Pour yourself a cup and come on in.

We'll talk about radio as it was back then...

How I Started : From the time I was born, I remember my dad often listening to the short wave bands with his Sears AirCastle radio. It sat next to his favorite chair in the den and was on whenever he was in the room. By the time I had grown to the ripe old age of 10, I had, in effect, been an SWL all of my life. Perhaps because of his own enjoyment of SWLing, I had little trouble persuading him I needed a radio of my own for my 10th birthday. I think I promised to mow the lawn for the rest of my life if I could just get that shiny Hallicrafters S-53A. Well, to make a long story short, I did--and from that point on all other hobbies, including my early favorite-carp fishing, took a back seat to radio. At this time, I didn't know much about hams, but I knew I wanted to be one. A couple of years later when I found out from a friend about something called a license manual. I spent much of the following summer studying the manual and practicing the code on a doorbell buzzer rigged up to a key. I took the novice test on Valentine's day, 1956 and received my license on March 30. After 4 months of cw on 80 and 40 meters, I took the General exam in August and received the license in September. This was then the premier achievement of my life! I was on the air almost constantly for the next five years. meeting many of the friends who I still cherish today. Hey now! Isn't this is how a ham station is supposed to look? My first station as General Class operator back in 1957. WRL Globe Scout 65, WRL 755 VFO, Hallicrafters SX100, Astatic Model 200 mike, Vibroplex Blue Racer Bug, ARRL DX map, and a National Geo map for tracking WAS. The Young Adult Years In the fall of 1961, I left home for college after selling all of the old ham gear and buying the latest rig on the market--a Gonset G-76 transceiver. I bought it because the rig and its power supply would fit nicely into two suitcases; a devoted ham like me was not going off to school without a rig. A rig fit for a young scholar of the early 60s. The Gonset G-76 is in the upper left desk opening. My college experience included a lot of hamming and an astounding assortment of poor and pitiful grades; after three colleges in three years I finally graduated with an associate degree in electronics. I then went to work as a Q. A. technician with a local packaging manufacturer. About the same time, I married a lovely lady and we set out to build our life together. Hamming was never quite the same after that time; the pressures of house payments, car payments, payments, payments, payments, etc., plus all the new responsibilities really put the squeeze on hamming. I managed to build an assortment of Heathkit rigs through the 1960's and into the 70's, but had little time to use them. The " Middle years " By the mid 70's, our family had grown to include a son and daughter. My work switched to a process engineering role and it required long hours, whether on the road or in the office. I retained my equipment and helped set up a couple of local 2 meter repeaters, but otherwise I was almost totally inactive as a ham. I did keep up with the changes in amateur licensing and got my advanced ticket so I could keep my band privileges when incentive licensing came along. In 1979, my hamming was featured in my company's newsletter. Involvement with work and family continued through the 80's; I had progressed to Q.A. department supervisor at work and my children, Martin and Ann, were in college and high school. In the early 90's, I renewed my interest in AM equipment and accumulated some nice old gear from the 50's and 60's. As my son and daughter graduated from school, married, and started families of their own, I found myself with a little more time to ham. It felt good to get back on the bands, even though it was a very different world from what it was during the great days of the 50's and 60's. The " Post Retirement " years -- the Present Me and my collection of classic radio gear... On the cover of ER magazine in 1994! Concluding 30 years with the same employer, I retired at the end of 1995 and moved to a new QTH out in the country where I have plenty of antenna room. That, along with having plenty of time, has enabled me to again become fairly active. Recently most of my on-the-air time has been spent chasing DX - something that I did very little of in my earlier years as a ham. This is the "AM corner" of my current station, and ... a kinder, gentler old geezer version of K4IHN! Whereas, here is the "SSB corner" of my station, operated by friend Genie. Why does this corner look soooo much better? I thank you for visiting my spot on the web. I hope that you found something of interest. If you'd like to discuss Classic radios, AM operating, DX chasing or any other subject, please e-mail me by clicking the button below.     73 - Kent K4MK     ex-K4IHN, W4MKM

Please check out my Guestbook before you leave!
(The Guestbook is a FREE service of QSL.NET!)
SIGN it VIEW it