Back home in Letohatchie -- My first Amateur Radio Station
The next thing I did was to begin construction of my first amateur radio station. I was very lucky, because my family had electricity in the home, without which my amateur radio station would have been impossible. The tools and other things that I had bought from the departing radio operator in Selma stood me in good stead.
My first Amateur Radio Station. - The National SW-3 receiver and operating table.
The above photo, taken about late November 1938, shows my SW-3 receiver on the operating table. The transmitter is on a shelf above the receiver. As can be seen, there is no microphone on the table as only telegraphy was used. I couldn’t use the speaker that Ed Montgomery had given me at Greenville because the SW-3 didn’t have sufficient audio power to drive a speaker. Later, I would build an audio amplifier.
To the right of the receiver is my solid brass hand key, and next to it is my treasured Mac bug, both of which I still have. Two switches can be seen on the table beside the bug. The left one switched the heater power to the transmitter tubes, and the other switched the high voltage power supply for the transmitter plate circuits.
The top of the transmitter power supply is visible on the right hand side of the table. It was built entirely from junk parts, and was capable of supplying much more power than needed for the one-tube transmitter. There was not much safety, as the power supply high voltage was across the exposed terminals of the capacitor shown just to the right of the right-hand switch. I would be able to use the power supply later when I upgraded my transmitter. About the only things that I had to buy were batteries to supply the filament and plate requirements of the old National SW-3 receiver. I sat at this operating table for many hours, often far into the night, enjoying ham radio operating at its best. Among the first contacts I made were some of the C.C.C. operators with whom I had worked and who were hams. I also made a number of new friends who enjoyed CW (code). I don't think I've ever heard CW signals that sounded better than those received on that old SW-3 regenerative receiver.
My First Amateur Radio Station -- The one-tube transmitter.
The above photo, taken about November 1938, shows my first transmitter, which rested on a shelf above the operating table shown in the previous photo. It is contained in a case from an early radio that someone gave me. The round holes above the dials were originally for looking in to see if the filaments of the tubes were glowing. For my usage, I removed the top of the case to provide adequate ventilation.
The transmitter was built bread-board style on the bottom of the cabinet. It used a single type 6L6G tube in a tri-tet crystal controlled oscillator that had an output between 10 and 15 watts. That was ample power for plenty of contacts, both foreign and domestic. I had only one crystal, an 80-meter crystal to which frequency the grid circuit was tuned (right hand dial). The plate circuit could be tuned (left hand knob) to either the 80-meter frequency, or the second harmonic on 40 meters. Plug-in coils provided band switching for the plate circuit. Contrary to convention, I have always designed my equipment with the output on the left so that when the chassis was flipped over, end for end, for construction or repair, the dials would be in front and the stages would be in the same order, left to right, as they are in conventional circuit diagrams.
The antenna was an “off-center Hertz”, now known as a “Windom”, that was a single wire cut to be a half wave length long on the 80 meter band. The single wire feeder connection was made at a point 1/3 of the way from one end of the antenna, which is a compromise that made the antenna system work equally well on both the 80 and 40-meter bands. That connection point gave a low standing wave on the feeder.
I had no insulators for the antenna, so I used two Coke bottles of the old type that curved in near the bottom. The antenna wire was tied to the cap end, and the supporting rope was tied near the bottom. The cotton rope was waterproofed by rubbing it with bee’s wax.
The meters had already been salvaged from the junk at Ft. Benning, so I didn't have any meters. Without the funds to purchase a meter, I had to build, test and operate the equipment without the benefit of any kind of meter. The only measuring devices that I had are the two simple ones shown in the photo. On the wall, near the left top corner of the transmitter, can be seen an oval object hanging on a nail. It is actually several turns of hook-up wire connected to a small dial-light bulb. It could be held near the plate coil when tuning and would glow more brightly at resonance.
On the front panel of the transmitter just to the right of the left hand dial can be seen another small dial-light bulb. The antenna feeder wire comes through the front panel and connects to the bulb at the right terminal of the bulb socket, and the feeder wire can be seen connected to the left terminal, so that the feeder current would flow through the bulb filament. The dial at the left is for a capacitor that controls the coupling of the feeder to the transmitter output. At maximum power output, the bulb would glow at an almost normal brilliance. Another crude measuring device was that I could tune the plate circuit to resonance by observing the bluish glow of the type 83 mercury vapor rectifier. That also gave an indication of the amount of current being drawn. Not shown above the transmitter was a blade switch that allowed switching the antenna between the receiver and transmitter. It was a little inconvenient, but no real hardship. On the wall can be seen some of the QSL cards of my C.C.C. buddies: W5GOH - Thurston Lee, W4EUO - Noel Vaughan, W4FEN - Leroy Littleton.
