I discovered Ham Radio in 1977 when I was a freshman in High School. I had bugged my Dad for a CB Radio during the CB/trucker craze in 1976 (anyone remember Convoy?), but the actual product (a Midland portable) left a lot to be desired. Mostly squeals and squawks and very little of interest from a boy’s bedroom. So my Dad signed us up for a Novice class, put on by the local radio club, and we learned CW, regs, and a little radio theory. Being young, I picked up the code faster than he did, but ultimately we were both licensed as novices, me as WD4EJO.
I was very fortunate that my Dad had a background in electronics and had the means to get us a new radio – a Kenwood TS-520S (I loved that radio!). Over the next few years, we ended up with a great station and a modest tower with a 3 element triband beam (a used Mosley TA-33 that was shipped from New York). It was a bitch to assemble and put up, but I worked the world on that antenna.
As far as ham activities, I’d done more than most at that age. I was involved in my local club ((RACK – W4BBB – the same club that offered the license classes) and served as club secretary, newsletter editor, and on the hamfest committee. I got to operate a bunch, earn my Worked All States (in the Extra class portion of 75 meters! – the Geratol Net WAS #348), work a lot of DX during the great Cycle 21 peak, build a lot of neat things, work field days and fox hunts, and me and a fellow ham friend even modified an old Western Union FAX machine to send radiograms over HF. I did a lot of club radio-related activities, including helping to build a 2M repeater in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains – nice view at the top of that tower (elev. 2,970 ft.)! I also experimented a lot, built a lot of things, and generally did what hams do – learn and have fun with radios and electronics.
I also got involved with computers in high school (this was 1977) and bought a Radio Shack TRS-80. I had a lot of fun with the computer and programming as well, and even then was looking for a way to combine radios and computers – it’s a lot easier now, but then it was very clunky. I got to experiment with lots of what was then cutting edge and the predecessor to today’s personal computer. It seemed inevitable that I went to college and majored in Electrical Engineering, something that would allow me to combine my love of radio and computers.
After college, I moved to Texas to work in the defense industry. Ironically, although my day job involved lots of radio and computer-related technology, I didn’t get to do much in the way of ham radio. I was busy, traveled a bunch for work, and lived in an apartment that limited my antenna farm severely. I spent several years not making a single contact and never really got involved in the local clubs. But the itch was still there, just under the surface. I bought a radio and would tune and listen, but fear of interference of the neighbor’s stereo and telephones kept me off the air.
Fast forward to recent times. I’ve traded an inner-city condo for a suburban house. One day I was driving down a main thoroughfare close to my house and saw a sign that was advertising ham radio exams by the local club. I had forgotten that Richardson (home of Collins Radio) had a great radio club, and now I was seeing the evidence. I went home and looked up the club and went to the next meeting. As hams do most everywhere, the members welcomed me with open arms, and I’ve gotten involved in lots of club activities. I also unpacked most all of my ham gear, got an antenna on the roof, and got a station back on the air. I discovered this new FT-8 mode that makes the most of the crappy sunspot cycle that we are in, and have had fun working bunches of local and DX stations on the newest mode. I’m also back to building stuff, even if it’s nothing more than interfaces between radios and Raspberry Pi computers. Old habits are hard to break.
I can’t wait to find out what happens next!