The year was 1964; and like all kids, I loved to watch TV (which was pretty much only black and white back then). Telstar was pretty much new and I remember the hoopla made about seeing video from overseas with the footonote "Live Via Satellite" at the bottom of the TV screen.
WWII had only happened 20 or so years previously; and we were still pretty much attached to that era; although things were changing at a far more drastic pace than we were aware of.
And radio ...... shortwave radio still held a fascination that it no longer holds today (sadly). It was still a "modern miracle" to be able to talk to people in distant lands at a time when overseas communication by telephone was still not the norm.
And a young, impressionable kid saw this episode of "McHale's Navy" and was exposed to that miracle of radio; but on a personal level, for the very first time.
Even though this could not have been Ham Radio, per se, as the communications would have been during a time when Amateurs were off the air - that's what I took it to be. I remember watching this and saying to myself that I wanted to be able to talk on a radio like that some day.
And I do, not with a microphone, but with a code key - and the fascination remains just the same.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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