Bill Simons, W9BB (W9YXJ) 

I received my Class B License in October 1941, a few months before Pearl Harbor Day. At that time most of the world was already at war and the only stations that I could hear were from the USA and its territories such as Hawaii, the Philippines Islands, etc. Even Canada was off the air. 

There was a long wait after you passed the FCC Test before your license with Call Letters arrived. That gave me time to construct my first transmitter. I took an old Cathedral Radio, stripped it of everything but the power supply, and the audio output stage. I then converted the output stage to a crystal oscillator operating on 40M CW. This conversion was suggested by W9JAN, an older ham I had met. 

My antenna was a wire dipole, mounted about 3-feet above the 3-story apartment building where we lived. At that time there was no coax available and the standard way of connecting to the center of a dipole was to use a special twisted lead called EO1 cable. It was waterproof and designed for transmitting. EO1 was too expensive for me so I used ordinary twisted lamp cord, which was not waterproof. 

My transmitter had an output of an estimated 5 watts. I had no equipment to measure it but I could light a small light bulb connected to a 2-turn loop held close to the output coil. 

My father gave me the money to purchase a Hallicrafters Sky Buddy, Model S19R receiver, which cost $29.95. This radio did not have an RF stage, so that the reception of images was a problem. You would hear stations, which were 455kc above the receiver’s local oscillator, and signals, which were 455kc below the receiver’s local oscillator. 

While I was waiting for my license I did a form of bootlegging to test the transmitter. I would create a set of call letters and put out a CQ on my crystal frequency. Then I would tune around and see if any one replied. When I heard someone I did not respond to him because I just wanted to know if my signal was being heard. In those days almost everyone was crystal controlled and you had to tune around to see who was calling you. 

Then my license arrived and I got the call W9YXJ. I put out several CQs and got a response from a W8, in upper New York State. That was a thrill of all thrills. 

I must mention that in those days the USA had only 9 districts. The "0" District was created years later. New York State was then divided between W2 and W8 Calls. 

As far as my elmer is concerned, it was probably W9EVG, Van Turner. As a 10-year old, I had read about Ham Radio and I was already building crystal sets and regenerative receivers. The stories that I read all described spark gap transmitters and I was prepared to build one. I was taking a walk one day and I came upon a house about half a mile from where I lived. It had an antenna, which I found out to be a 10M, yagi. I knocked on the door and was greeted by Van Turner, W9EVG. He used the phonetics "9 Evil Vicious Gangsters". I was warmly greeted and he introduced me to modern ham radio and acted as my elmer. In those days I was badly cross-eyed and a social reject. His warm reception lit a flame in my heart. 

I remember that about one month later Van’s wife gave birth to a new child. My mother knew about my relationship with Van and she purchased a baby gift that I delivered. 

Within the next two months, it was December 7th took place and we were at war. I seem to remember that Van was in the reserves and was probably called into active duty. Any way I never heard from him again. I don't know if he survived WW2 or not, but he got me into the field of Ham Radio. I will appreciate it if anyone has information concerning W9EVG, Van Turner. 

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