I Finally Got It

[Mike K]

I got into ham radio because I had a 19 set and a few other military sets that I wanted to use on air . I got a novice call in 1984 .......My first QSO , I fired up the 122 set late one night and had a AM contact with two old timers on 3.580 khz ..... my signal was very weak so I changed over to CW and they managed to copy all of my CW . In those days there were many ex servicemen from WW2 on the air , they would usually be delighted as I told them about the set I was using .

I actually never got around to using a 19 set on the air , I thought it was rather bad form , in those days the bands were very busy and a 19 set would have been a disaster causing QRM to others .

I liked the xtal locked sets as you could always be on freq.

One chap I recall was a wireless operator on the HMAS Nizam , I met him in person and he told me of his harrowing experiences , his ship was supplying besieged Tobruk at night time , he said the harbour was littered with sunken ships . He said he had nightmares for years after the war .

Another chap was a wireless op in DC3's in New Guinea, he said his mate took off in a DC3 and he watched it crash into a hillside .

I also used a coastwatchers set for a while ,a 3BZ , it worked very well on AM .

Before I had a call, I used to listen to the Morse practice sessions , the novice pass speed was 5 wpm .

Listening to the SW bands was fun, I sometimes could hear ships in Bass Strait communicating with Cape Shank in Morse .