Lusting For A Globe King 500-C

As soon as I turned sixteen I was officially hired by the Littlefield station. It was an exciting time because new owners had just taken over and bought some new equipment, including a new "board", radio lingo for audio control console. But even though I was enjoying the disc-jockey duties and making a little spending money, my interests in shortwave listening and ham radio were still strong.

The nearest I had to an "Elmer" (person who helps new hams get a start) was a ham who lived about two blocks from my house. I had visited his shack several times and had talked to him when he came out to the radio station. He was on-call for our equipment problems, and I occasionally slipped him a box of teletype paper for his RTTY operations. I saw and heard enough to know I wanted to be a ham!

I had been an avid shortwave listener since one December when I was about nine years old. I talked my parents into buying a new radio to replace our old Silvertone. It was to be that year's "family Christmas present". At the Sears store in Lubbock I found a Hallicrafters S77-A general coverage receiver which just shouted, "Buy me!" It was the same model as the S40-B (picture at right, below) but an AC-DC version.

My mom really wanted one of the nice console radios available then, and complained that anything from the Hallicrafters would sound like it was coming from a tin can! But like all kids, I had excellent abilities of persuasion, and the S77-A was home for the holidays! Mom even decided that the unit produced acceptable sound! I spent many hours at night tuning in distant stations, but my favorite thing to do was to tune in the English Service of Radio Moscow, turn the volume up, open our windows and "share" the program with our neighbors :-) I am sure some of them thought my family was spying for the Commies!

I had some other interests like reading reviews on the latest cars, but more than wanting a new car, I wanted a Globe King 500-C! This transmitter, made by World Radio Labs, was something I knew would make my life complete. Below at right you will see an earlier Globe King that was restored not too long ago by WA5CMI.

I gave as much attention to the 500-C in WRL's catalogs as a modern teen would give to a Playboy centerfold, but there was just no way I could develop the dollars needed for that wonderful, powerful AM transmitter. As you will see on the next page, I had to start out with some units which more closely matched my income bracket.

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