my school days - and soon I had new licencee and register a new signal: SM0PRY, than waiting for reclaiming the old one!After that it should be easily done with the B-licence (I had before) and a CW permit, I thought. But Destiny had other plans, it took more than five years before I had my CEPT 1 licence.
Your comments are welcome! Please use the mailbox on the
start page
|