Carolyn,

I've got a whole folder of ham stories just like that one I've posted over 
the years on this list.  When April 25 rolls around, I start reminiscing 
about all the fun I had that summer as a 14 year old and yet, as much as I 
was on the air, I was outside roller skating, riding my bicycle with my 
little sister steering as I sat on the back and peddled, and generally 
having fun outside the ham shack but I made a ton of contacts that summer. 
Some nights I stayed up all night working guys on 80 and 40 meters.  I still 
love CW the most to this very day more than phone unless I'm talking to 
someone I know well so we can cover more ground in a shorter period of time. 
I worked a total of 41 states in that 6 month period as a novice just on 80 
and 40 and once I passed my general, my mother, for Christmas, bought me the 
popular, at that time, Drake TR4.  Soon I was on 20, 15, and 10 meters 
working DX and when I finally got a beam on the roof at 28 feet, I worked 
everything I could hear.  I don't work at DX much any more but I have 316 
countries worked and DX was always fun on any band.

Phil.
K0NX


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "carolyn johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day


> Happy anivercery on being a ham for 48 years. That was a wonderful story.
> Why don't you submit that so it can go into qst magazine?
>
> Carolyn Kj4vt
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> 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
>