Memories from K5LAD

Version 02/27/07:3 – previous versions - 01/15/07:2 - 11/28/05:4 - 9/15/05:3

Memories of a ham

First Field Day

1958 - First Field Day with K5JZV..... Ike's generator.

I’ve been to numerous Field Day activities in my ham career but nothing compares to the first one in which I participated. The year was 1958 and I was a new General licensee and was quite excited about winning the single station category. My friend, John Storie – K5JZV, was also a new General and we planned to clear the field.

Our plans were to operate from my dad’s 367 acre farm that was about 10 miles north of Sand Springs (OK) where I lived. The site we chose was on an area where the small river bent around a nice piece of land that had lots of trees. We borrowed a gasoline-powered AC generator from Ike – W5IER who used the Civil Defense-supplied generator for his work in local emergencies.

John and I figured that if we only averaged one contact per minute over the complete time of the contest we would win. That certainly seemed like an easy possibility, especially to newcomers who had never even been to a previous Field Day activity. We set up a tent and used John’s equipment. I don’t remember now what the equipment was but since John always had a better rig than I did, it was the obvious choice. We thought that since my call was more distinctive (K5LAD) that it would be easier to use. The fact was that I had passed the General class test before the FCC examiners more than a month before. The FCC only came to Tulsa four times a year so you had to hit them when they were available. I even had a postcard, addressed to myself and provided to the examiner, which said I had passed. Now-a-days you can take your test before a volunteer examiner and have your license and new call posted on QRZ.COM in less than a week after passing the test. Back in the 50s, however, this was not the case. You were lucky if you received your license back in a minimum of 8 weeks, and it often took even longer. By providing a postcard, the FCC would check your test (usually several weeks later) and mark the proper box:

You have: _____ passed

_____ failed

your General Class license.

I had my postcard but legally I did not have the official General class ticket in hand. You’ll notice that I’ve waited more than 45 years before admitting this. Somehow back then it just seemed like a good idea.

We got started at noon or early Saturday afternoon and really burned up the bands. 1958 was back near the peak of one of the best sunspot cycles in recent decades so conditions were great and the points accumulated quickly. When suppertime came our families came out and cooked us a nice meal over the campfire and we felt like we were right on schedule.

As the evening progressed, contacts got harder and harder to find and the old "one contact per minute average" got harder to maintain. After midnight there seemed to be few contacts we hadn’t already made. We were beginning to hear stations calling; instead of "CQ Field Day" it was "CW Rat-Race." Also, the fun we experienced for the first several hours had long since passed and it was a big drag. Probably, veterans of past Field Days could have told us that but to newcomers, it was bit of a surprise.

Finally…….. mercifully, in the early hours, probably around 2 AM, the generator ran out of gasoline and we had to quit. Somehow I don’t recall that being too upsetting to either of us. We got several hours of sleep and awakened at dawn. We were able to drive down to a small gasoline station several miles away and refuel the generator.

When the contest was over, we hadn’t come close to a winning score and I don’t remember us even submitting it to ARRL. It had been a great experience, a real learning experience to be sure, but certainly memorable.

I’ve participated in many more Field Day activities in later years but nothing compares to the first one.

First contact

1957 - First CW contact - many CQs in logbook - first contact in Hugo, OK.

My first logbook was filled with page after page of my carefully logged CQs and TESTs. I haven’t seen that logbook in many years since it seemed to get lost in the shuffle of college, marriage, and multiple moves but so I can’t count how many of these pages there might be. There were, however, lots. If I had to guess, I would put the number at something like 8-10 pages.

Finally, I got an answer. Probably I had gotten earlier answers to my CQs and I just wasn’t accustomed to hearing my call come back to me. Anyway, I remember my first contact was on 40 meters with a ham in Hugo, Oklahoma. I’ve heard stories by others who were so upset when they first heard their call coming back to them that they tuned everything off and ran out of the room. I didn’t run from my first contact, maybe because I already had so much practice in sending CQ and TEST but I was plenty nervous. The contact was probably pretty short but I did exchange QSL cards with him.

The Bug

1957 - Had bug with Ike/Dick weight for sending errors

I’ve got a bug………. not an insect but an old Vibroplex bug, complete with the carrying case. I got my bug back in my earliest days and I can’t quite remember who I got it from or the details of the acquisition but the number $9 comes to mind. Seems like I might have traded something plus the $9 for it but I no long remember with whom or what I might have traded. Since this was in the early days I didn’t have much with which I could have used for trading materials. I may have used my Heath AR-3 receiver, along with the money, for the trade. It’s just been too long past.

