Oops, this not only went private to poor Barb, but I sent it before I
was done...
Well, since we're all waxing nostalgic, I reckon it's my turn!
October 24th (well, to be technical, October 20th, so says my first
license, now unfortunately long gone--but got it on the 24th), will
see my 19th anniversary as a ham this year. Next year--20 years--
who'd've thunk it? It's sort of like...I don't know, you never really
think you'll grow up, and you never really think about having done
anything for 20 years when you just get started. But here it is, this
side of 19 years, 20 years in site.
I've actually known about ham radio for ages and ages. In fact, I
have a vague memory of being about five and with a teacher and
walking into the ham radio station at the New Mexico School for the
Visually Handicapped when I was there and (obviously) very, very
young. I just remember some radio static, asking, "What's that?", and
someone telling me it's the ham radio station. In typical five-year-
old fashion, I just said, "Oh." And forgot about it.
Well, I guess I didn't really forget about it, though. I saw a book
when I was nine and thought, "Oh, ham radio, I think I've heard of
that." Reading the book, I thought (in typical stupid 9-year-old
fashion), "Oh. You can't play music on it? What good is it then?!" I
managed to meet some hams some time after that, but didn't give it
much thought then either. But it just wouldn't quit! Because a while
after that, we moved from Arizona to Texas, and I met an O&M
instructor who oriented me to the school I was going to, or
something, and, on the way home, he showed me his (you guessed it)
ham radio, made a phone patch to my mom, and I thought, "Oh well, now
isn't that interesting?" But it still didn't quit, because a few
years later, I found a book called "How To Become A Radio
Amateur" (Copyright 1950) and thought, "Oh, I've heard of that",
checked the book out, didn't understand a damned thing in it (well,
not much, anyway), and decided I'd get a ham radio license. (You see,
I can even learn, eventually.) I even thought, "Oh, well, I guess
I'll learn that morse code because I have to, but I don't think I'll
like it. I'll probably never even use it." How surprised was I that I
really not only learned it very easily, but absolutely fell in love
with it! Having a head for stupid details, I remembered that this O&M
instructor was a ham and somehow managed to let him know I wanted to
be a ham, too. So, Steve not only helped me get started, put up
antennas, lent me a receiver, helped me procure my first station,
took me to hamfests and field day and all sorts of things, but he
became a great friend.
Anyway, just six months after picking up that initial copy of How To
Become A radio Amateur, and several outdated study guides later (with
patient help from Steve), I passed my novice test. By the way, if
anyone knows where I can lay hands on a braille copy of this book,
I'd be forever grateful; if I knew that TSB was throwing theirs out--
the very one that got me started--I'd've asked for it, but I didn't
know, and it got thrown out without any input from me.
So that brought me to that Saturday, October 24th, 1987. I was
talking to a friend on the phone, and I think motor Week had just
gone off the TV. And my initial thought when my (uh. sister?) told me
what my new call letters were...was, "Yuck!" (You see, I really was
secretly hoping to get issued KB5LID mostly because I have a twisted
sense of humor.) But it grew on me...like a cancer?...and a week
later, I was making my first few contacts at Steve's ham shack. I
really wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, but then, I'd been
practicing for ages! My first contacts were on 15-meter cw; first
with KA1JDG, then WA9YMI. I think my first QSL card came from YMI. I
then made a couple of 10-meter phone contacts, which weren't nearly
as much fun as I thought they'd be (they were lots of fun, though!),
then one on 40-meter cw. The 15-meter novice band was my favorite
band thereafter, for several years. Even after I tried 10-meter
phone, 20-meter phone, lots of phone, lots of cw on several bands, 15-
meter novice band was the home of many, many memorable contacts. It
was the band I got the worst signal report I ever got, and probably
the worst signal report just about anyone ever got. JH1WIX, whom I
contacted again several months later, gave me a 219 signal report.
I was a 20-WPM Novice for a month, then got my General. Worked lots
of traffic nets. Made lots of wonderful friends. And the one striking
thing about ham radio for me, as a 14- and 15-year-old kid, was that
the hams fairly unversally treated me as an equal and with
respect...not like some dumb kid.
BTW, my first rig? A set of Drake twins. Fantastic rig. And as much
as I absolutely loved (and still love) cw, I used a straight key
exclusively for about three years, tried a Heath keyer for a while,
went back to the key, tried a bug and loved it. Now I use an
electronic keyer, but I really want another good hand key for my
desk. And a bug. There's just something about sending cw with
mechanical things. I should say, too, that unlike many of my modern
ham brethren, I didn't actually get on 2 meters (apart from Steve's
mobile) for about a year after I got licensed, and a good nine months
after I got my general.
So, even though my activity sort of drops off (like now, for
instance), I still love ham radio, and cw is my first ham radio love.
There were some amazing times, like that night in 1989 when I cruised
20 meter cw and had dx come back to my cq's for several hours; one of
those contacts was Lyuba, UA1OSA, who (I found out later) has a sort
of interesting background--look her up on QRZ. If I'd known then. ...
But I didn't, and having the dx just sitting there without much
effort was just amazing to me. Wow but that was an amazing evening.
Sure wish I still had access to those logs, but I don't. Or what
about those evenings on the Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net, when a
big hurricane was coming and my friends on the coast, some of them
just weren't leaving. They got through OK, though. Just lots of
stuff. Now I'm starting to play with QRP. Still can't quite bring
myself to try hf digital modes, though.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV : Independent Watkins Associate #361534
Email: [log in to unmask] : Phone: 888-752-8339
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