School work was very easy, but I felt strange being with students so much younger than I was. When I finished the 12th grade with good grades, I had fully expected to graduate. However, just before graduation time, after I had participated in the graduation rehearsals, the principal, Mr. W. T. Porter, called me into his office and told me that since I had never attended the second half of the 11th grade, I could not be given a diploma. That unexpected news made my mother so angry that she went to the County Courthouse in Hayneville, and talked with the County Superintendent of Education. She argued that she had been told that I could skip the last half of the 11th grade and I had been allowed to attend the 12th grade. Now, she argued, they were going back on their word, even though I had made excellent grades in the 12th grade. However, her arguments didn't prevail, and she later told me that she had gone outside and had sat on the courthouse steps and cried. She feared that even after so much effort, I might never get my high school diploma.
I was unemployed for several months, but then decided to reenter the C.C.C., as I was legally allowed to serve for a total of two years. My plan was to complete my C.C.C. service and then go back home to finish the last half of the 11th grade so that I could receive my high school diploma.
Back in the C.C.C. at Ft McClellan, Alabama
On a Thursday, Oct. 5, 1939, after being accepted in Montgomery, I boarded a truck with several other men headed for C.C.C. Company 4488 in Ashville, Alabama, northeast of Montgomery. While traveling to Ashland, I had worried that the Ashland camp might be in a district that had no radio net, and I might have to plant trees and dig ditches instead of being a radio operator. However, when the truck arrived at the camp I immediately spotted the radio antenna! The operator let me use his telegraph key to talk with the Signal Officer, Lt. Robert Lowery, W4DQW, at the District “D” Net Control Station in Ft. McClelland, Ala. He told me that he needed a Chief Operator and I copied a message from him to the camp C.O. informing him that an Army truck would come to get me the next morning. Since there was no C.C.C. camp at Ft. McClelland, I would remain a member of the Ashville camp, and would be assigned to the District Headquarters. What luck! After breakfast, I was issued my C.C.C. clothing. I had not dreamed that I would ever wear the C.C.C. uniform again, but I felt quite at home in it. I placed my civilian clothes in my foot locker, which I had brought with me, and waited for the truck to come and pick me up.
When I had left Montgomery, headed for Ashville, I hadn’t realized that I was traveling in a bee line toward a good job. Ft. McClellan was only 30 miles from Ashville, so in less than an hour after leaving Ashville I was at Fort McClellan. On the way, the truck driver, himself a C.C.C. man attached to District headquarters, told me that there had once been a C.C.C. Camp at Ft. McClellan. The buildings were still there, and one of them was being used to house a few C.C.C. men who were assigned to District Headquarters to serve in various capacities, mostly as truck drivers. This was the same housing situation that had existed when I was at Ft. Barrancas.
After finding a vacant bed, and having placed my foot locker at the end of it, I walked over to the nearby radio station and checked in. The station had a small staff, and there was no radio school at that time.
In addition to Lt. Robert Lowery, the District Signal Officer, there was a civilian clerk, Mr. Springmann, and a civilian radio technician, “Red” Clearman. Lt. Lowrey had built the radio net from scratch, and had set up a code school to teach enough operators to staff the stations. Some stations had two operators. While that was taking place, Red Clearman was building small transmitters for the camps. These small transmitters had been designed by Lt. Lowrey. The camps used Hallicrafters S20R Sky Champion receivers, exactly like the inexpensive receiver that I would buy later when working in Atlanta. For the Net Control Station, Red had also installed two larger commercial transmitters, in 6 foot racks, and two RME-69 receivers.
“DR” Parkman, a WW-I veteran, had been acting as Chief Operator. Everyone welcomed me warmly, and within minutes I was happily sending and receiving messages. It was hard for me to believe that just the day before I had eaten breakfast at home in Letohatchie, with no idea that things could possibly turn out so well, and so quickly. I was prepared for the worse, but this was the best the C.C.C. had to offer. The living situation here was very similar to what I had at Ft. Benning, as we ate in a nearby Army mess. We also had access to the Post Theater and the PX. Certainly, there was nothing to complain about.
There were actually two radio nets, and the Net Control Station had two receivers and two transmitters, but only one operating desk. Having two receivers made it possible to monitor one frequency while the other frequency was being used, so that emergency traffic would not have to wait. Each net had more than 6 stations. The Mississippi stations used 4305 kc/s, and the Net Control Station used the call WUNA when working them. I don’t recall the frequency used by the Alabama stations, but the call the Net Control Station used to work them was WUMA. The Net Control Station had very good equipment and I received some good technical and operating experience while there. To improve my copying ability, I copied “Press Wireless” nearly every night. Amateur radio was not possible as the transmitters and antennas were not compatible with radio amateur frequencies. What a pity!
