Needs to be updated ...
Heathkit HW-8 Modifications (text only)
A biographical note: before getting interested in amateur radio,
I was an SWL and tinkered with electronics. I taught myself ham
theory and morse code, then hesitated to test for the license
until I got the desire and the funds to assemble a transmitter.
My novice callsign was WD0HHQ; that first rig was a Heathkit
HW-8, which I still own. Two watts and an attic dipole netted
only four contacts before I finished my next project, a
tube amplifier
running 50 watts input. With the boots on, relaxed
ragchews were possible on the then popular novice bands, provided
the woodpecker wasn't right on top of us, and code speed soon
improved enough to upgrade. As KB0BF I was active on 15 and 40
meters, 50 watts of straight key CW. After shopping for a better
receiver, I acquired a used Argonaut 509, currently my main rig.
My HF activity ended when I moved away to college, and the gear
went in storage. The college radio club had 2 meter all-mode gear,
but I never heard any weak signal activity or any civilized talk
during many hours of tuning the band. I lost interest and let
my license lapse for more than a decade. The tube rig was too
bulky to keep in the house. Several moves
later, I noted that my shortwave receiver worked well at home and
nobody had a problem with a wire antenna, so I relicensed as KO6KA
and set up my HF station again. At that location, with outdoor
antennas, my barefoot QRP rigs got out as well or better than
my old 50 watt station. And my hard-drinking, gun-toting neighbor
experienced no TVI, which was a relief. Although I don't consider
myself a part of the QRP movement, I elected to keep running very
low power.
More recently, I've tried VHF FM from Colorado's mountain tops
with success. I would like to build some UHF sideband gear and
have a couple of the KK7B kits brewing.
73, WD0HHQ
