My name is Thor Rasmussen. I live and work in Monterey, CA, and
grew up here as well. 

My ham call sign is N6FNP. 

I have been interested in electronics and Ham radio since I was
in elementary school. It wasn't until my first year of high school
that I received my first ham radio license, the Novice Class. The
novice class license at that time was limited to CW only on slivers
of 80m, 40m, 15m, and 10m. No voice at all! A high school friend, 
Scott N6GIJ (KA6NML at the time) and I built a Heathkit HW-8 QRP 
CW rig in the high school electronics class. Both of us used this 
radio to make our first contacts on.

I quiclky outgrew CW and wanted to get the ability to use my first
HF transceiver, a Drake TR4C. I had bought this rig even before 
having a ham license. It's previous owner had converted the 10m band
to work on 11m CB frequencies :-(.

My parents let me take the day off and drove both Scott and myself
up to San Francisco to take the Genteral Class ham test. The
test consisted of a written technical test (Technician class) and
a 13 word per minute code test. Unfortunatly neither Scott or I 
passed the code test. I did manage to pass the written Technician
test and thus upgraded to that license class. 

I could use TWO METERS and actually use voice communications! The
problem was, I did not have a working radio! I did have an old
Heath "Benton Harbor Lucnchbox" that a second high school friend
Mike had sold to me. It was not really usable as it was AM and
used a single crystal for the transmitter. The only thing it
was of any use for was to listen in to the local ham clubs repeater.

A member of the ham club had a 2m rig that he wanted to sell. 
It was the same size as a mobile two-way radio, but had internal
space for AA batteries and a telescopic whip antenna that came
up out of the front control panel. It was not the greatest in
portability, but he let me borrow it to see if I would be interested
in buying it and to get me on the air. I remember my first attempt
at trying to contact someone with it. I had a couple of high school
friends, both who were intersted in ham radio, one was Scott with
his novice license, the other was Mike who wanted to get into the
hobby. Well, I was there with the others as an audience and was 
all set for the big moment of finallay getting on the air with
voice! I tuned the crystal rig to the channel for the local 
repeater and keyed the mike and felt all powerful as soon as I 
heard the repeater come back with the classic ker-chunk sound. 
Now for the big moment, time to call for someone. I keyed the
mike once more and called CQ...... But wait, you say, you don't
call CQ on a repeater! Unfortunatly I didn't know that. Someone
immediatly came on and told me that one does not call CQ on a
repeater. I was so embarrased. It was probably not until a year
later that I tried getting on VHF again. I ended up returning the
semi-portable radio to its owner and was very thankful for him
letting me borrow it (KH6CT I think). I later got a Heathkit 2M
handheld. It was huge compared to modern HT's, but was great for
me, especially considering I was just a high school student with
no job, and the radio only cost $75.00.

More details to come:

- Getting the General class license
- Drake TR-4C HF Rig
- Listening to the first ham in space on the space shuttle
- The CalPoly Years, 
  - The Earthquake and my name in the school paper
  - Fun with mobile ATV
  - T Hunts and Project Cobra
  - Scheds with Roy and the 80 M "beam"
- Hamswaps and Fleamarkets
- Obsession with acquiring HT's 

TO BE CONTINUED...



 
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

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