HAM RADIO DEVELOPMENT

The hobby of Ham Radio began early in the development of radio communications at the beginning of the twentieth century. Even to day the hobby continues to gain interest and increasing number of members. The ability to be able to communicate with many other operators around the world has made the hobby interesting.

In the early days communications were made in the form of Morse code and required the learning of International Morse Code to be able to use the hobby. To many this was a challenge but not as difficult as originally thought. Anyone interested in the hobby may get in touch with an existing Ham Radio Operator who will be willing to provide assistance. Many of the licensed Ham Radio operators are anxious to contribute to the education of prospective radio operators. Presently, it is not required to learn Morse code to get your first operational license. Only the completion of a test which is readily learned with minimum effort.

Ham Radio is a hobby that has been one area that has been instrumental in the development of communications for our world. The hobby is responsible for many of the developments in communication equipment. I have been involved in Ham Radio from the early 1950′s. I was first licensed in 1951. One of the most rewarding features of the hobby is the ability to talk to other Ham operators around the world. Radio equipment for the Ham has made drastic improvement in the last sixty years.

Radio equipment in the 1950′s was powered by vacuum tubes. This was years before the transistor and solid state circuits were developed for commercial use. In the early days surplus WWII communication equipment was used by the Ham for his hobby. The old faithful transmitter was the ART-13 developed for Aircraft, Vehicle and Base Station use during the war.

My first experience with radio was in the early 1951 while I was in service. After basic training I attended basic electronic training and the first radio set I became familiar with was the ART-13 Transmitter and the BC-348 receiver. These were used during WWII and installed in Aircraft, Ships, and base stations. During my training the two items were installed in a WWII torpedo bomber, TBM.

One of the major improvements of the ART-13 is the ability to pre-tune several different frequencies into the unit. This provided the radio operator to select his operation frequency with a simply twist of one multi position switch.

All these frequencies were pre selected and tuned by the electronic technician before takeoff of the aircraft. This was a major improvement of service for the radio operator, especially when he was required to change channel of frequency operation during combat operations. The squadron has several channels to operate on to communicate between aircraft and base stations.

The receiver, BC-348 could easily be tuned to the operating frequency by simply keying the ART-13 Transmitter and tune the receiver to this frequency. Although the transmitter produced only 100 watts it was a very effective in communication over short range or long distance. During normal conditions you can communicate with stations thousands of miles away.

High Frequency Radio Transmitter in WWII