This is how I got started in Ham Radio.
N4TL radio history.
It seems like I always have been interested in radios. When I was a young boy my dad would fix them and I would watch. My dad had taken mail order radio course after world war 2. I read through all the lessons before I was 13 or so. When I was in 9 Th grade I took a class at night school on radio. One of my dad's friends was the teacher and I rode to the school with him. At my grandmothers in Syracuse NY I found about two years of "Popular Electronics" in the basement. A neighbor had given them to her. I read all of them and found out about Ham radio and the American Radio Relay League. I joined the ARRL in 1965. That was the year I got my first Amateur license which was the Novice level. My call was WN2UIJ. I built a transmitter from instructions in a ARRL handbook. The antenna was a "Gotham" vertical for 40 meters. My dad had bought a Hallicrafters S107 short wave receiver. I used it for my receiver. I never made any contacts with the homemade transmitter. So I bought an Eico 723, 60 watt CW transmitter. I made a few contacts with that transmitter but not too many. After a lot of frustration I put up a 40 meter dipole antenna and had more luck with making contacts with that antenna. I also bought a Heathkit SWR meter so I could see if the antenna was working. I added a Heathkit Q multiplier to the receiver to help the selectivity. The novice license was only good for one year at the time. You had to move up to technician or general class license after the one year. I was not interested in the technician license because it only allowed VHF operation. The General allowed both HF and VHF so that is the one I tried to get. I failed the 13 word per minute code test the first time. I passed it in 1967 and received the call WA2CQW. Now that I had the general license I did not have to operate on CW, I could also use voice. I asked my Dad if I could trade in the Hallicrafters receiver and my Eico transmitter on a new rig. He said it was okay so I traded up to an Eico 753 transceiver. This radio would operate on 80, 40 and 20 meters with CW or voice on SSB. It was a kit and I built it in about a week. When I turned it on it would not receive any signals and I could not adjust the coils to receive anything. I took it to the local TV repair shop in Jordan, NY. They put a very strong signal into it and then we were able to adjust the coils until they were correctly tuned up and then the radio worked. I made a few voice and CW contacts with that radio but then went to college and was not very active for a number of years.
After I got married, finished college and found a job, we bought a house. That was 1974 and I was able to get back on the air. I had traded the Eico 753 for a Hammarlund HQ-215 receiver. The transmitter was a novice CW only rig. I still operated CW most of the time. I got on 2 meter FM at that time as well.
We moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1976, I picked up a Hallicrafters FPM 300 transceiver. This radio worked much better than the radios I had up to this point. I put up a tower with a 10 and 15 beam. There were local 10 meter nets in Fort Lauderdale that helped me get over being afraid to talk on voice. I made thousands of contacts on this radio and had a great time. In 1980 I became interested in DX and worked my first 100 countries by 1981.
I sold the Hallicrafters FPM 300 and got an Icom 720a. Also put up a Mosley TA33 tribander antenna. This gave me 20 meters as well as 10 and 15. Next was a half sloper for 80 and an inverted Vee for 40 meters. While we lived in Fort Lauderdale I had a great time with ham radio. I worked over 320 countries and got on the honor roll for DXCC.
We moved to Raleigh NC in 1994. Here I have a crank up tower with two Cushcraft antennas. They operate on 10, 12, 17, 15, 20, 30 & 40 meters. I also have an inverted vee that operates on 40 and 80. also an inverted L for 160 meters. The rig is an Icom 756pro with an Icom 746 for a backup. I started working band countries here in raleigh and got my 5 band DXCC. Also worked 100 grids on 6 meters.
73 Tom N4TL