One of my biggest purchases at Hamcation 2022 was a large set of bins and boxes of electronic components from the Swaps building. They were all part of the workbench of KB1SH (SK), and his wife and daughter (very nice people) were at Hamcation with a bunch of his homebrewed radios, tools, and components. I learned from them that KB1SH was an electrical engineer, an avid electronics homebrewer, and spent some time consulting for Ten-Tec. From the radios he built that were on the table, I could tell that he was quite a skilled builder and liked to build with vacuum tubes.
Here are 5 of the 6 component bins I acquired. They’re filled with resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, toroids and coils, crystals, connectors, and other bits of hardware for building.
5 of 6 component bins from Hamcation 2022
In addition to the component bins were several boxes of more bagged resistors, caps, inductors, coils, kits of assorted potentiometers and capacitors, tubes of integrated circuits, and spools of wire.
Kits of assorted potentiometers and capacitors. Check out that old school Digi-Key logo!
It’s a pretty vast collection of parts and much of it is new or (now) new-old-stock/NOS. There’s pretty much everything you might need to build something radio-related in the collection.
I still consider myself a bit of a dabbler when it comes to building electronics, but I think KB1SH’s wife and daughter were pleased to know that his collection was going to someone interested in building like he was.
With my recentARRLHandbookacquisitions, I consider my collection pretty much complete now. I’ll add newer ones as time goes on and if someone is getting rid of older ones, I probably won’t turn them down. I feel like my collection covers the history of amateur radio from the ARRL Handbook perspective pretty well now.
My ARRL Handbook Collection starting with a 1926 1st edition Handbook on the left progressing to the 2014 ARRL Centennial edition Handbook
From the left there’s the 1st edition 1926 ARRL Handbook, followed by 1927, 1931, 1944, 1950, 1956, 1963, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1979, 1980, 1993, 2005, 2012 (my very first handbook from when I first got my license), and finally the 2014 ARRL Centennial edition Handbook. The next one I end up purchasing will be the 100th edition 2023 Handbook.
I’m pretty happy with my collection. It’s a wealth of excellent reference material and project ideas.
While browsing the tables in the Swaps building at Hamcation, the distinctive blue colour of the 1970 ARRL Handbook caught my eye so I had to buy it. I’ve always thought it would be nice to have one from the year I was born so that I could see what amateur radio was like back then.
1970 ARRL Radio Amateur’s Handbook
I don’t think there’s much difference between the 1970 and 1971 Handbook that I already have, but it’s still a nice one to have.
Made it back to Hamcation for the first time since my very first trip there in 2013. Like the first time, Hamcation didn’t disappoint. The crowd size seemed pretty respectable for Hamcation, although I don’t really have a good memory of what the crowd was like the first time I went so it’s a bit tough to compare. There were a lot of people moving through the commercial and swaps buildings, but I didn’t feel like I was stepping on anyone making my way through from table to table.
We started the festivities off Thursday (Feb 10) with the 2022 ARRL National Convention, held at a different location from Hamcation. It was a day long affair with four different tracks. Connie and I were in the Handbook track, with talks designed to introduce or remind people about different aspects of amateur radio. There were some good presentations on hunting down radio-frequency interference, Parks On The Air, amateur radio satellites, and remote rig operating.
Friday was the first day of Hamcation. Most of the big name vendors you expect to see at a major hamfest were set up in the Commercial building. Wandered through the Commercial building for a while checking out various offerings. LiFePO4 batteries from a company I hadn’t heard about yet, PO4Power, looked pretty interesting with an integrated LCD screen showing the battery voltage (and maybe other things).
LiFePO4 batteries from PO4Power
After going through the Commercial building, we walked over to the Swaps building. Pretty crowded in there with both sellers and shoppers. We made the circuit of the outside tables, I got distracted by a display of handbooks at one of the inside tables and picked up a 1970 ARRL handbook in pretty good shape to add to my collection. Then it was time for a lunch break.
Lunch options at this year’s Hamcation looked pretty decent. There were four different food vendors offering a decent variety of choices. A wood-fired pizza place was set up, so we decided to go for that. Pretty tasty pizza.
