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Hello All,

My Elmer was Neal Cox (K5WZI). Neal used to purchase antenna wire, coax, insulators, and electronic components from me when I was employed at Radio Shack. He invited me to his home one fall evening and demonstrated several CW QSOs on his Heathkit HW16. He built the HW16 along with a 40 and 80 meter inverted vee on top of a homebrewed 40 foot “A-frame” tower. An “A-frame” tower can be found in the 1973 ARRL Handbook on page 619 and it is made from three knot-free 24 foot 2X4s. It is a cost effective 40 foot mast in the day.  After watching Neal work several stations and translating code to paper I was hooked.


That winter I began to study for my Novice class written test. I also practiced code on a homebrewed code oscillator and listening to CW on my EMCO Shortwave Radio kit. My parents gave me the EMCO Shortwave Radio as a Christmas gift and I built it the previous year. In the spring I contacted the Dallas Amateur Radio Club to schedule a Novice test. Jim Haynie (W5JBP) came to my parent's home to administer the test and I passed. The following day I went to the Heathkit store in Dallas, Texas to purchase a HW16 and HG10B. While impatiently waiting for my license to arrive in the mail, I built the HW16 and HG10B and put up a 40/80 meter dipole. My Novice license (WB5MWL) finally arrived and I have been on the air ever since.

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