My First Knight Kit
This week once again I was able to take a trip back in time. A journey back that pretty much let me once again remember the smell of melting solder and the excitement of putting together my own radio with my own hands.
Here's the story.
The first kit I ever built was a Knight Kit C-100 walkie talkie. I poured over the Knight Kit catalog daily for what seemed like forever dreaming of all the toys inside. The Star Roamer and Span Master receivers. The T-60 transmitter. But the most special for me was the C-100. It only cost a bit more then $5. But for a poor kid living on a farm with no income, it might as well have been $500. It seemed impossible that I'd ever get these cool communications devices.
But eventually, I did get the money to order one. I don't remember how, but it happened. I figured I didn't need (nor could I afford) two of them as they were often marketed. But since mom and dad had a couple of CB radios and would be able to talk with me on the designated channel 7 (the crystals the C-100s came with), I knew one would at least get me on the air. So I ordered my 100 milliwatt walkie-talkie kit and waited for it to arrive.
Eventually it did! Yeah, the mail man was a special guy back then. He brought all the shiny gadgets of the world outside.
Anyway, I had NEVER gotten nor assembled a kit in my life. I would eventually put together several other Knight Kits but this was the first. And I was both nervous and excited as I worked through it. After a few hours I put the speaker in, screwed the circuit board in the plastic case, attached the trusty 9 volt battery and put the whole shebang together.
Nope. Didn't work.
But a quick visit with my elmer, a local ham named Paul Segi, who also served as the head of our 4-H club that focused on electronics, quickly showed the bad solder connection I had made.
Heat up the gun. Clean up the connection and voila....static! My 100 milliwatts boomed the better part of half a mile down the road. I was thrilled.
So this week, I was able to acquire a pair of these old walkie-talkies, open one up and briefly re-experience that time in my life nearly 45 years ago when I first learned the thrill of making my own electronic toys.
Man, it felt great!