Pizza for lunch at Hamcation 2022
After lunch, it was back in to the Swaps building. Lots of people selling in there. Came across a set of tables where two nice ladies had a bunch of components, bins, equipment, and homebrew radios displayed. Turns out they were the wife and daughter of an SK who was a skilled homebrewer and did a lot of work in the radio/EE world. I was looking over the various component bins working out what would be good to add to my collection of bits and pieces and was starting to accumulate a bit of a pile when Connie asked if I’d be interested in taking the whole set of bins (6 in total). The two ladies were a bit surprised that Connie made such a suggestion, but they were very supportive of the idea. I thought about it a bit (mostly thinking about how I was going to find room for everything). Connie said do it, so I said Ok! Took a few trips to get everything out to the car. It will take me a while to go through everything I picked up and figure out what I’ve got (that deserves it’s own blog post), but along with what I already have, now I think I’ve got enough bits and pieces for a lifetime or two of building.
After that, we decided to call it a day and head back to our hotel for some much needed rest.
The second day of Hamcation (Saturday), Connie was volunteering at the VE testing session, so I was left to wander Hamcation on my own. Didn’t really notice if the Saturday crowd was bigger because I spent most of my time out in the boneyard. Looked like a lot more cars in the parking area on Day 2 though.
Wandered through the rest of the Swaps building after picking up a few more bits and pieces from the two ladies we bought the bins from. Scored a DigilentAnalog Discovery 2 USB oscilloscope at one table for an exceptionally good price.
After that, it was time to wander the boneyard, which felt a lot more expansive than I remember from 2013, although I’m not sure I made it through all of it back then. I spent a good 4 hours wandering through all the boneyard tables (and getting a bit sunburned in the process) and probably could have spent another hour or so revisiting a few of the tables.
Spotted an old Heathkit TC-2 tube tester that looked interesting. The guy selling it told me “That’ll look great in your closet!” He had it marked for $20, I asked if he’d take $10 for it, and he accepted it. I think it will be a fun project to work on.
After Connie was finished with the VE testing session, we met back up for one more quick cruise through the swaps building, and then called it a day.
All in all, it was great getting back to Hamcation. Crowds seemed pretty decent and there was lots of stuff to see. Looking forward to going back next year.
The capstone for my ARRL Handbook collection is a 1926 first edition ARRL Radio Amateur’s Handbook that Connie gave me for Christmas. I happened to see it come up on eBay with an interesting description, and she said “BUY IT.”
This particular Handbook is hardcover bound and embossed with the name of the original owner, Harry T. Carroll/W4AEE.
Hardbound copy of the 1926 First Edition ARRL Radio Amateur’s Handbook
The Handbook comes with a pretty cool story related to me in a letter (and also part of the eBay listing description) from Harry’s grandson (now W4AEE).
On the title page are the names of three previous owners: Harry T. Carroll/W4AEE, James McKennon/W4ATD, and Wm Ray /W4CUP.
Title page of the First Edition ARRL Radio Amateur’s Handbook
Harry/W4AEE was given the Handbook by his father as a birthday present, hardcover bound and with Harry’s name on the front cover.
The front cover bears the name of my grandfather as the original cover did. It was given to him by his father as a 20th birthday present in 1926.
W4AEE, eBay listing description
Harry received this book when it was a brand new publication. What a great birthday present it must have been!
Harry/W4AEE later loaned the book to James McKennon/W4ATD (who perhaps misinterpreted the gesture or just forgot, which might explain why he wrote “Property of W4ATD” on the title page). Harry/W4AEE was later unable to get back in touch with W4ATD to get the handbook back.
A few years later, Harry remembered the loan and wanted to get his handbook back. So, he attempted to contact Jim without success; relatives said Jim had joined the Navy.
W4AEE, personal correspondance
At some point (apparently in 1937), the book ended up in the possession of Wm Ray/W4CUP, who added his name on the title page.
Eventually, after many years and happy circumstance, the handbook found its way to Harry’s grandson:
Many years later, in the 1990s, I was listening to stories being shared by some OMs (old timers) at the Chattanooga Hamfest. The subject turned to old radio books. I mentioned that my granddad had once owned a 1st Edition ARRL Handbook but never saw it again after loaning it out in the early 1930s. One of the men in the group (Bill Ray, W4CUP) asked me my graddad’s name and callsign. I told him and he began to grin and said “I have your granddad’s handbook on the shelf at home! I’ll put it in the mail to you next week!” And, so he did. I had it rebound to match the original black covers that were shelf-worn. It has been with my collection for about 30 years.
W4AEE, eBay listing description
Now it has passed into my care (as the 5th owner) where it will have a special place in my collection. I love the story behind this Handbook as much as I love having it as part of my collection.
Maybe, after a few years or decades, the Handbook will find its way back to Harry’s family. If any of W4AEE’s children, grandchildren, or greatn grandchildren happen to discover the fun of amateur radio and stumble on this blog post, well, get in touch!
