One of my most memorable ham experiences happened about 13 years
before I became a ham. I must have been 4 years old because I
remember an old wooden-cased short wave radio in my room. I
got a little AM broadcast radio for my fifth birthday and the
old short wave went back to my aunt so that is how I fix the time
for this event.

	The old radio had 3 knobs on the front. The left one was
volume and power as usual and the right one was the tuner but
then there was this mystery knob in the middle that clicked
twice when you turned it. On the first click, there were all the
Tulsa radio stations which in 1955 or 1956 played a mixture of
pop music and dramas as the old-time radio shows were fast
giving way to DJ's, etc.

	I noticed that when you turned that mystery knob one
click over, all those familiar sounds went away and there were
lots of strange noises and occasional voices.

	I asked my father about that knob and he said it was
shortwave and we both took a listen.

	He tuned around and there was this voice saying,
"CQ CQ CQ"

	My father said in an excited voice, "Oh! that's a ham
radio operator. These are people who like to experiment with
radio and you can do that when you get a little older."

	I thought that was really great to be able to get on the
radio and that people who did that must know everything.

	I bet this was probably 40 meters as most of those  old
sets tuned from around 4 to around 12 megahertz. I imagine the
other click on that knob was the 78-RPM phonograph which
occupied the bottom of that wooden case.

	Anyway the seed was planted but took a while to really
grow.

	I got a Novice license when in the Oklahoma School for
the Blind in 1966 but we moved that Summer and I never ended up
using that Novice License.

	I finally got bit by the bug for good in 1969 and got on
the air in 1970. My first contact was around 29 megahertz on ten
meters with a station in Massachusetts which, from Oklahoma
during Winter propagation is a fairly easy task when the Sun is
at the peak of the Solar cycle which it was back then.

	I've been WB5AGZ ever since I got what was supposed to
be a General Class in 1969 but I bombed the CW first time around
and had to come back 3 months later to upgrade to General.

At that time, one could qualify for a Technician Class if one
copied enough CW to amount to 5 words per minute. So, WB5AGZ
started out as a Technician and I slowly moved up to Extra in
1988. That time, I actually passed the 20-word code but blew the
theory.

	I kept that CW certificate like one would hang on to a
child or maybe a bag full of cash and finally passed the theory
thanks to HandyHams' excellent study tapes.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group