While at Ft. McClellan, I again had access to some junk radio parts. I collected everything I would need to modify my SW-3 receiver to use cathode type (heater) tubes, and to build a voltage regulated power supply to replace the batteries previously used. Also collected were parts to build a much better transmitter. It was all used stuff, but I was able to get all of the needed tubes, plus some spare tubes that had plenty of life left in them. I also found two meters that could be used to measure plate currents in the driver and amplifier stages of the transmitter.
The Operating Desk - I am sending messages using a “bug” semi-automatic key at WUMA/WUNA, the Net Control Station at the District Headquarters at Ft. McClellan. There are two RME-69 receivers, one for the Alabama stations and the other for the Mississippi stations. The two transmitters can’t be seen as they are on the other side of the room, to my left.
After WW-II, while I was going to school in Auburn, I talked to Bob Lowrey, W4DQW, on amateur radio and we swapped war stories. He became a Colonel in the Signal Corps and had had a career in Radar. It turned out that we had a number of common friends, among them being Capt. Phillips, the Signal Officer at Ft. Barrancas and Ft. Benning, and Pappy Jones, the supervisor at WVR, Ft. McPherson, Ga., where I worked as a telegrapher in 1940/41. Pappy Jones was a well known radio amateur who wrote a monthly article named “Squinch Owl” for QST, the radio amateur magazine. Pappy had a good sense of humor, and called his always busy wife “Hurricanie”. Pappy wrote to me frequently during WW-II while I was in the U.K. After the war, he moved to California and died there. In a letter from Bob Lowrey dated 2/16/1983, he told me that Capt. Phillips had died several years before. The last letter received from Bob Lowery was in 1997, when he was 87 years old and not well. I wrote to him several times after that , but received no reply.
T
he field station at Quitman, Miss. Lt. Bob Lowrey at his desk at WUMA
All field stations in District D had the same equipment as at Quitman. The receiver was a Hallicrafters SX 20R receiver, and the small low power transmitter was built by our technician, Red Clearman. In 1940, after I began working at WVR in Atlanta, I bought a SX 20R receiver. I still have it in 2005, and it still works. It rests on a shelf to remind me of the good old days in amateur radio.
“DR” Parkman, 2nd Operator WUMA & “Red” Clearman, Technician
WUNA. DR was a WW-I veteran. Red always wore a coat and tie.
Home Again -- My 2nd Amateur Radio Station -- Graduation from High School!
Melvin and Mother had told me that they wanted me to return home and complete high school, so on March 31, 1940, I left the C.C.C. for the last time and went back home to attend the required second half of the 11th grade. I was then 20 years old, and felt like an old man among my much younger classmates. I still felt bitter about the treatment I had previously received from the Lowndes County school officials when I was not permitted to graduate after I had completed the 12th grade.
Within several weeks after I arrived at home I had finished building the new transmitter and the modified receiver, and was on the air again. This time I had the advantage of higher power, and was not “rock-bound” (crystal controlled), but could roam the bands with the variable frequency oscillator that I had built.
My second Amateur Radio Station - Built in early 1940
The above photo, taken in April 1940, shows the setup of my second amateur station. On the table can be seen the modified receiver, with my McElroy bug at the right, and at the left the speaker given me by Ed Montgomery when I was the radio operator in Greenville. Above the speaker is an audio amplifier built from an old junk radio that was given to me by someone in Letohatchie. The amplifier was used to drive the speaker when the phones were not being used. I had coils for the SW-3 receiver that covered the short wave bands, as well as the amateur bands, and I had some interesting short wave listening. That little radio really worked like a charm.
The transmitter is located on the top shelf to the right, with the power supplies below. At the right end of the transmitter can be seen the variable frequency oscillator (VFO) of the electron coupled type that used a type 6SK7 tube. The VFO had a high quality dial, and the operating frequency could be set quite accurately to any frequency in the amateur band using a calibration chart that I had constructed by asking amateurs who used crystal control to tell me their frequency.
I had designed, built, and tested the VFO section and had done additional work on the new transmitter while at Ft. McClellan where I had access to Red Clearman’s shop and tools. The VFO drove a type 6V6G buffer, which drove a pair of type 6L6G tubes in the final. The buffer and amplifier were biased to cutoff, and the VFO was keyed. Keying was excellent, and the monitor signal I heard while sending was good.
The transmitter power supply was the same as used with my first station, as it had been built with a larger transmitter in mind. Unlike my first station, my second one has two meters, shown mounted on the wall, that were also salvaged from the junk at Ft. McClellan. They indicated the buffer and final amplifier plate currents in the transmitter. The meters made tuning the transmitter much easier. A third meter had been used to build a much-needed current, voltage, and resistance tester. The output power was approximately 45 watts. Plug-in coils were used, and the station could be operated on the 80, 40 and 20-meter amateur bands, and the old Windom worked fine.
