hi phil.

that's a great story..

73 glen
ka9yiu


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 4:15 PM
Subject: Novice Days


> What I didn't mention in my story of the first contact I ever made was 
> what
> I did to find out the news of my ticket coming in the mail.  I had made
> sure, a hundred times, that my mother would call me, day or night, 
> whenever
> my license came in the mail.  It came that Monday, April 25, 1966.  She 
> knew
> school was out at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and when she got home from
> worked and picked up the mail, there was an envelope from the FCC and she
> knew.  After opening the letter and reading my call sign, what it was. 
> She
> picked up the phone, back then I think you still had to go through a long
> distance operator; I don't believe dial #1 had come in to play as of yet, 
> at
> least, we all still were using rotary phone dials.  Anyhow, I was on an 
> all
> boys student council and I had been voted in to represent the 8th grade.
> Robert Lesley Newman, Whom I have always known as just bob Newman, whom 
> you
> all often see on these mailing lists, not this one but others, with his
> monthly blind related issue that he posts on his website, was our student
> council president.  I was walking down the hall and turned left to angle
> over to the open door of the library where every Monday after school, the
> counsel had their meetings.  As I began to pass the open door to the
> school's office, the secretary looked up and saw me.  "Oh, Phil, say, 
> Phil."
> I stopped at the open door as I passed and looked in and said, "yes?" 
> "You
> have a long distance call.  I have the phone right here at my desk so come
> in."  My uncle freed lived in Kansas and often, when coming to see us in
> Omaha, would stop at the school for the blind and get me out of class and
> we'd go out to eat and visit for awhile before he continued on, either to
> our house, or into Iowa to visit relatives there, or he'd head south to
> Wichita Kansas where he was retired.  So it could have been Uncle Fred
> calling me because he did that often, too.  Taking the phone from the
> secretary, I heard my mom's voice say, "Philip, your ham radio license 
> came
> in the mail today."  "It did!" I nearly yelled.  "what's the call 
> letters?"
> I made her repeat them a half a dozen times, then I repeated it several
> times myself back to her into the phone, and then even repeated them again
> letter by letter to be 100 percent certain I had it right.  Hanging up the
> phone, I spun and headed out the open office door; pointed directly down 
> the
> hall where the ham shack was about 150 feet away.  The principle, or who 
> we
> called the school superintendent, had just walked into the secretary's 
> area
> from his private office and he said, "So you got your license today, 
> Phil?"
> I turned my head almost 180 degrees around but kept walking as fast as I
> could go down the hall, and said, "I sure did."  He said congratulations, 
> or
> something I can't recall now, because I was gone.  After my contact was
> over, it was 5 o'clock and time for everyone to go to the dorm to get 
> ready
> for supper.  As I was walking upstairs with other friends working on 
> getting
> their ham tickets, one of the student council members heard me and said,
> "Hey, Scovell.  You never showed up for the student council meeting 
> today."
> He knew where I had gone because the superintendent had told them I 
> wouldn't
> be at the student council meeting that afternoon because I had gotten my 
> ham
> ticket and was down in the ham shack so they'd be conducting the meeting
> without me.  I always appreciated him for allowing me to do what I did
> because my mind had totally blanked out except for one thing.  CQ.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX