Grandpa & fishing...

We took along a couple of walkie-talkies, which had a little red CW button... That is where interest in amateur radio began for me at the young age of eight. The walkie-talkies were 500mw sears units. At age eleven my best friend and I used to ride our bikes around and talk on the walkie-talkies quite a bit. We used to pretend we were Will and Sonny from the old television series "Movin' On" which had a very seldom known of pilot movie entitled "In Tandem". I ended up giving one of the walkie-talkies to that friend. Through this we could talk without the telephone that my older sisters were always occupying. Not too long after, we discovered the basics of dipole antennas when we both upgraded to 500mw/3 channel 11-meter bricks. The built in telescopic antennas were not getting the job done very well. So with a little run of RG-58 and a spool of wire each we were officially radio communications students. I can hardly believe some of those old sets of crystals (among others) are still occupying space in some of the parts drawers here in the shack, today.

By twelve years of age, saving all my money from allowance and cutting grass, for a Radio Shack DX-160 placed in lay-away, became one of my number one priorities. The simple dipole antenna math learned in the previous several months began to pay off with the new adventures in SWLing. I wonder if those dipoles are still in the attic at my childhood home... The man at the local radio shack was a great Elmer. His name (still remember) was George Bloom. I am pretty sure he was a Ham but I am not completely sure on that. George directed me toward a portable AM broadcast band kit radio that R.S. sold at the time. I did a terrible job building it, as it was my first experience with soldering. Even though that first project was a "failure", in the sense that the radio never played; the gift of experimentation and a newfound love of learning "how things work" was born through the task. My friend and I were more than pleased to have several 'free battery of the month cards' from Radio Shack. Sure, the manager at the local Rat Shack was 'on to us' having several cards but he didn't seem to mind when we made our weekly (not monthly) visits to receive our free nine-volt battery. We would widdle away some time with exploring all the new gadgets and widgets in the store. As long as we conducted ourselves respectfully, didn't make a mess or 'drive away customers'... I think he appreciated the company. Spending money on the AA batteries for our three channel rigs must have been the permissive agent in our nine-volt consumptions. Eventually, after spending tons of quarters on the AA batteries we discovered the wall wart advantages.

Ah, the good old days. The simple life as a kid in the 1970's will always be in my fondest memories. I wouldn't trade those days for the entire world.

Mother ended up getting a station license for us to get a citizens band radio in the house in 1978. If I remember correctly our call was KAGH1980. I piddled around on eleven meters on SSB and made some real good friends throughout many years to follow. Many of us were fast at it with building all sorts of home brew antennas and station accessories. Many of the friends from those days have since achieved their amateur radio license, as well.

Other commitments such as school, music, work, an eventual marriage and three children came along to render my love for radio to the back burner for quite some time. That old DX-160 still held my interest. When everyone was off doing his or her own things I would listen to amateur radio and other interesting short wave broadcasts. The fascination of radio never left.

Finally, in 1996 the decision was made to go for the ticket. Listening to a good deal of DX through the 1980's and 1990's on that old DX-160 had me to where I was getting pretty decent at copying code and I wanted to join in the fun. It didn't take long to realize I was back into something really enjoyable. I began with the technician class license. My friend Scott (ex N8PEN) sold me an old Yaesu FT-208R two meter handy. Man what a solid little HT that was. I built a j-pole out of aluminum and had many hours of fun along the way of meeting yet more fine locals in the amateur radio community. Within about six more months, after the purchase of my first HF rig (Heathkit SB-101) at a garage sale for fifty dollars, I took the plunge to tech-plus. Shortly after that a great deal on a set of Kenwood 599 Twins came along. I played with those radios on code in the novice portions of the bands for about 2 months and went to take the General test. I was a bit nervous about the 13 WPM code test. One of the VE's suggested I take the 20 WPM first. He said if I fail it and take the 13 WPM afterwards that 13WPM would sound excessively slow. Well, I took the suggestion and to my surprise passed the 20WPM code test with only two errors. I was astounded! The door was opened to even more opportunity to enjoy what radio had to offer. The accomplishment of making contacts, via a small simple station, still delivers a great deal of satisfaction.

Since 1997 CW has been my favorite mode. CW/QRP has become a passion. QRP is when it becomes all about proficiency and the antenna system. I enjoy phone modes as well. One sixty through thirty meters are my over all favorite bands. As of yet, I have not gotten the contesting bug. I enjoy DX-ing and have collected a good number of DX and state side QSL cards. I like to rag chew whether on CW or Phone.