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turning the 250 K poteniometer and timing it
with a watch. A pair of crystal earphones
can be clipped across the coil if it is desired
to hear the tone, or the tone by induction
into the telephone is another way to listen.
The telephone coil is generally on the right
side of the telephone as sho wn in the
photograph. The tran sformer can be moved
back and forth over the side of the phone
until a ma ximum coupling is noticed and the
transformer taped into place.
The circuit probably has other uses and
comments might be suggested, but for Our
purpose it has served for inserting a beep
into the telephone for recording. ...W6BLZ
(Continued f rom page 2)
of the bulging co unters full of 194 pots, 54
tubes (guaranteed to light, play), and 294
tuning conde nsers.
Sideband came next and finished off the
old sur plus gear that was still working and
most of the active amateurs made the move up
to a transceiver. ..commercially made. Lordy,
it would take a lab o f test equip me nt to get
o ne of those things working if you co uld
build it. Even the servicing problems were
getting beyond most of us by this time. How
ma ny fellows are going to go o ut and buy an
oscilloscope and the o ther choice test gear
needed to keep the modern transceiver working
smoothly if they are going to use it only
for an occasional service job? Virtually none,
that's who.
This leaves us in the lousy position of not
building o ur own equipment and not even
being able to service it. Ham radio has come
a long way. The old timers lament for the
good old days, but no matter how loud their
laments, they are buying just like the rest ~ f
us. Can anyt hing be done about It? I don t
know! Does anything have to be done? Has
a mateur radio changed so much that it is no
longer worth keeping going?
What are the requirements for keeping
a mateur radio alive in o ur coun try? Let's
take a look at the FCC regulations and see
ho w we stack up these days as far as the
purposes of the amateur radio " service" are
concerned.
SUBPART A-GENERAL
97.1 Basis and purpose.
The rules and regulations in th i ~ part ~e
designed to provide an amateur radio service
having a fundamental purpose as expressed
in the following principles:
(a) Recognition and enha ncement of the
value of th e ama teur service to th e public as
a voluntary non-eommercial c o m m u n i~ t i.o n
service, particularly with respect to providing
MAY 1969
emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the
amateur's proven ability to contribute to the
advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement.of
the ama teur radio service through rules which
provide for advancing skills in both the communication
and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir
within the amateur radio service of trained
operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Co ntinuation and extension of the
amateur's unique ability to enhance international
good will.
The first , and presumably most important,
function is (a) to provide emergency communications.
[think we can do this all okay.
There's nothing about building there., For
that matter. o ur commercial transceivers are
vastly superior to home made equipment o n
several counts...easier to use..Jess down time
...anyone can use it...compact, etc. Old timers
will tell you stories abo ut the olden Field
Days when fellows tried to tune and use someone
else's rig and the troubles they had. My
six-foot rack has been replaced by two small
desk top boxes. And with about o ne amateur
for every 800 people in the country we can
provide emergency communications just a­
bout anywhere anytime. I think we should
get a good high mark o n (a).
Co nsidering (b), it is difficult, of course,
for even the above average amateur to try
to compete with the well financed research
laboratory for most development work. We
can still co mpete with them when it comes to
major break-throughs. Labs cannot possibly
afford to spend a lot of money o n somet hing
that does not have virtually a 100% chance
of succeeding. We can. Fellows like Frank
Jones, Bill Hoisington, Sam Harris, Bill Ashby
and many others are doing work that is invaluable
to o ur society...work that few labs
would ever support. It is too bad that there
are so few really o utstanding men like this.
but then, even in the past, there were o nly a
small handful that made real contributions. I
suspect that amateur radio is as valuable as it
ever was in this respect.
(c) is very interesting. Verrry. Obviously ,
our incentive licensing rule changes reflect
this aspect of the purposes of amateur radio.
But have o ur rules really kept up with the
technical end of things? Let us take another
look back into our past at this time.
The first amateurs used the Morse Code for
communications. It was considered difficult,
at best, t o modulate a spark transmitter, so
code was the answer. Then came CW and the
invention of the modulator, giving us AM . In
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