This radio was top of the line when it came out, because it was one of the first HTs to have built in PL tones, and to run directly off of a 12 volt input. By todays standards it is a pretty large HT, but it is built like a tank. This one is a real classic. Ham rig circa 1985 +/- and still going strong.

An Old CW Operator (Morse Code continuous wave) and a New CW Op were out in a fishing boat one day. The New CW Op said, “I wish I could operate CW as well as you.” Not saying a thing, The Old CW Op scratched his chin, set down his fishing pole and grabbed the New CW Op by the back of his head and pushed his face underwater outside the fishing boat, and held him there fighting for a long time. After a while, he released the New CW Op. “Why’d you do that?” the New CW Op wailed, gasping for air. The Old CW Op just leaned back and said, “When you want to learn CW as much as you wanted to breathe; then you will learn CW.”

“One does not DO Morse Code; One BECOMES a Morse Code operator. Like learning a musical instrument or a sport, Morse Code does not develop character; Morse Code reveals it.”

The straight key shown is a J-47.

Ham radio 🐖📻🐷 Amateur radio was the internet of the 1950s… a way to communicate with people instantaneously over great distances. Here we have some equipment that would have been typical for a radio operator in the mid-1950s. There’s a number of stories about this equipment that we could tell here, and maybe we will in future posts, and the receiver at the bottom of the stack is gloriously named “Skyrider Defiant”… but for now let’s ask the question: Why is it called “ham radio”?

The answer dates back to the pre-radio wired telegraph era, when operators with poor Morse code skills were derided as “ham-fisted.” The perjorative slang carried over to early radio, when amateur operators were often less skillful at Morse code than former telegraph professionals. Eventually the term was embraced as a badge of honor by amateur radio operators, and the term lost all perjorative connotations by the mid-20th century.

In 1949, Victor Hoeflich, founder of a novelty manufacturing corporation, invented a radio hat. He called it “Man from Marr, Radio Hat.” During the announcement of his product, he used teenage models that were wearing the radio hats for newspapers and photographers. These photographs were published with articles in newspapers from coast to coast. The articles typically included a photo of a young girl wearing the radio hat with a story defining its feature and instructions.

How did the radio hat function?

Radio valve technology was advanced during World War II, which allowed it to work on low voltage and long-distance. While the transistor had been invented in 1947, and the battery was carried in the users’ pocket. The hat’s radio relied on vacuum tube technology, and Hoeflich made the tubes a prominent feature along with the loop aerial. He tuning knob sat between the two valves.

How it was marketed?

The radio hat was initially sold in the department stores and by mail orders. The price was $7.95 at that time. The helmet was in eight different colors, later seven more colors were added. A California service station chain sold the hats as a promotional item to customers who purchased gasoline.

Why the radio hat was failed?

Despite the massive publicity and marketing, the sales did not last for a long time. Victor Hoeflich stopped the advertisements and marketing in the early 1950s. Its failure was primarily due to technical limitations and poor performance. The signals were frequently dropping, and they could be lost at all as the user turned his or her head. Sometimes when the users were trying to tune a radio station, all they could get was an annoying squeal. In a 1956 interview, Hoeflich said the company still got orders for the hat even though it was long out of production.