The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast September 12, 1990

     I'm not sure how it happened.  I guess it started when I found I could talk to my school chum over 30 feet of string that was tied to two empty tomato cans, or when we practiced Morse code in the Boy Scouts and sent flashlight messages over a half mile at night.  It may have been when I built a crystal set and listened to broadcast stations WOR and WJZ and often heard Morse code signal interference from steamships that passed every day near our home in Staten Island, New York.
     I read all I could find about radio.  Popular Radio, Radiocraft and QST had how-to articles I often tried.  It was a sense of achievement and satisfaction to experiment.  I may have gotten hooked on becoming a radio amateur when I made a spark gap transmitter using Ford spark coils with a decoherer receiving device.  I made the decoherer by filing up a nickel and a dime and then I used the filings in a circuit that, much to my surprise, really worked!  Having gained much confidence, I built a three-tube short wave receiver consisting of a regenerative detector and two stages of audio amplification using the popular 201A tube.  Parts I could not get locally I obtained at Cortlandt Street, also known as Radio Row, in New York City.  There I could always get anything I needed.  Within a couple weeks, the receiver was pulling in short wave signals loud and clear.  What a thrill it was to hear Big Ben in London and the announcer say, "This is London calling."
     I continued to listen and experiment with radio circuits.  You can learn so much just by listening to other radio amateurs on the air.  I practiced Morse code with my Boy Scout friend Harrison, W2CQR, and studied for my license.  I was 16 years old when I took the train and the Staten Island ferry boat to New York City, walked up the imposing steps of the Treasury building on Wall Street to the Federal Radio Commission where, the Radio Inspector gave me and several others the license examinations.  Most of us passed the Morse code portion OK.  A couple of hours later, after completing the written test, he shook my hand and said that I passed and that my operator's and station license would come in the mail.  It was then that I knew that amateur radio was for me and for days I felt I was ten feet tall.
     Later, it started me on an interesting and satisfying career in aviation communication and electronic equipment developments.  While waiting for my license, I made a homebrew radio transmitter using a 210 tube and a Hartley oscillator circuit.  Each day, I anxiously looked in the mailbox.  Finally, there they were - my amateur radio operator's license and station license with the call W2DME dated December 11, 1931.  They are proudly displayed in my radio shack for they have opened the door to the unlimited horizons in the world of amateur radio.

September 12, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

Page updated January 12, 2004  page created June 11, 2001