It all started back when I was a young boy. I remember back in the 60's my grandfather had a CB radio with a tower, beam and the whole show. It was the peak of a sunspot cycle then and I remember sitting in the basement with him listening to "skip". The thought of communicating with people in far off places intrigued me. One Christmas my grandfather gave me a set of walkie talkies. Starting then, I was very curious as to how things worked, and was always trying to improve the the performance of my new toys. As a young boy, when I took something apart to see how it worked, it no longer would function as it used to.
In 1975 I got my first CB of my own, a Midland 23 channel job. I remember the thing cost $289. Back then that was quite a bit of money. I had a great time with it as the medium was very popular in my area and I made a lot of friends. One of my friends that I met went by the handle of "Stoneaxe". His real name was Jamie. He was the same age as I was and we seemed to have a lot in common. When I went to his house for the first time, he took me to see his dad's "ham shack". Now this was COOL! I remember his dad had a Drake TR4C, Swan 350, Heathkit SB220 amplifier, and a nice tower and beam. In the shack there was this map on the wall with a pointer that showed which direction the antenna was pointing. Right then I decided, ham radio was something I really wanted to get involved in. Being able to communicate with people around the world was thrilling. Up to this point, the most exciting contacts I had made were with some hicks in Georgia and Alabama. Jamie's father "Richard" WA0ONE said that if I learned the code and studied, that he would administer my novice exam.
I practiced my code for many weeks, and studied my theory. I passed my novice back in September of 1976. My first station was a complete piece of shit. I had a Heathkit DX60 transmitter, and a Lafayette HA-350 Receiver. The transmitter was crystal controlled and I owned 4 crystals. The receiver was OK, but drifted some. I didn't work any DX with this station, however under these conditions making any type of contact at all was a challenge. I continued to work on my code, and study my theory and was prepared to take my General exam in the Fall of 1976.
The FCC came up to Duluth, MN twice a year to administer amateur exams, Fall and Spring. In the Spring of 1977 Jamie and I went to Duluth to take our general exams. I passed the theory without a hitch, and was very prepared for the code. Back then to pass I had to copy one minute of error free code. If I remember right they sent 4 or 5 minutes worth. The code exam consisted of a code tape played though a piece of shit tape player in one of the rooms at the county courthouse. The echo in the room there was terrible. I remember my Jamie arguing with one of the examiners about the terrible acoustics in the room that the code exam was given in. The lady didn't show any any sympathy to Jamie at all, in fact this woman was a cold as ice. She must have been in her 50's and had a nose like a beak. From that day forward, we would refer to her as "The Hawk" because she looked like a bird, and when she was administering an exam, she would watch everyone like a hawk. Unfortunately my friend Jamie did not pass, and would have to wait until Spring to retake his code, or make the journey to St. Paul, MN to take it in a month.
The next month, we went to St. Paul to see "The Hawk", so that Jamie could retake his General. Since I was along for the ride, I decided to take a crack at the Advanced. I failed miserably. In fact I had to see "The Hawk" again 4 more times before I passed. I finally passed my Advanced at the beginning of 1978. When I passed the Advanced, "The Hawk" asked me if I wanted to take a stab at the Extra. I decided, what the heck so I went into the room to take my 20 WPM. Since I had been practicing my code quite a bit, 20 WPM error free was no problem. When I took the theory, I failed miserably. I've never really had the energy or the desire to try again.
In the Spring of 1977 I got my first "real" piece of amateur equipment, a Yaesu FT101E. I loved that rig and really took good care of it. (Whoever owns it now owns a fine piece of vintage equipment). I racked up quite a few contacts and got involved in some nets. We had a regular group of high school age guys that hung around on 3950. One thing these guys liked to do which was fun was play chess over the air. I met quite a few of the 3950 boys at the hamfests and sometimes wonder what some of them are up to these days.
When I moved out of my parents house, I mothballed my ham gear. I didn't operate at all from the years 1982-1996. I remember what got me back into ham radio was surfing the web and coming across a review for the Yaesu FT50-R handheld. This rig was tiny, but packed 5 watts. I thought it was cool and bought one. I then came to realize soon that having a hand held as your primary rig was quite frustrating. I eventually went out and bought a real 2 meter rig and put an antenna out on the roof. As I became aquatinted with some of the guys on the 225 repeater, I got the urge to break out the HF gear from the mothballs. Since I live in an antenna restricted community, antennas would be a challenge. I tried some attic antennas, but the whole thing frustrated me so I gave up on the idea of operating HF from this QTH.
These days my operating consists of only 2 meters and that is fine with me. I don't really have the time to operate much anyway. I have met some very nice people on the 225 repeater and enjoy talking with them. The next QTH I buy will be purchased with ham radio in mind so that I can put up some outdoor antennas. When I moved into this QTH I wasn't active and antenna restrictions didn't matter to me. This goes to show that you never completely get out of ham radio. Circumstances may come up that prevent a person from operating for many years, but the hobby is still in the blood.