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Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
503
Location
Southern California
Remember when a lot of us sent in for SWL call signs? Popular Electric magazine gave out swl call letters. All for fun. I had a WDX6HWO. Early signs were WPE.
Also other clubs came up with different calls.
Anyone remember?
Approximately 50s to Early 70s.
By the way, you don't have to show age.HI HI.

DW
So. Cal

(WDX6HWO)
 

MiCon

Mike
Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
138
Location
central AZ
WDX2MC. New Jersey, early 1970's.

Officially, it meant nothing, but I had QSL cards made up and sent them as reception confirmation to Hams and International broadcast stations around the globe.
 

mass-man

trying to retire...
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
1,905
Location
Parker Co., TX
Hmmm...didn't have a SWL call! But did print reception QSL cards with a map of my location, so a quick glance by whomever got the card know right where their signals were being heard. I was lamenting to a co-worker just this week of the loss of SW broadcast stations.
 

Alain

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
358
Location
San Diego, California
WDX2MC. New Jersey, early 1970's.

Officially, it meant nothing, but I had QSL cards made up and sent them as reception confirmation to Hams and International broadcast stations around the globe.
Another 'Jersy-ite here! WPE2OLR.

I graduated grammar school in June, 1963. As a graduation gift, I received a Lafayette HA-230 general coverage radio. Don't recall how much it cost my folks, but I was partner in buying it. My folks wanted to teach me the value of good grades and hard work. So, $.75 of my weekly allowance went to paying down the cost. About 3/4's of the way to "paid in full", my folks, God Bless them both, felt that I had learned what I needed to learn and my full $1.00 allowance was restored.

However, my call sign did not come from Popular Electronics, it came from my hometown newspaper, the Newark Evening News.

It was the evening paper [Star-Ledger was the morning edition]. It was a load of fun listening to the radio that glowed in the dark! Kept my very small room [couldn't have been more than 6' X 10'] warm in the cold Newark winters. Used to listen to the hams on 160 meter AM; sometimes, all the way from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Here is one link that I found for the NNRC.

 

MiCon

Mike
Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
138
Location
central AZ
Another 'Jersy-ite here! WPE2OLR.

I graduated grammar school in June, 1963. As a graduation gift, I received a Lafayette HA-230 general coverage radio. Don't recall how much it cost my folks, but I was partner in buying it. My folks wanted to teach me the value of good grades and hard work. So, $.75 of my weekly allowance went to paying down the cost. About 3/4's of the way to "paid in full", my folks, God Bless them both, felt that I had learned what I needed to learn and my full $1.00 allowance was restored.
Same here. Graduated eighth grade 1963. And the $1 a week allowance sounds about right. Sometime during HS my parents bought me a Knight Kit HF receiver. Between girlfriends and home work, I think it took me about a month to build it.
I still have my log book. The first entry was Nov 1, 1965. Apparently I just logged Hams in the 20, 40, and 75 meter bands for the first couple of years. In April 1967 I started logging Int'l Broadcast stations. It appears my most active year was 1972, and I logged far more countries than I remember. And it seems I got the bug again in 1992, as the log book shows many pages of stations heard. Thank goodness for keeping stuff like this log book. Great memories.
 

merlin

Active Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2003
Messages
3,058
Location
DN32su
Another 'Jersy-ite here! WPE2OLR.

I graduated grammar school in June, 1963. As a graduation gift, I received a Lafayette HA-230 general coverage radio. Don't recall how much it cost my folks, but I was partner in buying it. My folks wanted to teach me the value of good grades and hard work. So, $.75 of my weekly allowance went to paying down the cost. About 3/4's of the way to "paid in full", my folks, God Bless them both, felt that I had learned what I needed to learn and my full $1.00 allowance was restored.

However, my call sign did not come from Popular Electronics, it came from my hometown newspaper, the Newark Evening News.

It was the evening paper [Star-Ledger was the morning edition]. It was a load of fun listening to the radio that glowed in the dark! Kept my very small room [couldn't have been more than 6' X 10'] warm in the cold Newark winters. Used to listen to the hams on 160 meter AM; sometimes, all the way from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Here is one link that I found for the NNRC.

I never got an allowance, I rebuilt bicycles to fund a Hammerlund I used a number of years.
 

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ve3id

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Messages
13
Location
Toronto, ON
Remember when a lot of us sent in for SWL call signs? Popular Electric magazine gave out swl call letters. All for fun. I had a WDX6HWO. Early signs were WPE.
Also other clubs came up with different calls.
Anyone remember?
Approximately 50s to Early 70s.
By the way, you don't have to show age.HI HI.

DW
So. Cal

(WDX6HWO)
The International Short-Wave League issued listener calls too, they were the country identifier and a number. I was G-13887 back in the 60's
 

kk9h

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 4, 2006
Messages
73
Location
Northfield, IL
I was WPE9IGS in the early 1960s using a Knightkit Star Roamer that I had built. I still have both the framed “Short-Wave Monitor” certificate and the Star Roamer. I especially loved listening to the various shortwave DX listener programs that many stations had. Radio Havana had one of the best ones as did HCJB in Quito, Ecuador.
 
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