Back in 1961/62, when I first got interested in shortwave listening, a friend of mine and I had an intercom across our back gardens with a long piece of twin flex and a couple of DLR5 headsets. Now my friend's dad was a bank manager and he was "rich". Paul's dad bought him a
Perdio 102 multiband receiver which made me green with envy! So, late at night, under the bedclothes, we'd both share listening on the Perdio102: Paul would put it to listen on 2.182MHz (the trawler band calling frequency) and we'd often hear an emergency and the local lifeboat being called out. We'd listen for hours. On this same receiver I recall being amazed at hearing South America hams on AM. We both became hooked and not many years later got our licences. See also the radio museum pages at
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/perdio_multiband_102.html
My SWLing was mid-1950's vintage. The receiver was a Hallicrafters S-38C with a length of wire thrown out the window. I was 15 years old at the time. So many great international BC stations. I first heard The Goon Show on the BBC SW service. It converted me to Brit-style comedy forever. Sharing a bedroom with my kid brother, earphones were required during late-night listening. A wall with dozens of QSL cards. When I did my military tour (USAF AACS radioman), my mom removed the cards and painted the bedroom. Cruel but I forgave her...eventually.
ReplyDeleteGlad I had that SWLing opportunity. Is no more.