- Joined
- Jun 13, 2018
- Messages
- 869
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The following is for educational and historic purposes only. It's not an endorsement to engage in any possibly suggested behavior, although if you do decide to try the part about sticking beans up your nose let me how that turns out
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BOOT-LEGGING
Awhile ago I had an interesting conversation with a new amateur about a subject I haven't heard mentioned in years.
Boot legging
Cleve/W5CEM "Mass-Man's" ** posting brought a conversation to mind- that of the lost (?) fine art of radio ham's 'boot legging.' For those who don't know what I am talking about, "boot legging" is as old as radio- its the use of a fictitious, or 'borrowd' callsign, usually by unlicensed persons. My grandfather, who was my font of hamming-day histories, would tell me tales of the 1930's onward - and he told me this was quite a common practice. In those early golden days everyone used CW; there were no computer data banks for instant license verification; it was easy to stay anonymous-- and many hams got their unofficial starts this way.
I have all the old radio journals my great aunt kept-- her 'logbooks' of sorts, for she was a 'telegrapher' for the Marconic Wireless Telegraph Company. In addition to her company logs, she kept studious private notebooks, written in a beautiful Spencerian hand of all sorts of things wireless--- callsigns, wavelengths, the adjustments settings of her rotary spark, and later Poulsen arc converter transmitters...... and on and on. There is even a short entry about some conversations she had with other operators over what transpired on the night of 12 April 1912 (though she wasn't on the air that evening.)
"CJ" at 18
What is interesting is her side notes about the "QSO"s" she had unofficially with the other Marconi girls. They would use their initals (she was"CJ") as their callsigns, and when traffic was light, they'd switch wavelengths and 'rag chew,' often at length. The company frowned on this practices, but ace 'brass pounders' like these women*** came at premium, so the honcho's look the other way.
She continued to use her initials as her self assigned call for the remainder of the spark era- and as far as I can determine, she never held any official license, ham or otherwise.
Next--- Ham's Boot Legging during the Second World War--maybe
Lauri
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**Modes For Ham Bands Question, Please
post #7
*** It was said she could copy 40+ wpm in her head while holding a normal conversation
.
The following is for educational and historic purposes only. It's not an endorsement to engage in any possibly suggested behavior, although if you do decide to try the part about sticking beans up your nose let me how that turns out
.________________________________________________________________________________________
BOOT-LEGGING
Awhile ago I had an interesting conversation with a new amateur about a subject I haven't heard mentioned in years.
Boot legging
Cleve/W5CEM "Mass-Man's" ** posting brought a conversation to mind- that of the lost (?) fine art of radio ham's 'boot legging.' For those who don't know what I am talking about, "boot legging" is as old as radio- its the use of a fictitious, or 'borrowd' callsign, usually by unlicensed persons. My grandfather, who was my font of hamming-day histories, would tell me tales of the 1930's onward - and he told me this was quite a common practice. In those early golden days everyone used CW; there were no computer data banks for instant license verification; it was easy to stay anonymous-- and many hams got their unofficial starts this way.
I have all the old radio journals my great aunt kept-- her 'logbooks' of sorts, for she was a 'telegrapher' for the Marconic Wireless Telegraph Company. In addition to her company logs, she kept studious private notebooks, written in a beautiful Spencerian hand of all sorts of things wireless--- callsigns, wavelengths, the adjustments settings of her rotary spark, and later Poulsen arc converter transmitters...... and on and on. There is even a short entry about some conversations she had with other operators over what transpired on the night of 12 April 1912 (though she wasn't on the air that evening.)
"CJ" at 18
What is interesting is her side notes about the "QSO"s" she had unofficially with the other Marconi girls. They would use their initals (she was"CJ") as their callsigns, and when traffic was light, they'd switch wavelengths and 'rag chew,' often at length. The company frowned on this practices, but ace 'brass pounders' like these women*** came at premium, so the honcho's look the other way.
She continued to use her initials as her self assigned call for the remainder of the spark era- and as far as I can determine, she never held any official license, ham or otherwise.
Next--- Ham's Boot Legging during the Second World War--maybe
Lauri
______________________________________________________________
**Modes For Ham Bands Question, Please
post #7
*** It was said she could copy 40+ wpm in her head while holding a normal conversation
.
