I don't even have up an antenna, but hopefully one day. I always dreamed 
about having a beam. I'll just make due now with what I have.

Carolyn Kj4vt


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 4:18 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Happy Ham's Day

> 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
>>