Mike's Ham Page

(Click here for the Phil Gildersleeve Art Gallery)

Welcome to my ham page. I use and enjoy all modes but am primarily a CW operator and happy to have earned awards DXCC CW #12,029, WAS CW #52,955, and WAC CW, all earned with 100 W / dipole. The irony, a CW op named Mike!

Not a ham? If you happened across this page by chance and are not a ham, you can learn more by surfing on over to the American Radio Relay League, of which I am a Life Member and whose link is below. Ham radio is a fun hobby with many enjoyable aspects to it. There truly is something for everyone.

Ham and CW op? Join an NTS net! Sure, you've been at cw for decades and hear the washing machine seemingly squeak and groan in CW after a contest, but traffic nets need a different kind of focus. Not quick, fixed exchanges, and not a ragchew where it's ok to drop a word here & there. It's business-like but friendly, because you hang out with the same group. You meet new people likely to become longtime friends, hone your cw so that not a single letter is miscopied, and you even become part of a system that might help the community someday. Sure, the last is less and less likely in this day and age, but you never know. It is for sure, however, a skill from down the decades that connects you with the very best operators in a century of ham radio. See the MSN link below.

Historical CW and Radio Training

Bell Labs

• Similarities of Wave Behavior

Some US military Morse code, training, and historical radio films on YouTube:

• US Navy Training - Technique Of Hand Sending Morse Code (1944)
• US Army Training - TF11 3419 Basic Amplifiers (1953)
• Signals Training - TF11 3697 International Morse Code (1956)
• Morse Code Part Two - Principles and Basic Techniques, US Army Signal (1966)
• Crystals Go To War (1943)

Historical radio films:

• Largest Radio Transmitter Is Dedicated 1953-11-18 Universal Newsreel
• Sending Radio Messages, 1943
• David Sarnoff (1891-1971)
• Radio and Televis ion 1940 Vocational Guidance Films
• Vacuum Tubes (Valves): "Electronics at Work" 1943 Westinghouse

AT&T Archives

• AT&T Archives

Bob W3NE Reminiscences of Philadelphia Area Radio

• Bob's articles for The Blurb

Here are a more or less random assortment of links related to my hamming activities. Always feel free to email me.

I enjoy old cartoons and advertisements for ham radio, especially from about the 40s through 70s. On the left, I isolate a Heathkit drawing from the manual cover. To the right is simply a digitally cleaned up Heathkit ad. The bottom ad is from QST June 1957. If you have high resolution scans, I'm happy to work on them as time allows.

Worthwhile Organizations

International Amateur Radio Union	American Radio Relay League	Maryland Slow Net NTS Traffic Net
Straight Key Century Club Dayton 20 11 Photo	North American QRP CW Club

Ham Things

AB3AP shack	My Elecraft Software, written in Java.	My Rockmite, a neat little QRP rig.
My QSL Card	Mobile APRS set up	Lionel Bug Revival Ca. WW-II
Cake Pan Transmitter	CW Key Switch Project	1972 ARRL CW Operating Manual
Ft. Monmouth MARS/ARS shack	Contemplating ARRL Life Membership?	Random Wire Calculations
Bayou Jumper QRP Rig	Ameco AC-1T Clone

Music

The German band Kraftwerk sang for Expo 2000, "Mensch Natur Technik" ("Man Nature Technology"), which I translate into ham-speak as "Operator Atmosphere Radio," though it's not as musical. :-) Fun music for any ham. Check out the CW in their "Radioactivity" tune.