160 was the band that got me interested in amateur radio. When I was about 10 years old I was reading an article about building a 2 meter receiver in Popular Electronics. Not quite knowing how tuned circuits worked, I started removing plates from an "All American Five" table radio. The All American Five was slang for any receiver using a five tube line operated series filament string. When I removed plates I thought I was listening to 2 meters, but it turned out to be 160! I heard Fred Mahaney, W8IQC, and several others chatting on 160 meter AM.
I jumped on my bicycle and peddled down to Fred's house. Fred's wife answered my timid tap on the door and ushered me into Fred's radio room. What a sight to behold! A huge black rack with the biggest tubes ever saw in my life. An SX-99, and a Ranger sitting on a desk.
I explained to Fred how I worked on a receiver, and how I heard him on two meters. Fred thought a minute, and then said "I hope not. I was on 160!"
That one visit with Fred convinced me. I had to get an amateur license at any cost.
We were a very poor family. These was no way I could afford equipment, so I had to read and learn how to build things. My first transmitter was a single stage 6V6, upgraded later to a 6L6. It was a single tube crystal oscillator with a pi-network on the output. My receivers were made from scrap radios recovered from the local landfill. See the SWL card I sent to W8JKC in 1963 when I was 12 and 1/4 years old (hey, a 1/4 year mattered back then):
I was first active on 160 meters in early 63. At that time LORAN was on 160. The power limit was 25 watts night and 100 watts daytime, the band was restricted from 1800-1825 kcs in the area where I lived. Different regions of the USA had different power limits. California, for example, was restricted to 1975-2000 kcs. By the way, it was kilocycles per second back then, not kilohertz. My first west coast contact was with W6VSS Dale (K6UA) working split frequency. Dale was on 1995 kcs, I was on 1805 kcs.
I still collect boatanchors from that era.
160 Meter Newsletters
This page includes archives of 160 meter history. You can download W1BB's original newsletters. These scanned files were contributed by Rolf PY1RO and converted to .pdf files by Ron PY2FUS. Information on this page is intended for private viewing. Publication without permission is prohibited.
History of 160 (about 15mb)
Fully History of 160 (large file 197mB!)
Newsletters
Feb 1962 Bulletin
April 1962 Bulletin
October 1962 Bulletin
December 1962 Bulletin
Dec 62 to Feb 63 Letter
1963? Letter (off screen at edges and incomplete)
since
May 2004
©w8ji Mar 2004