Nice post Phil and congrats.  I started out with a ARC5 converted and sx28A 
then got into the DX100 and used it for many years.  got the Drake T4XB and 
R4B which I used for years as well.  It was a lot of fun My favorite now is 
the Kenwood 940. 73, Barb
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 11:39 PM
Subject: My 40th Ham Radio Anniversary


> Next Tuesday, it dawned on me, will be my 40th ham radio anniversary.  I 
> was
> 14 years young at the time I got my novice license.  I was at the Nebraska
> School for the Blind.  We had, normally, a DX60B and the SX99 for the
> receiver but when I got my ticket in the mail, the DX60B, as it often was,
> had to be repaired.  So we hooked up a little A T 1, which I forget now 
> who
> made it but it ran about 30 watts I think, and we fired it up on 80 
> meters.
> My call was WN0ORO and my first contact was a guy in the same state whose
> call was WN0OHO.  We became friends and hung out together on sideband for
> years.  Six months later, I took my general test when the FCC came through
> Omaha and passed by the skin of my teeth.  Our club station at the school
> for the blind was updated to the HT37 and a the HQ180X and we were in hog
> Heaven.  My novice days were super fun with a DX20 and a BC348 receiver. 
> I
> started out with a 100 foot long wire and no tuner.  Just about 4 months
> into being a novice, I got the Viking Ranger 1 and used it with the same
> BC348 receiver but put up an 80 and 40 meter dipole.  Wow, what a
> difference.  My mom purchased for me the H A 1 T O electronic keyer and
> paddle for 75 dollars when I passed my general so I got to use the keyer 
> for
> about 3 to 4 weeks on the novice bands until my general ticket came in the
> mail.  Wow, did I think I was hot bananas running the keyer as a novice,
> too.  In later years, I got to be good CW buddies with W9TO who designed 
> the
> T O keyer I owned as a novice.  When I got my General, my mom generously
> purchase for me at Christmas, a Drake TR4 and that was probably one of the
> most popular rigs of the day, besides the less expensive Galaxy and Heath
> Kit rigs.  I started working DX like crazy on 20, 15, and 10 and 
> eventually
> got a 3 element TH3 junior triband beam.  It was mounted on an 8 foot 
> tripod
> on the roof with the A R 22 rotor.  The beam was probably about 25 or 28
> feet but the bands in the mid to late sixties were red hot.  Believe it or
> not, I worked the bands with my Drake TR4 for the two weeks of Christmas
> vacation and then got a horrible cold and my voice was so bad, my friends 
> at
> school couldn't hardly recognize me.  In fact, they always said, they 
> never
> would have believed I was sick and staying home from school for an extra
> week if they hadn't heard me and how I sounded on the air.  Some of them
> nick named me Squeaky and still call me that when they call me on the 
> phone
> to this day.  I was, of course, WA0ORO till about 1979 when I passed my
> advanced and extra class tests and became AF0H, a dog of a call if I ever
> heard one, but had it until November of 1996 when I became K0NX.  Hard to
> believe I have had this call now nearly 10 years and will have to renew it
> again this year for the first time.  I think ham radio has been the 
> funnist
> hobbies I could have ever gotten into.  I could see until I was 11 years 
> old
> and got interest in electronics through a TV repair friend of mine when I
> was ten.  He took me on house calls and was teaching me the trade little 
> by
> little.  Then he showed me his DX60 and HQ129X and I was in love.
> Unfortunately, that was about the time my father died unexpectedly and a
> year later, my retinas fell apart and I was blind.  So ham radio and
> electronics almost died in my life until I was on lunch break at the
> Nebraska School for the blind, sitting in the lobby, and crying my eyes 
> out
> from home sickness when a guy sat down near me and started talking to me. 
> I
> wished he would buzz off but couldn't blame him for trying to change my
> feelings by talking to me until he said, Do you know anything about ham
> radio?  In seconds, we were in the ham shack and he was showing me the 
> gear.
> Home sickness was gone.  That kid became my best friends for many years
> until he passed away many years ago.  We spent hundreds of hours rag 
> chewing
> on the 80 meter novice bands as kids and then as generals, we talked even
> more.  I have gotten into all sorts of different things as a ham but CW 
> has
> always been my favorite and I don't know why.  I DXed for many years until 
> I
> got over 300 countries and then started DXing just on 80 and 40 meters.  I
> have always enjoyed contesting, too.  Now I mostly hang out on 2 meters 
> but
> when the bands pick up again, I'll fire up the rig and put up some new
> antennas on the tower.  I miss the old gear but I sure love all the new
> talking stuff for the blind ham that I never had before.  That vinyl tape 
> on
> the outer skirt of the VFO knob on my Drake TR4 sure would great, along 
> with
> the 100 KHz crystal calibrator, and I always ended up close to the 
> frequency
> I wanted, too.  I often think back on my novice days because I had more 
> fun
> that I ever dreamed during those months.  I've made hundreds of friends 
> from
> all over the planet, too.  So, 40 years makes me feel older at 54 years of
> age but I wouldn't trade the fun I have had for thousands of hours for
> anything else.  Well, sex is a close second even at my age.
>
> 73,
> Phil,
> K0NX
>
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