k4jru

Somewhere around November of 1957, on a Friday night immediately following the Warner Robins Demons totally trashing Pitt at the Homecoming football game, there was a dance in the old gymnasium that used to be located behind City Hall in Warner Robins. The old City Hall was located across Watson Blvd. from the present one. It was a time of jubilation and great times. We danced to a great emerging young star, Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, and Marty Robbins. I had located my brother, Jim (K4FXU), as per our parents’ instructions and was getting ready to leave for home. I turned around to speak to someone and when I turned back, Jim was gone. Oh, shades of 1¾ inch wide leather belts; Daddy would have a fit if we were late getting home! It was about 10:30 and we were supposed to be home by 11:00. I went outside to find Jim, knowing that he would be with a girl…somewhere.

As I walked around this huge building I noticed a soft warm glow coming from what appeared to be the basement of the gym. I was, for some reason, pulled toward it like a moth to a flame. When I pulled on what looked to be the entry door to the area it creaked loudly and I heard metal rubbing against metal. I found Jim and his friend Richard Hicks (K4UTE) inside with two girls whose names shall forever be sealed (to protect the innocent ones) in silence. There were two or three old chairs and a sofa and a workbench in one room of the two-room area.

Sitting at the end of the workbench was a metal cabinet that appeared to be some kind of electronic stuff. I found out after several later visits to that room that it was an RF exciter/amplifier that had an Eimac 4-1000A, modulated by a pair of 4-250As, in the final. What appeared to be massive amount of old radio equipment and surplus parts was scattered about the floor, in boxes, and on hastily built shelving. In the other room was the operating position of the ham radio club station (K4JRU), WREN (Warner Robins Emergency Net). I remember speaking with an elderly gentleman (at that time) by the name of Buck Holbrook whose call-sign I cannot recall for the life of me. I want to say it was W4DOD but that’s only a guess. Buck introduced me to T.C. Ayres (W4GKE) and his son Carroll Ayres ( K4UTK) who lived out on Francis St. I already knew Carroll from school. He and I are the same age. Carroll introduced me to Chuck Cavanaugh (K4VKU) who now lives in Vienna, VA. Chuck had the distinct advantage of living out in the country about a half-mile off of GA 247-C on what is now called Corder Road.

K4JRU was a very young ham club at that time. All the transmitting gear was homebrew and the receiver was a Hammarlund SP-600JX with a 12-inch woofer for its speaker. The station antenna system consisted of a single wire dipole at about the 45-foot level. The station transmitter was crystal controlled on 3.995 MHz. The station ran a very STRONG 1,000 watts of AM. Single Sideband was only a new fad that some were decrying would be the end of ham radio. Jim received his Novice license (the original of which he still has – KN4FXU) later that year or very early in 1958 and passed his “Conditional Class” test that same summer. I followed behind him in September 1958 and obtained KN4OFH. Our first transmitter was an old command set BC-696 transmitter and a BC-348 receiver. It had been donated from the massive club stores in order to help get the “new guys” on the air. My first Field Day was at Byron’s QTH out in Bonaire in 1958 and that’s where I really fell in love with ham radio. There were only three modes of communication back then. You were either on AM, CW or RTTY. Novices were only allowed to use CW and only on 80, 40, and 15 meters. The license was for a period of one (1) year and was non-renewable. This was my introduction to ham radio. After a lapse of 10 years due to school, a 3-year stint in the Army, and marriage, I managed to get back on the air in 1969, again, as a novice with call-sign WN4MUR. In 1970, I traveled to Atlanta and passed my General Class exam before the FCC. In 1978, Jim and I returned to Atlanta and passed our Advanced Class exams and cursed silently because we didn’t go for the Extra Class at that time. We were sitting there copying the Extra Class code test in our heads before they administered the written exams (the code test for the Amateur Extra Class ticket was at 20 wpm at that time, folks)! That was the birth of callsign, KB4LA. It was 1982 before I returned to Atlanta and passed the Extra Class exam, again, before the FCC examiners. At that time, the Extra Class Exam was on a par with the 1^st Class Commercial Exam (freehand drawing of diagrams and all that rot! Being an EE grad from GA Tech would have been a definite plus).

Gordon - K4OD