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THE BEGINNING I still remember the first day I was introduced to Electricty and all the wonders that evolve from it. I was around 3 years of age, and standing in my bedroom. I had just finished playing some records (they were 78's back then, thick heavy plastic records) and was unplugging my record player. The first pull didn't quite free the plug from the wall socket, so I moved my hand up further onto the plug to get a better grip. In doing so, my fingers came into contact with the two prongs on the plug, and I received my first shock! Did I cry and scream? Nope, I grabbed it again, and received my second shock! Interesting I thought, what caused that? Well it must be something inside the wall grabbing me! So I grabbed further down the cord and gave it a hefty yank, freeing the plug from the wall. Getting down on my knees, I looked carefully inside the socket to see if I could catch a glimpse of what had grabbed me, no luck. It must be hiding in there I thought. So looking around my room I found something to dig it out with, great I thought, I found a good strong nail! Sticking the nail into the wall socket, gave me my third shock! "AH!" I yelled. Hmmm, this is going to be harder than I thought, so I stuck the nail in again, and again, and again. Every time I stuck the nail in, I got a shock, and every time I got a shock I yelled "AH!". My mother, sitting in the living room, kept hearing me yell, so after the 5th or 6th "AH!" she decided to investigate to see what I was up to. I'll never forget the look on her face as she stood in the doorway and screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" Of course, naturally, that scared me and I stuck the nail in again, "AH!", I yelled. "WHACK!!!" the flat of her hand met the flatness of my butt! "AH!" I yelled, only this time it wasn't from the nail! After that mom and dad sat me down to explain the dangers of electricity, about as well as you can to a 3 year old. It seems after that I noticed other things that were plugged into the wall, and was fascinated by that fact. We lived across the street from a big open field, and it's there that the annual circuses and carnivals sat up. In those days, when you played games like tossing the ring, you didn't win stuffed animals, plastic rings, rulers etc. but could win good prizes like radios! I remeber the first radio I won tossing the rings. It was Bright Red Plastic Bodied RCA Table Top AM Radio. With Black Push Buttons on the top. It worked great, and would love the smell of the plastic heating up as the warm red glow of the tubes cast their glow on the wall behind it. As a matter of fact, I won that radio some time in the mid 50's and we were still using it on a daily basis into the late 70's. A few years later, I won another radio, what made this one so unique, was it was a PORTABLE RADIO!! Yep, and it had tubes in it too! I remember the day I told dad I had saved up enough of my allowance to buy the needed batteries to power it without the AC cord. 3 batteries, supplying 110 volts! The largest being a 90 volt battery. It looked a lot like a 9 volt in shape, but much larger. On the way home from the store, after purchasing the batteries, we were pulling into the drive, the top of the 90 volt battery stuck out through the top of the paper bag they were in. Hmm, I wondered, what would happen if I stuck my tongue on those two metal posts sticking up. Well, I guess there is only 1 way to find out, so I did it. WOW! That was the first time I ever had my tongue rush to the back of my throat like that, my head snapped back and I felt my eyes rolling back into my head. Dad noticed the reaction, but not what caused it. He asked, "Are you ok?" I thought quickly! "Yes, I'm fine!", I replied. NO WAY was I going to tell him what I had done, or no doubt my batteries would have been long gone. The radio worked great on those batteries, but it sure didn't last long. After only a few days of running it, I barely heard a peep out of it, so reverted back to plugging it into the wall. Over the years I've owned a lot of radios, and have built quite a few as well. Everything from crystal AM radios, to radio kits, to radios from scratch. Covering AM, FM, SW, and Ham. In the late 50's dad introduced a new radio into the house, a CB. It was a Globe, a big blue hulking piece of metal, with tubes in it, and 3 Channels. The interesting part about it, was not only could you hear people talking on it, you could actually answer them back! This really intrigued me! I continued buying other radios as well, each with more features, more band coverages. Sometime in the mid 60's I bought a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Shortwave Radio. It was interesting to tune through the dial and hear people talking, even in foreign languages. Hearing different musics etc. I kept hearing this beep beep beep stuff, but really didn't understand what it was, or who was doing it or why! One day while tuning through the bands, I heard someone talking about being in Florida, and the other person talking about being in Wisconsin. I listened to their conversation intently and heard a few terms like Ham, and Amateur Radio. Somewhere along the line I asked the right person and they explained what this was all about. Not knowing where to start, or how to start it was some time before I ever got the chance to try it. In the meantime I got my own walkie talkies first, a set of Midland 100mw units. Then graduated to my own Mobile CB a few years after I got my drivers license. A 6 channel system set me back almost $100 on sale. That was a lot of money back then, but I earned it. Then I got a 23 channel mobile, then a 23 channel base, and the bug still gnawed inside me about Ham Radio. One day while shopping at a radio shack I spied a book entitled, "From 5 watts to 1000". I picked it up and paged through it. WOW this is what I have been looking for, all the information about how to get started in Ham Radio. In the book I noticed it said to get your Novice Ticket you had to have a Ham rated a General or above give you the test. Great, I thought, where am I going to find a Ham to give me the test. I took the book to the counter and told the sales clerk I really wanted the book but didn't know a Ham to give me the novice test. He looked at me for a second and said, "You know that TV Place across the street? Go there and ask for Hoot, he's been a Ham for years, maybe he can help you out!" Quickly I placed my money down on the counter and bought the book. Two minutes later I was standing in the TV Place and asking if Hoot was there. The sales clerk disappeared into the service area, and was followed out momentarily by a short blond haired man. "Hi, I'm Hoot, can I help you?" he asked. I explained my dilema to him, and asked if he could help me. For the next few minutes Hoot told me all the important things I had to study, and gave me hints on how to study for the code exam as well. He then told me to call him, when I thought I was ready for the test. A few weeks later I called, and he said he'd call me back when the test arrived and set up a time and day to take it. The test came and I took it, Hoot seemed satisfied that I passed the test, and told me to go home and wait for my first Ham Ticket to arrive in the mail, which it did shortly after.... WB9ZCO! NOVICE! I devored everything I could about Ham Radio, from ARRL. I learned I could upgrade by going to Chicago to the FCC office and testing there. It wasn't long before I made my first trip there and upgraded to Tech. Now I could talk, not just code, but was limited to only VHF and higher frequencies, I wanted to talk all over the world! That came true before too long, when I upgraded to General. That kept me satisfied for some time, but eventually I wanted even more frequencies to talk on, so upgraded to Advanced. Which is where I have been ever since. Some day, when I get a little more time to sharpen up my Code Skills, I'm gonna go upgrade to Top Dog and get my Extra Ticket! CONTINUED CLICK HERE