My Ham Radio Story
As you can see from the main page, my ham radio hobby has spanned many years, and like many seems to change and grow in different areas of the hobby.
My first experience with hearing a bit about ham radio was our church pastor while I was in high school. Pastor Waag had a bunch of funny looking antennas mounted all over his car. I never knew what they were there for, but I was told never to touch them when he was talking on the microphone. He never pushed ham radio unless you asked and I don't remember asking him about what he could do with ham radio. I do know I never touched the antennas on his car, but I did look and wonder.
Getting hooked on the hobby was another matter. I was working as News Director of radio station KGGF in Coffeyville, Kansas. One of our engineers, Ivan Ray, since a SK was a ham operator and we began talking about the hobby one day and he eventually invited me over to see his shack! That Saturday afternoon I saw a room full of equipment, knobs, wires and also an invitation to listen to "the band". Ivan turned on his rigs and moved the rotor controls as I watched his beam turn. Then we started hearing signals from Japan and Australia. He made a contact with Japan and asked me to talk to the ham operator. I did and was hooked! How could I get into this hobby where I could talk half-way around the world from my home?
Eventually I attended classes at night to study theory and code...eventually passing my Novice test. Excited I found a used Transmitter and Receiver for about $75. I wired a dipole in the backyard and started listening to the receiver and practice copying CW. The entire neighborhood could hear the racket from my garage. One day I made a contact with the straight key and a ham from Ohio answered and then another from Michigan and Wisconsin! A few weeks later I got a warning from a Volunteer Monitoring Station that I was out of band and must respond within a week as to why and what I did to correct the problem! Apparently the VFO was not calibrated properly. The idea of communicating with code was frightening enough...now a letter ordering me to correct something! I promptly sold the gear, took down dipole and put my license away in a folder. After all, I only wanted to TALK to the guy in Japan and not operate CW!
It wasn't until almost ten years later while working at KTWO TV & Radio in Casper, Wyoming that another engineer told me that some changes had been made and it was now possible to talk on SSB with a license class I held and that my time was running out to renew. I looked into it and he was right! I renewed my license and then began the upgrade process that lasted many years, bring me to the Extra level I hold today.
Many of the friends I know today are folks that I have met on 2-meters or through the ham radio hobby. Hope you have as much fun with it as I do!!!
73 de Fred N7MNY
Visits since March 24, 2002
Updated: March 25, 2002
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