Now that I'm into my 40th year as a ham, there are many quite memorable 
experiences.

Here are several that can be told in a sentence or two.

At 2:30 AM one Saturday morning in February of 1970, I called CQ on 7175, 
using my Viking Ranger transmitter, Hammarlund HQ110 receiver, and the 
folded dipole that I've mentioned here several times. I was answered by a 
KH6, and we talked for 30 minutes.

In July of that year, using the same equipment with a loaded 15 meter 
rotatable dipole built from the ARRL Handbook, I worked Australia and 
Holland about 20 minutes apart for my first DX outside the states and 
Canada.

The antenna was only at 20 feet, almost a half wave up for 15 meters. Once I 
replaced it with an old TH4
tri-bander, 3 other Novice friends used that dipole for their first DX 
contacts before it finally came down in a storm.

When I attended my first Birmingham, Alabama hamfest in 1972, I met the 
first ham that I talked with on AM after passing my General in 1970. By 
then, we had talked regularly for 2 years, and had both just gotten sideband 
rigs.

More to come later.



Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs