Amen to that one. I think them dumming down the liscence program is a crying 
shame. I still think the novice and code should be still enforced. I can see 
why they got rid of the advanced class, but not all the other things. I to 
had to do the code for my extra in 1988.

Carolyn Kj4vt


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 7:19 AM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day

> Very interesting, Phil.
>
> I got my Extra back in 1996, when you still had to do the 20 WPM CW, and 
> am
> proud of that to this day. ...  CW has always been my favorite operating
> mode.
>
> I'd say that now, I'm comfortable with a cruising speed of around 26 to 28
> WPM, but in contesting, I can go considerably faster since the exchanges 
> are
> usually relatively short.
>
> People often suggest that CW is dying, but I disagree.  It's always very
> easy to find any time of the day or night, and on contest week-ends, it's
> usually wall-to-wall on all of the involved bands.
>
> 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
> Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 1:15 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day
>
> Tom,
>
> I saw my first ham stations, a DX60 and the HQ129X receiver over at a
> friend's house whose older brother repaired televisions and was into ham
> radio when I was age ten.  No, actually, I was about 7 the first station I
> saw but I didn't understand what it was for even though the guys there 
> tried
> explaining it to me.  At age ten, I wanted to go into electronics after my
> friend's brother let me watch him in his work room and took me on house
> calls to repair televisions.  But a few months later, my father died
> unexpectedly and six months after that, my retinas began shredding into 
> tiny
> pieces.  I've had about 30 operations and medical procedures in my 62 
> years
> and about 15 of those were on my eyes and almost all of those were before 
> I
> turned 12.  It was at the school for the blind I discovered they had a ham
> stations and wouldn't you know it, another DX60 transmitter.  I dove head
> first into learning the code and in less than a week, had all the numbers,
> letters, and punctuation memorized and began practicing with others trying
> to study for their test.  My Elmer told me I was copying 10 WPM when I
> passed the novice code test and 20 WPM when I passed the general 7 months
> after passing the novice.  I didn't take my advanced class until something
> like 1977 or so so I lost half my phone bands due to incentive  licensing
> which I'm still mad about to this day, haha.  I took my extra in the fall 
> of
> 1978 and that was, of course, when you still had to send and receive 20 
> WPM.
>
> I lost some time during college and early married life but I always had a
> receiver somewhere and a friend's house which I could go and operate all 
> day
> so I've never been far from those dits and daws.  I worked a lot of phone
> back in 1980 to 1982 on 20 meters and one year on SSB on 20, I worked 295
> countries in that one year.  The wood pecker was alive and loud back then 
> on
> 20 meters, too; some mornings during long path it completely blanked out 
> 20
> meters both phone and CW parts of the band.  I don't miss that Russian 
> wood
> pecker either but who knows what those HARP installations around the world
> are doing to us now, smile.
>
> Phil.
> K0NX
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 6:59 PM
> Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day
>
>
>> Congrats, Phil, and happy ham anniversary!!
>>
>> I got my first novice ticket in June of 1969, so I was just a few years
>> behind you.
>>
>> Of course, I had a significant gap in my ham career after that novice
>> license expired, due to college, graduate school, starting a family,
>> getting
>> settled in my career, etc.
>>
>> But, in the early 1990's, I got my ticket back, upgraded to Extra, and I
>> guess the rest of the story is still be written to this day.
>>
>> 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: For blind ham radio operators 
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
>> Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 3:32 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Happy Ham's Day
>>
>> It was 48 years ago today I made my first contact as a novice.  I was at
>> the
>> school for the blind when my mom called from home on a Monday afternoon
>> and
>> told me my ticket came.  I had her repeat the call sign a dozen times to
>> be
>> sure.  I had been walking to our regular Monday after school student
>> council
>> meeting.  I was representing the 9th grade, and the office secretary
>> called
>> out the office door as I passed by going to the library for the meeting.
>> She said, "Phil.  You have a phone call."  The only person who called me
>> at
>> school was generally my uncle in Kansas but this time it was my mom with
>> the
>> good news.  I hunt up the phone, and spun around and took a step to the
>> open
>> office door.  Our superintendent was a nice guy and although he was not a
>> ham, he made sure we always had good equipment, unless one of our radios
>> was
>> down for repair, but he called out and said, "Hey, Phil.  You got your
>> license."  It wasn't a question.  I was so out of it, I just grunted a
>> yes,
>> and ran down the hall to the radio room.  A couple of friends were 
>> already
>> in the ham shack and one was a novice of about 3 months.  I told him to
>> move
>> over, I was getting on the air.  It took them a few seconds to believe me
>> but when I threatened to dump him off the king's chair in front of the
>> radio, he got the picture.  At this time, our DX60 was off the air so I
>> used
>> an A T 1 on 80 meters to make my first contact.  I was WN0ORO and my 
>> first
>> countact with another guy in Nebraska and his call was WN0OHO.  We kept 
>> in
>> touch for years after that.  After supper that night, I was back in the
>> ham
>> shack pounding out CQ again and having the time of my life.  To this day,
>> although I only had my novice license 6 months before I took the general
>> class, it was still the most fun I had as a ham.  The guy I almost dump
>> out
>> of the chair lived at home where the school for the blind was so we 
>> worked
>> each other, building up our code speed, in the evenings and then when
>> school
>> was out for the summer.  We had a lot of the same crystals so we ended up
>> working each other hundreds of times that summer.  We even started a
>> midnight schedule which we carried on for years after getting our 
>> generals
>> and could work side band.
>>
>> Phil.
>> K0NX
>>