In 1992 I was working in Wake Forest, NC, when RARS, the local club, hosted a SAREX exercise in which a two-way Space Shuttle link was established and forwarded to schoolchildren at several area elementary schools. A coworker, WB4DDK, brought his HT to listen in. Eavesdropping on that exercise sparked my interest in the hobby.
Several months later, I had returned to IBM's employ and met KC4UQN, who was active in RARS. Through this association, I developed enough of an interest to actually do something about it. I purchased and studied "Now You're Talking", and in January of 1993, passed the written test for my no-code Technician license.
It only took until early March for my first license to arrive in the mail. I bought a mostly-working Icom 2AT handheld and KD4YRU was on the air! I operated 2M from the HT and a mag-mount antenna for a while, and finally bought an old (again mostly-working) Yaesu FT-2700RH. Something in that 2m/70cm rig took a moment to lock onto the right frequency when I keyed up, producing a "twang" on every transmission. We never did figure out its cause - it became my on-the-air signature.
One evening I was building a J-pole antenna for 2 meters and asked on the repeater for some advice. My call was answered by AC4ZO, who not only helped resolve whatever was bothering me about my wire antenna, but also helped me construct one from copper pipe. Both of those antennas are still on active duty today.
The other thing AC4ZO left me with that evening was the CW bug. Not a physical bug, although he's got a bunch of beauties - he infected me with the interest in CW operating. Within a short time, having studied on my own using SuperMorse, Jeff hosted my first honest-to-goodness CW QSO -- I worked a fellow driving a tractor-trailer rig, somewhere in Georgia, on 80 meters.
Shortly thereafter, I had studied enough to pass my 5-word test, and actually did a bit of on-my-own CW operating, thanks to a 40m dipole erected with help from AB4EL and NA4G.
Then came the wife, and the kids, and for five years I was busy building my family instead of my ham career.
Christmas 1999 brought an encouragement from my wife to buy a new rig. And so a Radio Shack HTX-242 became mine. And along with it came a renewal to my ham career.
The license callsign changed first, in March. I chose the "KJD" part after my initials, of course. I had wanted the "N4" prefix, since if I'd have gotten my first ticket a year or two earlier, I'd have had that prefix. But alas, "N4KJD" was still in use by its original owner. I didn't like the sound of "K4KJD", so "W4KJD" was the one.
Then after the FCC changed the rules, I went ahead and took the easy upgrade to General. And when my wife took the kids to Texas to visit her family, I strung an HF loop antenna in the attic. So now if I can drag myself out of bed early enough in the morning, I can squeeze in a practice QSO on the low end of 40 meters before the family wakes up.