The particular thing I do remember about the bug was, I used it to send "5"s and errors. I knew it was not a good idea for a newcomer to try to use a bug so I used my straight key which I had bought new for 98 cents at the Tulsa Army and Navy store. I attached the bug in parallel with the J-38 key and when I would send my call or make an error, I would swap over quickly to the bug to insert the proper character.

With the bug set at its slowest position, it was still too fast for my CW code speed so I filled a campaign button which was about an inch in diameter, with melted solder. With it completely filled it was an ounce or so and when I pinned it over the back end of the bug’s arm, it allowed me to send perfect dits at probably 5 WPM.

When I tell you what the campaign button said on it, you’ll be able to figure out the time period I was using this goofy CW aid. The button read, "Ike and Dick" and it came from the first presidential run in 1956.

QSL Cards

1958 - Printed my QSL cards Many different QSL cards, Walter Ashe, WRL, S.Spgs. picture cards, cards from the International Oil Exposition 1964?, cards printed at Bell, cards printed by Reedy Booker including Bicentennial cards for AD5LAD.

I’ve had quite a few different QSL cards during my years as a ham. Like all hams who were first licensed in the mid 50s, the first batch of cards you got were either from WRL (World Radio Labs in Council Bluffs, IA) or from Walter Ashe. The WRL cards showed a map of the USA with all the states outlined and an arrow with the words "My QTH" displayed at the appropriate place. The Walter Ashe cards were all text and had your call in big bold orange letters. The prices were evidently low enough to entice a new ham to choose either one or both of them and the delivery was quick. I had both of these cards both with my call, KN5LAD. I still had a few left when I upgraded my license so I just blocked out the novice designator, "N" As I recall it looked rather scroungy with a letter blocked out but it was all I had available at the time.

My next cards were printed at the local newspaper office where I worked part time. The card stock I used had a pearly look and I thought they were really nice. I’m not quite as impressed when I see them now but I was young and foolish. I’m no longer young.

I also printed some special cards that I bought at the local drug store. These cards were the kind they sold as souvenirs and showed a photograph of the city of Sand Springs (OK). I think I paid 5 cents each for those cards and then printer my call, name and address over the photograph. I reserved these cards for special contacts, those I thought were real DX…….. like Canada and Mexico.

I also used some preprinted cards from the Electron Benders Amateur Radio Club that celebrated the Petroleum Exposition of 1964. Those cards had a place to write in my call, name, and address.

Later, the junior high school where I was teaching had a print shop which had earlier been set up as a class but the equipment was no longer being used. Prior to my interest in radios and electronics I had been very interested in printing. I even had an old treadle-operated platen press in my basement when had been loaned to me by a family friend. I used my prior-learned printing skills to print quite a batch of cards on the school equipment. Not too pretty a card, mighty cheap paper stock, but it was what was available and didn’t cost me anything. I used those cards all through my hamming in the 60s and the early 70s.

By the early 70s I was now co-owner of a ham radio store. One of my fellow MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System) was a retired printer in another city. My store customers often asked my opinion on where they could get their QSL cards and I would give them samples from my printer friend. By the way, his name was Reedy Booker and he was a wonderful gentleman……… I just always chuckled as his name and how appropriate it was for a printer. I didn’t get any money from recommending these QSL card customers; I just did it for him. Every so often I was surprised to receive a package of cards with my call imprinted, and these were the nicest cards I ever had used. He even asked me to send a photograph of my station and he would print that on a card.

During 1976, the US bicentennial, US stations had the option the trade their call prefix to some bicentennial special calls. Calls beginning with the letter K could use the letters AD so I became AD5LAD and I was surprised to find a package of cards from Reedy with my new – temporary call.

During the late 80s and early 90s, I had a chance to create some cards using the WordPerfect word processing program. I had access to various colors of stock so my cards were home-brewed again.

My late 90s and turn of the century cards were printed by a commercial printer who I found at a local hamfest. I’ve had two different batches printed by him with the only difference being the color of my call.

