Fast forward a couple of years...
I wound up with one really good radio, one in the final stages of recapping, two 'for-parts' radios (with one possibly recoverable) and one abandoned build-from-scratch chassis.
I got to the point where I was getting up in the middle of the night and shooting skip again.
In August and September 2026, I even managed to send a dozen or more contact report letters.
This was the goal put forth two years ago.
Queue the 1940 posthumous novel You Can't Go Home Again by author Thomas Wolfe.
The first of my disappointments was AM radio its self. There is no music any more. It's all religious stations, non-stop talk, right-wing rants, Spanish, and an unbelievable number of interference signals coming from the multitude of wall-warts, switching power supplies, Alexa-enabled devices and WiFi stuff in my house.
My next disappointment is the whole QSL landscape.
Of the dozen contact reports I sent, two letters were returned because of bad mailing addresses. I used an FCC website listing addresses and at least one of those listings was responsible. I didn't research the other.
One station sent an envelope with some ad cards and an improvised QSL card. I'm assuming they don't have cards either and the person did the best they could.
Another sent a really nice e-mail noting they don't do QSL cards any more.
And the rest? Nothing.
Another disapointment is, as noted elsewhere, that I'm old now and my ability to do fine work with my hands has seriously faded. Restoring one of these beasts is slightly terrifying.
On the plus side, while I didn't make it home again, I did get back to the neighborhood. I have a solid reminder of the original radio.
I got to do something useful for others with this website. I've received a lot of nice complements.
Although I've never actually met them, I've made some new friends.
I learned a lot. Although I spent my life working in electronics, radio, RF and antennas was never my thing. I learned a lot about that.
Its not done but it's slowed down considerably.
Page: /Mickey/Mickey_end.shtml
Last modified: Monday, 5 Oct 2026