KC2OBG

When I first got my amateur radio license, I was a bit perplexed by the term HT. It had a strange ring to my ears. When I was a kid, the little transceiver you held in your hand was referred to as a walkie-talkie. Yet in the world of ham radio, it was referred to as a handie talkie. One of my brother-in-laws, who is a fire captain, also refers to it as a handie talkie. I assume the “handie” part refers to one’s hand, that is, having a transceiver that is handy.  But might it originally have referred to one’s head? See the image below which originally appeared here. I’m assuming that this one-tube wonder did not require a B+ power supply.

Filed under: Knowledge by Jeff