A couple of years ago, a ‘Stray’ in QST was about a fellow who finally went back and finished his WAS by getting one last card. They published a picture showing his display of all 50 cards. I received an email from a ham in Texas who knew me and he pointed out the picture and said he thought he saw my call in the collection. Sure enough, there was one of my old Walter Ashe cards he had used to represent his QSO with Oklahoma. It’s been interesting to go back and look at my ham history through QSL cards.

1958 - Taking Gen class test

1957 - Uh-Oh antenna

1958 - Working Cuban CW contact on 20 loading up Mother's clothesline

The Birthday Hole

1961 - Got a hole for birthday present

How many people do you know why have received a hole in the ground for their birthday? I did. I never did have access to any towers, poles, or other nice antenna support structures. After I went away to college, my mother talked to the local electrical utility company about obtaining an old power pole they were discarding. They told her that they would give her the old pole and would even bring by the equipment to set the pole in the ground but she would have to have the hole dug.

She contracted with someone to dig the hole and the power company brought by a 35-40 foot pole and set it.

When I came home from college on the week-end following my birthday I found a beautiful wooden antenna support in the back yard………. complete with a ribbon and bow around it. The only cost had been the digging so I actually received a hole in the ground for my birthday. I thought it was a pretty super gift.

The Secret Hamshack Telephone

1961 - Telephone in basement - neon bulb for indicator - push-button switch for dial

Hams sure do some crazy things to ‘made do.’ These days, people have phones all over their house, in every room and sometimes even in the bathroom. Back in the "Good Ole Days," a phone was mighty handy in a hamshack but that wasn’t part of our family’s budget. During the early 60s, my hamshack was in my family’s basement. The phone wire for the one phone in our house came right through the basement and was nailed to the floor braces for the room above. That wire was easily accessible and I accessed it. My phone was built inside a Prince Edward cigar box. I had no dial for my phone but I discovered that I could use a SPST normally closed push-button switch and pulse the line. I was actually breaking the circuit to the handset. It was a reverse procedure, i.e., I pressed the button to close the circuit for each digit of a number. Timeing was important and I would just count each "unpress" to make each number. I sound complicated but it worked fine.

Also, I needed a way to tell when it was ringing. The word was that the phone company had an automated process to sweep all the phone lines and check the resistance across the line. Since a phone’s ringer was across the line as it sat, waiting for an incoming call, they could check that resistance. The resistance would tell them how many ringers were on the line and they could find un-authorized phones. I placed a NE-2 neon bulb across the line for my visual ringer. Since the neon bulb had no physical connection, it showed no resistance to the auto checking device. It worked great.

1956 - Memories of Popular Electronics -- Loved Carl and Jerry -- name in list of Looking for Help.

1957 - Electronics in High School - wanted to build 2 meter AM transceiver kit - fixed intercom speakers in study hall for stage presentations.

12. 1956 - Going to Ike's house on weekends until Mother would drive by and honk.

Actually I didn’t have to take this test, I only thought I had to take it. When I first expressed an interest to Ike – W5IER who was to be my Elmer, it was while I was talking to him as he was delivering his mail route. As we walked along he told me about ham radio and some of the people he had talked to on the air. When I got more and more interested he told me about the ham radio club in town. He asked me to come by and pick up a copy of the ARRL License Manual and look it over. He also invited me to the club meeting which was to be in a couple of days.

Somehow, I got the idea that I was going to be given the Novice test

14. 1957 - First receiver was AR-3 purchased by cashing in $25 savings bond I had won.

15. 1957 - First transmitter was Globe Chief 90. Purchased by giving up paper route to get my $50 bond.

16. 1957 - AR-3 took to Tommy W5CFF house to have it aligned......... it was so unstable because all components were still original length. Disassembled it and rebuilt it and it was great.

17. 1957 - Those were the first full lead-length components I had until I was in college.

18. 1958 - Plate modulated Globe Chief....... built on steel chassis......... couldn't afford modulation xfmr so W5PA gave me an aircraft power xfmr...... had the right turns ratio and was rated at 400 to 2600 cycles. Terrible modulation......... good signal..... not much audio.

Modulator for Globe Chief 90. Steel chassis. resistors from old TV sets with leads soldered on, couldn't afford modulation transformer. Given an aircraft power transformer by W5PA?. Had the right turns ratio and was rated at 400 to 2600 cycles (not Hertz). It worked but just didn't modulate the rig fully. Got comments like "good strong signal but not enough modulation."

