Received my Novice ticket and became KN0VMO, July 1959. Then, just a grade
  school kid in  Glenwood, Minnesota. John Spencer, K0IUC (Item Uncle Charlie,
  as he'd say)  was  my  ham radio  mentor  and  George Lord, W0GTX,  a great
  lifelong friend  gave me  the test in the office of the Ford dealer in Glenwood.


"With this you have passed your novice exam" were the
words  George  pounded  out  for  the 5 wpm code test.
He said  it was  7 wpm  but  seemed  to me like 25 wpm.
Thought for  sure  I'd  never  get it right.  My gosh, the
pressure, my skull's gonna implode from all the tension,
I'll be doomed to look  like Beetlejuice, in his final scene. 


Put that boogerman back in his closet. After what seemed like a year
this genuine  FCC ticket  showed up,  brought by our friendly mailman
known  to everyone  as "Gumbo" ,  he always called me "high pockets".
George was born in South Dakota. Learned railroad
morse code  and made his first  rig out of a Model
T spark coil in 1914. Served in Army Signal Corps in
WWI. George got me involved in Army MARS. He was
very active and wrote the MN MARS Newsletter for
at  least 25  years,  accrued many awards.  He was
active in civic affairs and enjoyed playing the organ.

George's  shack  was  amazing  to a  young kid.   He
used a Drake 2B receiver and an HT-37 transmitter.
He  also  made  use  of  a  linear  amp,  an  SP-600
receiver  and a Kleinschmidt  TT-100 RTTY  hooked to
a W2PAT terminal unit.  He had other pieces of gear
in his shack  that I had no idea what  they were for.

Waiting for the "ticket" seemed  like years, but, plenty to keep busy.
 Placed  an order to  Heathkit  for a DX-40,  put it together,  strung
up  an  antenna  and last of all,  finding  a place  to put everything.

      Our coal furnace  had been  replaced  with  an oil  burner a few  years  earlier  so there
      was a space,  with the chimney  on my  right,  furnace  on  the  left  and  the oil  tank
      behind, where we could set up the rig in our home at  216 E. Chestnut St. in Glenwood.
 

 
 

       Mom wouldn't hear of that "thing" being in my upstairs bedroom.
       It would  be  put  in  the  cellar  or no  where and that was that.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

John Spencer's an  avid DX'er,  always seeking that "rare
one",  only needs  North Korea and  Scarborough Reef to
have 'em all. Couple of days after the 'ticket' showed up,
K0IUC, managed to get through the pileup and  QSO the
KN0VMO DXpedition 150 mtrs. South of his QTH. Signals
were an astonishing 599+. Great "tropospheric ducting"
or  Scattered 'E' that day, huh.    Yup, that had to be it.

Darn near blew me out of the cellar, he did, with his DX-100.
 
 

Few days later  "Gumbo"  shows up with his QSL  but no green  stamps  or IRC's
though. Them's was the days of the 3 cent stamp pasted right on the card, hey.

November '59,  George  tested  me   for a  Conditional Class.  A  Conditional
was a  mail-in  General Class  for folks  living in the sticks. Anyway, bombed
the written  part.  Had to  memorize  everything,  not  far  along  enough  in
school to understand anything but arithmetic and some basic eletrical ideas.

No problem with code, a determined
kid  can do code, easy. January '60,
re-took  the  exam,  George, W0GTX,
gave the code test  again, but, had
spent  more  time memorizing circuit
diagrams. Yes!
 
 
 
 
 

Now in our home at 219 E.  Birch St.  Lot twice as big,  good,  more room for antennas;  not
so fun mowing and raking, bad news. No more cellar either, now a basement and finished off,
slick.  Oh yeah, we got snow, also have a shovel and guess who got lots of practice using it.

     From 1960 to 1963 continued  to operate from Glenwood.  Some equipment changes to  use
     the new operator privileges. The old Viking II still cranks out a signal. Carry it with a fork lift.