[BC] How we got our first break in radio....

[Harold Hallikainen]

> As I recall back in '85 in the summer or fall you had a time frame to
> send a copy of your 1st phone to receive a general in place of it that
> was good for broadcast.
>
> After that time frame the generals were supposed to be labeled as "not
> valid for broadcast".
>
> What the FCC's logic was I haven't a clue.
>
> Ron D

Clues to the FCC's action are included here
(http://www.hallikainen.org/nab/unattended/RegHistory.pdf), a regulatory
history of operator licensing, remote control, etc.

As to getting started in radio, I was (and still am) an amateur radio
operator in high school. I built a bunch of equipment (especially for
radioteletype), so I was familiar with tubes and RF (and electromechanical
based digital). In September 1969, I started school at Cal Poly, San Luis
Obispo, CA. I immediately became involved with the 2.5 watt phasitron
transmitter based KCPR (http://www.kcpralumni.org). I started doing some
on air work and engineering. The on air work included covering the Student
Affairs Council and an 11:45pm newscast each night. I'd bicycle in to town
and get old wire service copy and visit the police station to build the
newscast. Over Christmas break in 1969, I went to the San Francisco FCC
office (555 Battery Street) and took the exam for the First Phone and
Ship's Radar Endorsement. Prior to that, I had been using a station issued
Provisional license. At that time you needed a Third Phone with broadcast
endorsement to operate the station. I continued my work at KCPR while
continuing classes in electronic engineering. The KCPR student manager was
also a night DJ at the local top 40 station ("Famous Fourteen" KSLY, 250W
on 1400kHz). He told me the chief engineer was leaving, so I applied and
was hired starting in June of 1970. Another KCPR person worked Sunday
nights at KUHL in Santa Maria (30 miles south), but was leaving for the
summer. He recommended me for the Sunday night shift. KUHL was directional
at night, so they needed the First Phone on duty. That higher class
license got me $3.00 per hour, considerably more than I was getting from
KSLY. The Sunday nights at KUHL consisted of a little DJ work, but mostly
watching the transmitter (through a Moseley vacuum tube based remote
control with a telephone dial) and watching the board during the live
Spanish and Portugese broadcast from the production studio. This continued
for several years, during which time I put a new automated FM on the air,
moved the studio, etc. In 1974, a group of friends got together to start a
company that did contract engineering for about a dozen stations in the
area. We eventually started manufacturing stuff for radio and television
stations
(http://louise.hallikainen.org/BroadcastHistory/index.php/HallikainenAndFriends).

So... I've been at this for 40 years now! In my current adventures, I'm
designing equipment for the cinema industry (http://www.uslinc.com). My
current big project is closed captioning for digital cinema. I get to
combine my original ham radio and digital (but not using a Teletype model
15 anymore) in this project. We're transmitting a 1.8MHz FSK datastream on
IR into the auditorium.

Harold

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