19. 1956 – Sand Springs Amateur Radio Club

I remember the club meetings for the Sand Springs Amateur Radio Club and were my only experience with clubs and club meetings until I was married and out of college. The meetings were almost always held at the home of Ralph Stullken – W5TVU in the apartment where he lived. Ralph was an engineer for KRMG, a local Tulsa 50,000 watt station. Ralph was also a bachelor and kept a fastidiously clean apartment. With no other family, it was always available. My first experiences with seeing older home-brewed radio equipment was at Ralph’s. His transmitter was rack-mounted with wooden panels. I don’t recall what receiver he had but it seems like it was one of the Hammarlund series, perhaps an HW-129. Obviously the transmitter was built in the days before television. With the open racks, the TVI was fierce and Ralph only operated during quiet hours on Sunday morning when he talked with his brother in Great Bend, KS. I don’t recall whether he had placed these quite hours on himself or whether they were a requirement from the FCC, but I never knew him to operate any time but those Sun. morning schedules.

Ralph had a 33’ vertical mounted on a pipe outside the apartment. Beside it was another pipe which supported a box about 12" x 9" x 6" and made of copper sheet bent to carefully fit over the copper base. Inside this box were two variable capacitors, a home-wound inductor with taps, and several bathtub-type capacitors. It also had a wooden panel which supported an RF ammeter and the knobs for the variables. The antenna tuner allowed him to work 80-10 meters bu as mentioned before, I never saw him on anything but 80 meters. During the time I was in college I visited Ralph and he had retired and planned to move back to Kansas and he offered me his old vertical and tuner. I anxiously took it and used it at several QTHs in my earlier days. The vertical, which was self-supporting on a beautiful insulator, somehow escaped me and I don’t remember where it went but I still do have the copper box tuner and plan to use it soon. I suppose with the copper prices what they are, it would be worth quite a bit of money now but it’s worth more to me as a good memory.

While I was still in high school, Ralph replaced the rack-mounted equipment with a Drake 1-A and a Hallicrafters HT-37 and there were some of my first memories of "real" SSB equipment. Even with that wonderful new "state of the art" equipment, it was still only used for those Sunday morning schedules with his brother, even though the TVI threat was past.

Our club meetings were always the same and I always looked forward to these monthly get-togethers. We never had a "program" but it was just all the guys in town visiting and talking about ham things. Sometimes it was a chance to see what Ike or Neely or Chad was building, sometimes I remember the talking was about DX and I remember the name Danny Weil and Yasme being talked about. There was much mention about this new increasing popularity mode of single-sideband. Often that would lead to discussions about why SSB was so bad: hard to tune, sounds like Donald Duck, wide as a barn, they don’t talk long enough to let you tune them in, etc.

One local ham, Dr. Chad Johnson – W5DBA was anti-SSB and never missed an opportunity to tell others what he thought about SSB. He, probably more than anyone in the club, could have afforded the best SSB equipment available but he wanted nothing to do with it. Chad was building a monster AM transmitter with a pair of 304s in the final and another pair of 304s in the modulator. One pair was the 304TL and the other was the 304^TH but I don’t remember which was which. I visited his QTH one evening and saw it in operation but it was only running about 400 watts at the time. He used tuned feeders which exited one wall of his shack to the outside and draped back over the roof to the antenna. The power to the outside light ran through the attic not too far under the tuned feeders and each time he keyed up the transmitter, the outside lights on either side of the building lighted to about 60% brilliance. That’s one of the more impressive memories I had in my early ham days.

Also, I must say that Chad was a very interesting character, and I enjoyed talking to him always, but he was, never-the-less, a character. I remember one club meeting, where the pro and con discussion was on single sideband and Chad declared that when SSB became the popular mode of communication, that he planned to bury his big transmitter (see above) with a motor-driven VFO and it would, "…..sweep the bands…….. eternally!" Even today, as I am listening on the bands and I hear a carrier sweep across I think…."ya ‘spose that’s Chad’s old transmitter? ……. No……….. however…….."

Our club never did go out, as a group, on a Field Day exercise. I don’t remember ever even hearing that suggested. Although I’m sure it would have been great fun and a real learning experience for me, we just never did do it.

