Francis first heard Spark cw on his brothers 3 tube Crosley receiver in about 1923 when he was 14. The above photo shows Franics in front of his 1929 station, with his National SW-4 receiver. Franics built a 1 tube Reinartz receiver in 1924, he started practicing the code and on Sepetmber 1st 1926 he received is license and call 9ACU. Not shown in the picture was his first transmitter a Heartly 210 and batteries. The batteries gave way to a 6/350 volt dynamotor.
The receiver in the above picture is a home brew 5 tube regenative receiver. On the left is a condenser mike using 2 - 237 tubes for amplification, the transmitter, built was biult in a wooden rack in the mid 30's, used 112A xtal osc, 112A buffer or doubler, the finals were a pair of 112A's, and a dynamotor suppling 350 volts on the plates. The transmitter had two crystals 3904 and 7100 cw doubling to 14.200 phone. The Modulators were a pair of 171A tubes. It is also interesting to note that Franics did not have AC power mains on the farm until 1941. He used various methods of producing voltage from Williard Storage "B" Batteries, wind charger and a 32 volt Delco System.
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