Growing up in Eatonville, Washington, population 1048, we were commonly known as the "radio" Larkins.  Nearest "ham" was Jonas Asplund, W7IG, who lived on a chicken farm several miles from town.  Being in the early days of television with TVI a common occurrence, we were also called by other names as well!   Our mother, Georgina, better known as "Gina" was not licensed and she frequently claimed she was the only "sane" member of the family, especially after an automobile trip, forced to listen to HF mobile AM radio for hours on end!  She was very patient with her "three boys," (Dad, Bob and myself) only complaining on rare occasions.
 

To digress a moment, our interest in "ham" radio was precipitated by events much earlier.   Our father, Floyd Larkin, was raised in Orofino, Idaho.  While attending high school during his junior and senior years of 1922-23, he was befriended by J. Paul Snyder, the science teacher.  Together they would build radio equipment for transmission and reception, about the time of the birth of commercial radio.  Dad became licensed about 1931 in Boise, Idaho, with the call W7CMQ.  The accompanying picture, when he was 26, is from the September 18, 1932 issue of the Boise Idaho Sunday Statesman, used in an article about Boise ham radio operators.   Of interest, the article mentions all the local hams, one in particular caught my eye, myself being an avid high frequency DXer.  Lloyd Colvin, W7KG, who later went on to become an ambassador for ham radio throughout the world, with his wife Iris, via the YASME Foundation, was living, at the time, at 1203 North 13th Street.

Interestingly, while we lived in Centralia, Washington, our Mom and some neighbor kids mother, Mrs. Caldwell, were leaders of a Cub Scout Troop.   From a group of six boys, four became "hams" later independently. The four were Howard Batie, W7BBX, now living in Chehalis, WA; Louie Caldwell, W7HX, Lake Tapps, WA; and Bob, W7PUA and Beb, W7SLB.  Mark Caldwell, Louie's younger brother, wasn't a member of the troop.   Quite a remarkable percentage!

Preparing for this page I tried to recall my "first moment" of introduction to ham radio.  While we were living in Centralia, in spring of 1949, I remember Dad taking us to a radio repair shop, where he purchased an audio "interstage" transformer, which with his able ability, a vacuum tube, couple of batteries and a few parts became a code practice oscillator!  September, 1950, a year later, when Bob was 10 and I was 12, we moved to Eatonville.

The National ARRL Convention was held at Seattle in September 1951, and Bob was the youngest person at 11 years, to take the novice test at the Convention, receiving the call WN7PUA.  The accompanying picture was used on his first QSL card.  I followed course in the Spring of 1952, being licensed as WN7SLB. 

We learned very early-on to respect high voltage! The picture on the left shows me operating the "Mon-key" as the automatic keyer was known.  Other items of interest in the picture include Surplus WWII Command sets, the S-38B Hallicrafter receiver hidden by the first "big rig" a single 813 tube with exciter behind the 19" rack panel, all "home brew."  The transmitter would be used a few years later to communicate with me in Alaska when I changed my stripes, joining the U. S. Army and becoming KL7CTH for a period of time.

Throughout our high school years we would put on demonstrations about ham radio at school events hoping to explain our strange ways!  Through that effort we got a couple followers, notably, Lynn Pochert, who became WN7CNN, now W7ORM and Leif Thorvaldson, now deceased, whose call for a while would be WN7FZP.

Our first major radio equipment would be a Hallicrafter S-38B, paid for by working at the family owned weekly newspaper.  Bob still has the original S-38B in his collection.  Others followed, a pair of home brew 807's, (for the younger generation, 807's and 813's are vacuum tubes!) soon a single 813 rig, followed later by a rig with a pair of 813's, modulated by a pair of 810's.   Big stuff in those days.  WWII "ARC5 command sets would "beef up" the S-38B receiver!   Another addition to the equipment was a National NC-240-D receiver, and later a HRO-60 receiver.   A number of popular Heathkits also graced the operating position over the years.  Bob would concentrate his ham radio activities to VHF, once giving Dad a Tecraft two-meter converter kit as a birthday present, then proceeding to assemble it for his own use!  In 1957, while in high school, Bob designed a system for tracking "Sputnik," the first Russian satellite and won "first place" at a regional science fair.

When I was 16 and old enough to drive on my own in 1954, one of my fond recollections was going with Bob to visit Ernie Manly, W7LHL, who lived in Burien, WA at the time.   Ernie was regarded as a "big gun" on two meters, having a KW rig using a pair of 826 tubes and a 96 element antenna.   You could work Ernie with Gonset communicators from practically anywhere!   Today, Ernie lives in Graham, WA, only a few miles from Eatonville, and is still a very good friend.   He now provides much of the "beta" testing for the DSP-10 software.

With the advent of the "cold war" scenario, RACES would play a prominent role with the Larkins during the early 1950's.  Sunday evenings were occupied with the RACES net, at which time we would gather the flock for emergency preparedness. The accompanying picture shows the RACES station, a Hammarlund HQ140X, along with a Johnson Viking II-CD.  Other RACES equipment would be the Gonset Communicators, one seen in Bob's 1952 Willys car for two-meter AM mobile.

Upon graduation from high school in 1956, I joined the U. S. Army, in a branch known as the "Alaska Communications System," headquartered at the Federal Building in Seattle, WA.   The group was basically the "telephone company" for Alaska prior to statehood in 1959.

While stationed at Ft. Richardson, AK, my duties involved maintaining and operating a large group of five to 50KW transmitters which provided military and commercial communications throughout the western hemisphere from Anchorage, Alaska.   While there, I was licensed as KL7CTH.  The rig I used mobile and as a "home station" was a Pierson-Holt KE-93 receiver, unique for it's many tubes and turret-tuner front end and the transmitter was built, from a QST article, by Dad and ran 70 watts AM/CW to a single 6146 tube.   I still have the receiver and transmitter in my collection.  

About three years ago Bob and his son, Mike, drove to Alaska and during the trip stopped at the location where I spent the last teen years of my young life.   Bob, having been there previously on a visit while I was stationed at the transmitter site, could find only warnings of live ammunition and do not leave road signs posted everywhere! They had removed all vestiges of habitation.  The Army had wiped three years of my existence from the face of the earth!