since we are sharing stories here, i'll just say that my brother and i 
both got into ham radio at the same time, went to classes together, 
studied with the tapes in his room, etc, and then we took our novice 
tests, we both passed and when our licenses came back in the mail we got 
sequential calls mine, kb0cly and his, kb0clz so of course since my family 
thought the sequential calls was cool, we kept the calls even after the 
tech test and got shirts with our call, i did anyway not sure if he ever 
did.
anyway lets just say being that our stepdad is an idiot to put it nicely, 
our rigs were never set up exactly right so we were constantly 
interfeering with their tv downstairs, we would always pin the meter on 10 
meters and im just glad we never got told about it..anyway yes i told them 
several times how they suggest to set things up..etc, noooo, they never 
would listen so basically our ham shack was my upstairs bedroom with a 
dipole outside the window, on two poles set apart about 10 ft or so with a 
metal wire between each leg of the dipole and the other hole on the side 
of the house had a wire running from the radio clear down to a rod burried 
in the ground, for the ground..im thinking that rig had many many problems
anyway since i moved out i still have my license and a tnc, but no radio 
but planning to change that
so..there is my 2 or 3 cents..



On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, David R. Basden wrote:

> I guess the pattern has been laid down, so here is my story.
>
> My 50th anniversary will be December 26 of this year.  I got started
> with an old Admiral AM table radio that picked up some short wave
> stations for some reason.  I later got a Hallicrafters Trans World
> TW1000, which was the Halllicrafters version of the Zenith Trans
> Oceanic.  Then a ham moved in across the street and, after watching
> him operate for a while, I took my novice exam.  My dad was stationed
> at Eielson AFB near Fairbanks at the time, so my first call was
> WL7CAJ.  My mom put together a Heathkit DX35 and I borrowed a
> National NC120 from the ham across the street.  I used a 40-meter
> dipole hung under an 80-meter dipole and fed with 72-ohm
> twinlead.  Being DX, I got lots of action on the bands.  Later I
> borrowed a Hallicrafters SX28 from another ham, which had a lot
> better band spread.  That ham gave me my conditional class test
> before my novice year was up.
>
> When my dad was rotated back to the states (Alaska was not quite a
> state yet then), my mom bought me a Hallicrafters SX100 out of the
> Sears catalog to go with my DX35.  We landed at an AFB in Idaho and
> my call was K7BNA.  I put up a Hy-Gain TH3 on the flat roof of our
> two-story apartment and rotated it with an AR22 that had a roto brake on it.
>
> Later I bought a Globe Scout 66 to replace the DX35 as the latter was
> not put together very well.  My mom was helpful, but not a great
> solderer!  I later traded the TH3, rotor, and rooftop tower to a
> friend for a Central Electronics 20A with a converted BC348 (I think)
> as the VFO.  That put me on sideband, although I was always more of a
> CW op.  The addition of a Globe Linear LA-1 and a Hamarlund 120A
> HQ170C set my station up nicely.  Then I got married  and moved to
> California to attend graduate school ...  My equipment was sold to
> pay for a used car and I let my license lapse.  In those days the
> conditional class license taken before another ham was only good for
> five years and wasn't renewable.
>
> In 1976 I relicensed in California with the call WA6QND.  I took the
> novice, technician, general, advanced, and extra all in one session
> at the FCC field office in Sanfrancisco on Friday the 13th of
> August.  It was my lucky day as I passed them all.
>
> My first rig after relicensing was a Kenwood TS-520 with a Hustler
> 4BTV vertical.  I traded for a Tentec Omni later when the WB5MRB
> voice readout was created for the Tentec.  When extra class licensees
> were allowed a short call, I applied for and got the call AF6Y.  Now
> I live in Oregon with the call W7OQ and have a Kenwood TS480.
>
> Over the years I have had a lot of fun with amateur radio, but it was
> the most fun when I first started.  When I relicensed, I had another
> flury of activity chasing DX.  I fully expect another round of
> activity here in Oregon if the bands were just a bit better...
>
> That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
>
> 73,
>
> Dave, W7OQ
>