Our club had three of we young Novices; Dick – KN5LDR, Dean – KN5KWP, and myself – KN5LAD. We were green and I’m sure the others learned a tremendous amount from the other members of the club. All of us came from families which had little extra money to spare and the idea of being about to buy an ARRL Handbook or a US or Foreign Callbook was out of the question. I’ll always appreciate Ralph for his help here as he bought a new Callbook and new Handbook every year. I look back now and laugh to myself since Ralph had such vast electronics knowledge that he could probably have written most of the Handbook and as far as the Callbooks, the only US station he talked to was his brother and certainly no need for a Foreign Callbook but yet he bought a new one every year. When the new editions came out and he had replaced the year old version he had, Ralph would give that "old" copy to we Novices on a rotating basis. I thought at the time that he probably had little else to spend his money on, with no family, but I realized later that he was just helped some poor struggling guys to get past the Novice hurdle and on to become successful hams. Of the three of us who started, two of us are still quite active hams. I wish I could go back now and thank Ralph again.

I remember a club member named Jack who never did get his ham license but always talked real big. The thing I most remember about him is his use of profanity in every sentence that came from his mouth. I was not accustomed to being around people who used that kind of language; no family, friends, or other club members. I guess one of the most daring things I ever told an adult was to Jack one night at a club meeting. He was expounding on how he was studying hard to get his license and he was going to get it soon and every sentence peppered with profanity. As a smart-aleck teen-ager I said, "Jack, if I were you I wouldn’t spend too much time studying to get that license." That really stopped him in his tracks and he said, "Why, the xxxx not?" I said, "when the FCC hears you using all that profanity on the air they’ll take away your license and fine you." He stuttered and stammered a bit and said, "Oh I don’t have to use that language when I’m on the air." I guess I should have said something about, well if you can keep from it when you want to, why don’t you stop doing it now. I think I felt like I’d pushed my luck all I dared to so I stopped. Jack never did get a license, as far as I know, but I’m afraid that he would probably fit right in with some of the inhabitants on 75 meters during some nights.

20. 1959 - College receiver was Hallicrafters S-20R Sky Buddy..... bought with money earned from driving ambulance for several weeks during the summer before going to college.

21. 1959 - College xmtr was designed by W5TVU using tubes which were pulls from KRMG. Pair of 2E26s, modulated by 2E26s with a 2E26 clamper tube. Also built on steel chassis.... cheaper.

22. 1960 - Radio station at college........ ham station in small room off the gathering room on 3rd floor in men's dorm. Antenna on roof for 75meters.

23. 1960 - Broadcast radio station at college....... turntable from college-gift hi-fi (pre-stereo) Knight kit transmitter. Antenna from my room on 3rd floor to girl's room in adjacent girl's dorm. Antenna about 300 feet. Rules said, 10 foot antenna -- 50 foot transmission distance. Advertised pizzas

24. 1958 - CK722 transistors for 99 cents. 1959 - Wrote senior research paper on CK722.

25. 1958 - Took Gen test in Tulsa..... rode bus to Tulsa PO.... FCC was there 4 times a year.... gave them postcard addressed to myself that said, "You have Passed/Failed you General Class test."

26. 1958 - Passed 13 WPM code record right before getting on the bus.

27. 1958 - Worked some 11 meters while it was still a ham band before becoming a CB band in 1958.

28. 1961 - Always secretly wished when I came home from college that there was a beautiful new ham rig in place of the old stuff.

29. 1958 - Talking to K5JZV on telephone after school..... I was talking to Canal Zone station and he said, "Put me on the patch." John worked him using his call and got a QSL too.

30. 1958 - Made phone patch out of Lionel train transformer which was being sold for guys building SSB rigs ==== 75 and 20 meters

31. Burstein Applebee -- Jim Miller Warehouse Assortment (floor sweepings)

I wonder how many antennas I built from my first antenna wire purchase. Burstein-Applebee had good prices on components but I especially liked the pages in the back of their catalog because that’s where they listed all of their bargains. I remember buying a roll of 500 feet of #18 copperweld wire which made great experimental antennas. Copperweld was very strong wire and the copper coating gave it good electrical properties for antennas. I had to be very careful when building the antenna, however, because that 500 feet of wire liked its original circular-wound position and would always try to return to that position, just like a spring. If I happen to not see a kink in the wire and I pulled it taught, the antenna was much weakened at that kink point. Even after an antenna had been up for several years, when it was lowered for maintenance (or when the tree branch support fell down) it returned to its spring-like coil.

