I've been in ham radio myself since 1972. My first rig was a Hallicrafters SX101A receiver and Heathkit DX40 AM/CW 60-watt transmitter, followed years later by a Henry Radio Tempo ONE SSB/CW rig, then a Kenwood TS530S, then by my present rig, an Icom IC725 which I won at a hamfest in 1991 (grand prize in a ticket drawing.) The radio is in my bedroom and my computer is in the front part of my apartment, but that's one huge drawback of living in a place as small as mine. Radio is in my blood, having been fooling around with it in one form or another since I was eight years old in 1964. I live in an apartment building where outside antennas aren't allowed, so I am running my IC725 into an indoor-mounted Barker and Williamson AP-10A--kinda' like a Texas Bugcatcher (the loading coil on my AP10A looks like the one on the Bugcatcher; I think that's where B&W may have gotten the idea).
I like the photos you guys are posting of all your old ham and SW gear. They don't make them like that anymore. These old rigs were built to last--boy, I'll say! The 6146 final tube in my Novice transmitter lasted 26 years before finally giving up--the day I was planning to reactivate my Novice station on 40 CW under new Technician-class rules in 1982. (I hold a General ticket today, thanks to W1AW's code practice; I listened and copied their transmissions every night for a month before going in for the test, and it paid off--I passed the exam with a 90-percent score.)
If any of you who are not presently licensed amateurs are interested in joining our ranks, you can contact the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national society of ham radio operators, based in Newington. Connecticut (Hartford area). Their website is
www.arrl.org.
73 (best of regards) and good luck.