Like it's 1978

Cleaning the garage, I found this photo of me in my radio shack in 1978.

It was strictly a VHF and UHF operation back then. On the desk was a Gonset Communicator 2-meter AM transceiver (that I have no recollection of owning!), a Motorola UHF commercial transceiver converted for 450 MHz FM and an ICOM IC-230 2-meter FM mobile transceiver (under the antenna rotor control box).

On the shelf was a Wilson 2-meter handheld that was responsible for kicking off my ham radio writing career. I added the Touch-Tone pad to the Wilson and wrote a how-to article that Wayne Green, W2NSD, published in 73 Magazine.

Next to my knee was a Gonset 2-meter 500-watt amplifier. My fledgling beer can collection was on the shelf behind the Wilson.

I still own the Heathkit SWR/power meter and the table under the amp. Everything else is long gone. (Wish I still owned the amp!)

Handie History

Until I saw this 1944 Motorola advertisement, I had no idea that "Handie Talkie" goes back to World War II.

"The first radio receiver/transmitter to be widely nicknamed 'Walkie-Talkie' was the backpacked Motorola SCR-300, created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin Manufacturing Company (fore-runner of Motorola). The team consisted of Dan Noble, who conceived of the design using frequency modulation, Henryk Magnuski who was the principal RF engineer, Marion Bond, Lloyd Morris, and Bill Vogel.

"Motorola also produced the hand-held AM SCR-536 radio during World War II, and it was called the 'Handie-Talkie' (HT). The terms are often confused today, but the original walkie talkie referred to the back mounted model, while the handie talkie was the device which could be held entirely in the hand (but had vastly reduced performance). Both devices ran on vacuum tubes and used high voltage dry cell batteries. (Handie-Talkie became a trademark of Motorola, Inc. on May 22, 1951)." (Source: Wikipedia)

The name Henryk Magnuski, principal RF engineer of the walkie talkie, rang a bell. One of the packet radio pioneers was Hank Magnuski, KA6M; in 1980, his callsign was used for the first packet radio digipeater in the USA, KA6M/R in the San Francisco Bay area.

And it tuns out that Henryk Magnuski is Hank Magnuski's father!