Left - My sister Anne, who is 2 ½ years younger than I am, graduated with me on May 20, 1940. I finally received my much delayed high school diploma. Mother used my box camera to take this photo at the corner of our home in Letohatchie.
Needing to find work as soon as possible, I tried to join the U.S. Army Air Force. I had been encouraged by some of the military radio operators that I knew at Maxwell Field, at Montgomery, and felt that with my experience I could get ahead quickly. However, the Army doctor rejected me for being underweight. I tried the Navy, and the Navy doctor rejected me because I had an irregular pulse. Hoping that there might be a need for civilian radio operators at WVR, the Army Signal Corps station at Ft. McPherson, in Atlanta, I wrote a letter describing my qualifications. I felt that to be a very long shot.
Left - Painting the back of the house. The screen window to my left was the back porch with the well. The board and batten wall on the right with the window is the where I closed in a porch to make a bedroom for myself. My first amateur radio station had been in that room. The bucket-like object on the ground under the board and batten wall is my old diving helmet, then discarded, that I had built in 1936 and had used to explore the bottom of the large Letohatchie Ponds.
The house needed painting, a job on which I spent two weeks applying three coats of oil paint. It had not been painted for many years, and the first two coats immediately soaked in. The flooring on the front porch had to be replaced and painted.
Melvin’s and Mother’s Letohatchie home, after the paint job.
My sister Anne married Don Slesnick in July, 1942, and their wedding was held at the Letohatchie Methodist Church. I was at that time on the Isle of Man, U.K., as a member of the Civilian Technical Corps. The family lived in this home from Oct, 1937, until June, 1944, when they moved to Montgomery because of Melvin’s railroad job having been transferred to the L&N Dispatchers office there.
Mother had lived in this home about half of the total time she had lived in Letohatchie. Melvin was the kind, loving, responsible father figure we had never had. By far, our family’s happiest days in Letohatchie were while living in this old house. Unfortunately, I was not at home most of that time. At Montgomery, Melvin served as a land line telegrapher at a high traffic desk, which was a very busy, high pressure job compared to his previous job as operator/agent at Letohatchie. However, he had the telegrapher’s love of telegraphy, and enjoyed his new job.
Eventually, many years after WW-II, the old Letohatchie home was bought by someone who lived in a trailer in the garden area and let the house and outbuildings deteriorate. Later, it was slowly demolished over a period of several years in the mid 1990’s, and except for the trailer, the lot is now vacant. (2005)
Joe was nearly 15 years old when the family moved to Montgomery. Melvin died of cancer in 1948. My Mother lived until 1994, when she died at my sister Anne’s home in Coral Gables, Fla.
An Exciting Trip down the Alabama River
Not being able to find a job, and needing something to break the monotony of my life, I decided to make a trip down the Alabama River from Benton to Mobile in a small paddle boat. I can’t explain how that particular idea came to my mind. I convinced my friend Guy Coleman, also unemployed, that it was a good idea and he agreed to accompany me. The local folks thought we were crazy. We located a junk boat, and by pooling our resources, we obtained enough provisions to last us for the trip. We would abandon the boat at Mobile and hitchhike back. A local man, Eddie Mims, kindly agreed to haul our boat to the river, and my sister Anne, my young brother Joe, Guy's brother Jimmy, and some other local kids went with us to launch the boat on August 28, 1940. After many exciting and sometimes dangerous experiences, we arrived exhausted and half starved in Mobile 14 days later.
The old boat being repaired - Guy Coleman and I (left) are repairing the old boat that we used for the river trip. This was done in my backyard with the bow of the boat on a chicken coop and the stern on a bale of hay. After a coat of white house paint left over from the house painting, Guy’s brother Jimmy painted on the bow the boat’s name, “Teeny”, after the pretty girl who lived next door.
During the trip we had only a road map that showed no details of the river, so we never knew what we would find around the next bend. We really felt like explorers. At that time the river was in pristine condition, as there were no dams and locks on the river. There were no recreational boats on the river, and no docks or marinas. The only town of any size was Selma, which we passed the first night. Elsewhere, only a few structures of any kind and only a few lights could be seen from the river during the entire trip.
Upon our arrival at Mobile, I found a letter from Mother in General Delivery at the Mobile Post Office saying that I had been selected for a Civil Service job as a Radio Operator at Ft. McPherson, Ga. That was fantastic news! It surprised me, as I had not received an application form for taking the competitive test. They had obviously confirmed my qualifications by checking the references that I had given in a letter that I had written.
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