I was originally licensed August of 1982 in Hobbs, New Mexico as a Novice, with the call sign of KA5OZW. My elmer was/is (does your elmer stop being your elmer if you lose touch?) Jim, KU5N. My first rig was a Heathkit HW-8 that I built myself. I still have it, by the way. After countless CW contacts, in February of 1985, I upgraded to my present General class with the callsign of N5HSG and stayed strictly CW until I joined the Navy.
After boot camp, I was stationed at NATTC Millington, Tennessee where I worked at, and operated the Navy club station W4ODR. The facilities were so great at 'ODR that I was able to work nearly every band and mode (we even had SSTV equipment). I couldn't help but get into SSB. This is also where I met my best friend Dave, N0DET.
In 1987, we moved to Oak Harbor, Washington north of Seattle, on Whidbey Island. Again, I had the pleasure of working at, and operating the Navy club station W7UMX which was also a very active Navy MARS station with the callsign NNN0NUW. We enjoyed lots of ship-to-shore phone patches, MARS telegrams, contests, repairs, homebrewing, tinkering, countless antenna projects, disaster drills, real disasters (in the form of plane crashes in the mountains), training, and just plain goofing around. Under the watchful eye of Digger KF6NW, I learned a lot and had a great time doing it. I even acquired the personal MARS callsigns NNN0BXN and NNN0TBD. It was also in Oak Harbor that I met my girlfriend Denise, N7XWS (a tech-plus, by the way).
Well, it had to happen. I got out of the Navy and moved to Dallas-FtWorth, TX. I thought that there would be so much more activity in the area, but as it turns out, I couldn't find my niche. I tried the Arlington Amateur Radio Club, but just couldn't get into it. Not enough ham radio related activity. I'm not really into parades and ice cream socials. I was somewhat active in local Navy MARS as well, but I found it mostly boring. It seems I was too accustomed to the fast pace of Region 7 in the Pacific Northwest. Region 3 in North Texas was too slow. They also had no teletype nets, which was my "thing". So I left the program.
Here I am, settled down, with the best station I've ever owned, and little or no desire to operate. Dave and I still get on the air every once and a while, but not like we used to. No sir. And with the obvious demise of amateur radio (in the form of the new licensing structure), I don't see myself becoming any more active than I already am. So, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