That one coil of 500 feet of #18 copperweld wire sold for only $1.88. What a bargain for a high-school kid who had very little money.

Another wire purchase I got from Burstein-Applebee was a giant coil of field telephone wire. I don’t remember how much it sold for or in what quantities their bargain page coil was but I do remember that I thought it was a real bargain.

Once it arrived I discovered why it was referred to it as "field telephone" wire. This wire was made use by the military in connecting their "crank to ring" field telephones over long distances on the battlefield. The wire was stranded steel with a thick rubber insulation, then covered by a sticky, black, cloth-type covering which could best be compared to the old original (pre-plastic) friction tape.

I soon learned that that when you stripped off the covering and insulation and tried to twist the strands tightly, you better have a couple of band-aids handy. The strands of steel would certainly allow twisting but just about the time you thought it was done, one or two of the strands would "escape" the other strands and quickly untwist and drive, at least one strand, right into you finger only stopping when if hit the bone. Those wire holes in my finger hurt for days……….. however, that wire was really a good bargain.

34. BA - coax - Don't remember the number (or cost) but it was like RG-58. It was 50 ohm but had a Teflon dielectric. When you skinned it to put a connector on it, the Teflon dielectric insulation was a roll that unwrapped from the center conductor.

35. BA was a wonderful place.

Bamboo boom beam (already written up)

No pictures of early station.

Always interested in 2 meters. Built 2 meter converter in 1964 but it was full of birdies..... don't recall ever hearing any stations.

Early FM base station was ARC-3 converted.... covered 100 to 156 MHz.... slope detected FM. Transmitter was ARC-3 transmitter - FMed by placing the secondary of modulation xfmr in series with screen of the oscillator tube.

40. Power supply for TX had half-power "kick switch."

Later added VF-1 VFO to TX. Had a threaded rod in side with a washer on the end that was moved to and away from the vfo coil. Listened on RX while transmitting very low power into the repeater. With the tuning rod I placed the vfo on frequency by listening for full quieting signal, then kicked the power supply switch to bring up the power. When the air conditioner came on it would change the vfo freq enough so I would drop out of the repeater. Same then when air conditioner went off.

42. 1965 - built 15 meter dipole with emt which gave me a rotatable antenna -- armstrong method.

43. Wife Gloria was also teaching. She said if I could figure out a way for her to stop working that she would get her license. She didn't stop working but she did get her Novice and Technician license in 1966. She only used the Tech license to talk back and forth to me. In 2001 or so, when the FCC changed the rules to allow anyone who had taken the 5 wpm code test to be grandfathered (grandmothered) up to General.

44. Son, Russell KD6GGI, got a Tech license in 1991 when the code-free tickets came available. He was living in Calif. and got it to surprise and please me......... which he did.

45. Son, Daniel KE6LMF, and daughter-in-law Kimberly KE6LMH, took classes after they had moved to Calif. and in 1995?? both got their Tech licenses, to surprise and please me..... which they did.

46. First yagi, rotator, and tower. Still have invoice from Radio Inc. Hornet TB-750 beam, built in Duncan, OK. CD-45 rotator. Homebrew tower.

Traded Suzuki 50 motorcycle for homemade tower. Two 30 foot sections, overlapped for 5 feet.

RTTY Experiences – Converted TD

Using a converted TD with short start and stop pulses

RTTY Experiences

RTTY is not dead, but I still remember ..

by K5LAD on November 17, 2000

I too enjoyed the clanking walk back through memory lane. I was running a MARS model 19 at home, back in the 60s, and the thing I remember, with a smile, is talking with someone on 80 meter RTTY who was also running tape and trying to keep up with cutting a tape at my keyboard while the station I was talking to was answering. You couldn't see what you were typing, while cutting the tape, so you had to guess at your errors and try to blindly correct them. It was always a blessing when the other station did not have tape and was a slow typist since I could finally stay (almost) caught up.

Even the current political discussions coming from Florida have talked about chads and hanging chads and that had brought back more memories to me. The chadless machine kept things a lot cleaner around the shack since it didn't drop its little yellow circles, but those tapes were sure harder to wind up in a neat roll. I also had to learn that bow-tie rollup operation.

Ah, the memories.............

50.