In the movie “Independence Day” the disorganized pilots across the world were reduced to communicating with help of amateur radio operators using Morse Code. These “HAM” radio guys helped Bill Pullman, as president, with a counter attack that saved the human race from extinction. OK, that was a strange use of old technology. The aliens were even stranger. It did bring back memories of my dad sitting at his basement desk with earphones playing with the dials of his HAM radio. I don’t think he ever met the aliens.
These radios ran on vacuum tubes. To me, as a teenager, they looked like small light bulbs. He explained to me that radio waves bounced off the sky better at night. This allowed him to listen to people across the world. I was only impressed with the 30-foot antenna tower in our backyard. We boys were forbidden to climb it, which of course we did at every opportunity. Dad had to take a Morse Code test in order to have a HAM radio license. He was very proud of it. The license gave him unique “call letters” to use. Some operators had vanity auto license plates made with their call letters. Their cars and trucks had insanely long flexible radio antennas which flopped around everywhere. Later on, I realized that my dad was an electronics geek before they invented the word. He also was into CB radios, which was a shorter-range radio. CB is short for Citizens Band Radio. Dad built his first one from a kit. Our neighbor was a super geek. He had a HAM radio, CB, shortwave and a police scanner. He picked up a policeman calling into dispatch about me, on a date, getting pulled over for running a red light! Needless to say, my parents were waiting for me when I got home. Busted! I was emotionally scarred for life. I sold the Ford Falcon and kept the girl and married her. Gee, I miss that car!
Truckers used CB radios to break up the monotonous hours on the road. They also used them as a warning system when state troopers laid out speed traps. In the movie “Smokey and the Bandit” Burt Reynolds used his CB radio to outsmart the local sheriff, played by Jackie Gleeson, in a cross-country comedy chase scene. C.W. McCall used his songs to showcase truckers using CB language. Smokies or Bears were state police who often wore Smoky the Bear hats. I don’t remember my dad ever being cool enough to use anything except “10-4” on his radio. We boys also had walkie-talkies which used a really shortrange CB channel. It made hide and seek games really fun, until the batteries got weak. Next time we get invaded by aliens, let’s hand out walkie-talkies.
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald Times
