You guys sure know how to frustrate an old bachelor like myself!

73, de Lou K2LKK



At 09:00 PM 4/23/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>That's a great story.  However, I'm confused which was first and which was
>second? Radio or sex?
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 8:39 PM
>Subject: My 40th Ham Radio Anniversary
>
>
> > Next Tuesday, it dawned on me, will be my 40th ham radio anniversary.  I
> > was
> > 14 years young at the time I got my novice license.  I was at the Nebraska
> > School for the Blind.  We had, normally, a DX60B and the SX99 for the
> > receiver but when I got my ticket in the mail, the DX60B, as it often was,
> > had to be repaired.  So we hooked up a little A T 1, which I forget now
> > who
> > made it but it ran about 30 watts I think, and we fired it up on 80
> > meters.
> > My call was WN0ORO and my first contact was a guy in the same state whose
> > call was WN0OHO.  We became friends and hung out together on sideband for
> > years.  Six months later, I took my general test when the FCC came through
> > Omaha and passed by the skin of my teeth.  Our club station at the school
> > for the blind was updated to the HT37 and a the HQ180X and we were in hog
> > Heaven.  My novice days were super fun with a DX20 and a BC348 receiver.
> > I
> > started out with a 100 foot long wire and no tuner.  Just about 4 months
> > into being a novice, I got the Viking Ranger 1 and used it with the same
> > BC348 receiver but put up an 80 and 40 meter dipole.  Wow, what a
> > difference.  My mom purchased for me the H A 1 T O electronic keyer and
> > paddle for 75 dollars when I passed my general so I got to use the keyer
> > for
> > about 3 to 4 weeks on the novice bands until my general ticket came in the
> > mail.  Wow, did I think I was hot bananas running the keyer as a novice,
> > too.  In later years, I got to be good CW buddies with W9TO who designed
> > the
> > T O keyer I owned as a novice.  When I got my General, my mom generously
> > purchase for me at Christmas, a Drake TR4 and that was probably one of the
> > most popular rigs of the day, besides the less expensive Galaxy and Heath
> > Kit rigs.  I started working DX like crazy on 20, 15, and 10 and
> > eventually
> > got a 3 element TH3 junior triband beam.  It was mounted on an 8 foot
> > tripod
> > on the roof with the A R 22 rotor.  The beam was probably about 25 or 28
> > feet but the bands in the mid to late sixties were red hot.  Believe it or
> > not, I worked the bands with my Drake TR4 for the two weeks of Christmas
> > vacation and then got a horrible cold and my voice was so bad, my friends
> > at
> > school couldn't hardly recognize me.  In fact, they always said, they
> > never
> > would have believed I was sick and staying home from school for an extra
> > week if they hadn't heard me and how I sounded on the air.  Some of them
> > nick named me Squeaky and still call me that when they call me on the
> > phone
> > to this day.  I was, of course, WA0ORO till about 1979 when I passed my
> > advanced and extra class tests and became AF0H, a dog of a call if I ever
> > heard one, but had it until November of 1996 when I became K0NX.  Hard to
> > believe I have had this call now nearly 10 years and will have to renew it
> > again this year for the first time.  I think ham radio has been the
> > funnist
> > hobbies I could have ever gotten into.  I could see until I was 11 years
> > old
> > and got interest in electronics through a TV repair friend of mine when I
> > was ten.  He took me on house calls and was teaching me the trade little
> > by
> > little.  Then he showed me his DX60 and HQ129X and I was in love.
> > Unfortunately, that was about the time my father died unexpectedly and a
> > year later, my retinas fell apart and I was blind.  So ham radio and
> > electronics almost died in my life until I was on lunch break at the
> > Nebraska School for the blind, sitting in the lobby, and crying my eyes
> > out
> > from home sickness when a guy sat down near me and started talking to me.
> > I
> > wished he would buzz off but couldn't blame him for trying to change my
> > feelings by talking to me until he said, Do you know anything about ham
> > radio?  In seconds, we were in the ham shack and he was showing me the
> > gear.
> > Home sickness was gone.  That kid became my best friends for many years
> > until he passed away many years ago.  We spent hundreds of hours rag
> > chewing
> > on the 80 meter novice bands as kids and then as generals, we talked even
> > more.  I have gotten into all sorts of different things as a ham but CW
> > has
> > always been my favorite and I don't know why.  I DXed for many years until
> > I
> > got over 300 countries and then started DXing just on 80 and 40 meters.  I
> > have always enjoyed contesting, too.  Now I mostly hang out on 2 meters
> > but
> > when the bands pick up again, I'll fire up the rig and put up some new
> > antennas on the tower.  I miss the old gear but I sure love all the new
> > talking stuff for the blind ham that I never had before.  That vinyl tape
> > on
> > the outer skirt of the VFO knob on my Drake TR4 sure would great, along
> > with
> > the 100 KHz crystal calibrator, and I always ended up close to the
> > frequency
> > I wanted, too.  I often think back on my novice days because I had more
> > fun
> > that I ever dreamed during those months.  I've made hundreds of friends
> > from
> > all over the planet, too.  So, 40 years makes me feel older at 54 years of
> > age but I wouldn't trade the fun I have had for thousands of hours for
> > anything else.  Well, sex is a close second even at my age.
> >
> > 73,
> > Phil,
> > K0NX
> >
> > The Zenith Tube Website
> > www.RedWhiteAndBlue.org
> >
> > __________ NOD32 1.1200 (20050823) Information __________
> >
> > This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
> > http://www.eset.com
> >
> >

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
Home e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work e-mail:  [log in to unmask]
Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753