My Life in Amateur Radio

A few weeks later after a few more visits, I was spending my time studying an old license manual that my friend's mother and father gave me. Not only was his father a ham but also his mother! Her call was W5LVT, Whiskey Five Little Vacuum Tube. I finally received my license in October of 1956 and since I hadn't quite talked my parents into getting me some equipment, I spent my weekends at the home of W5LGH and W5LVT pounding on their straight key. Too bad I had to use their old Crystal controlled rig over in the corner of the room instead of that nice 75A4 / 32V3 Collins Line on the other side. In a few months I had my own equipment: a Johnson Viking II and SX99 Halicrafter receiver. I will never forget one night on 15 meter CW when I called CQ and got a call from ZL1APM in New Zealand. This was my first experience with DX (Long distant Communication) and I never stopped chasing it. ( well, I did chase something else while in High School! )

OLD Style QSL Cards

Walter Ashe Print	Printed by World Radio Labs	Poplular QSL for Texans
Another Texan!!	Printed by Pan Am Airlines	Printed by G.E. / ARRL Log

Most of the radio equipment behind my head in the photo and to the right side of me are homebrew Amplifiers which my dad and I built with a little help from experts. They are powered by the transformers found in those large Can Shaped containers found on Light Poles except they are dismantled and the oil inside is drained out and the core is unwound until the power is down low enough to use in the Amp Power supply. Around 2000 - 3000 Volts at 1 Amp which is enough to fry your flesh if you touched it. I explain all this only to lead us up to a near fatal accident. We had the cover off the smaller Amp and my dad was sweating and reached his arm around to the back to unscrew the Coax and his arm touched the RF Choke sticking up beside the power tubes. He fell backward and landed in a chair and turned pale. Everywhere there was a drop of sweat on his body turned into a blister. What got his arm was called RF (the same stuff that emits from an antenna when you are transmitting). It was around 1200 Watts of RF and it took him a few minutes to get his senses and I took him to the ER to get checked out and he did not receive any permanent damage, thank god. He had a small hole in his arm where the screw in the top of the choke touched his arm and he kept that until his dying day. This was the day he met 
"R.F. Burns".  RF is actually used now in Heart Ablation procedures in the O.R. of a hospital.

In a few weeks she called me and told me she got an answer back and told me the date, time and the Callsign of the station in the Canal Zone and I told her I had talked to that station several times and they always had a Big Signal so it would be really easy to do. When that day came and the doorbell rang, my mom answered it and let her into our radio room. Wow, what a nice surprise I thought when I saw this tall beautiful brunette standing at the door. Oh well, I knew she was engaged so I just thought to myself... "Crap, just my luck" She told me she also graduated from Arkansas High as I did but in 1957. I graduated in 1960. "Wow an older woman, I thought!"

 We called the station on the 15 mtr radio band on the exact frequency but I was surprised they never answered me after at least 30 minutes. I got several calls from other countries and started talking to them. We spent sveral hours talking to other people and I fugured if the CZ station heard me, they would break in. BUT they never did. She seemed pretty disappointed and puzzled so she continued to come over a couple times a week and we continued to keep the airways hot and the Antenna turned due south to the Canal Zone but always the same result and in the mean time she wrote another letter. She returned week after week and one day after getting tired of this calling and calling I had the feeling they would never call and she seemed to care less after a while. So, I spoke the Magic words "I dont think he wants to talk to you!"  She then told me " I am sorry to keep pestering you but my fiance' wrote me back and told me he had found someone else a few weeks ago"   HUH?  A few weeks ago? I said "Why the heck are we still calling him?" What a surprise answer she came back with ! Yeah you probably have guessed...."You silly boy, I haven't been coming over here to talk on the radio!!!" "Although it is fun"....Well, I guess I was a little Naive! I reached over and hit the Big Switch - "Click!" She said why don't we go somewhere and talk, so we headed over to the A&W and had a frosty mug. We ended up dating for about 6 months and the word Marriage came up. I told her I didnt even have a job and had begun at Texarkana Jr College. No way I could see getting married but she was certainly ready!  We finally stopped seeing each other but she was a great girl and we had good times.

One of my Good Amateur Radio Friends was actually a New Yorker stationed at the Texarkana Air Force Radar Station K5FIO. His Name was Jim (WA2GSX) and we often talked to each other on the radio when I got out of school or on weekends and also visited with each other in person. We usually had a large group on the radio that we talked to every day and one was a girl named Wilma (K5LSR) who lived in Haworth, OK which was not too far from Texarkana. Wilma was about 17 yrs old, I was 18 or 19 at the time and Jim was probably at least 21. He was over at my house one day and he asked me if I would ride with him to Haworth to see Wilma. He was dying to see her in person. My parents gave the OK and one Saturday afternoon we took off in his old 54 Ford. We made it to her house in good shape and met her and her parents. Her Dad was also a Ham Radio Opr so she had kinda followed in his footsteps. I will say she was a cute girl and Jim fell in love at first sight. We stayed pretty late since he couldn't make himself leave. I don't know how late it was when we left but it was so dark outside you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. WE started down that long, curvy and dark 2 lane Hwy to Texarkana and Jim had not even thought to look at his gas gage. "We gotta get some gas!!" he yelled. Pretty soon we saw an old broken down gas station and pulled in for some gas. We looked around and saw about 6 white eyes staring at us. They were black folks and they didnt move to pump any gas in our car. (No self service then) I didn't want to get out and neither did Jim. We waited a few minutes and Jim said he was getting out of Dodge now, gas or not. We just kept driving and praying we didnt end up on that dark road on foot. It was not a very friendly looking area. Thank God for letting us arrive in Texarkana on fumes! Needlessly to say, Jim made many more trips to Oklahoma but he didn't take me along!  That wasn't fair, was it?  In a few months my Dad and I and some other Radio ops drove to Oklahoma to a wedding. Jim and Wilma left Texarkana and moved to New York where they lived happily ever after. Wilma passed away a few years ago and Jim was left alone except for his kids and grandkids. I called him about 10 yrs ago and we talked about that dark night and how much he missed Wilma. I haven't talked to him since.