What Amateur Radio Was Like in 1982
Welcome to Amateur Radio with N4MQU!
I was introduced to amateur radio by the Wright brothers Don (WA4CBW) and Jerry, (WA4GUU (SK)) not Orville and Wilbur!
In 1982, you were required to know Morse code to get your license. They helped me practice, using techniques like translating license plates on cars as we drove down the road, alongside plenty of in-person code practice. At that time, an individual licensed amateur could administer the Novice exam, so Jerry gave me both my code test and written exam.
Jerry was also my very first contact on 80 meters on November 5, 1982. He lived in Virginia Beach, and I lived in Norfolk. My second contact was all the way from Havelock, North Carolina which felt like huge DX to me at the time!
We were required to log all of our contacts back then. I am fortunate that I still have my original paper logbook from 1982. The FCC logging requirement went away in 1984, but keeping a log is still a great idea if only so you can make a video like this four decades later!
How did we find stations to talk to in 1982? We had to listen. We rotated the VFO dial until we found a signal on a frequency we were licensed to use. I was running an 80-meter dipole, along with a 40-meter dipole fed off the same line. You would copy the Morse code onto a notepad, and when they paused and sent “K”, you’d reply in CW with their callsign, followed by DE, and then your callsign, KB4HBX.
Without the internet, how did we know where the other operator was located? They told you in their first transmission! After the contact, we could also look them up in a thick printed Callbook, which listed their callsign, name, street address, city, state, and zip code. (And email… oops, no email back then!).
Before I got licensed, my friends had a weekly schedule every Sunday morning at 9:00 AM. They all shared a common interest in astronomy, and one of the friends lived up in Richmond. In order to entice me to upgrade my license, they would chew the fat on CW for a bit and then intentionally switch over to SSB voice to finish their chat!