Hello,
I got my Amateur Radio License on my fortieth birthday May 5, 1992.
My step-grandfather had his License when he married my grandmother.
He was a CW person. He also did TV Repair.
I wasn't interested in CW but I was interested in Phone.
I went to the Ohio State School for the Blind for 6th Grade and they did have a good program for prospective hams.
I do not know of any girls who participated at that time so even though I was interested I didn't pursue the hobby.
My third opportunity came in 1992.
I upgraded to General in 2007.
I took my test as soon as you could get your General without CW. I wanted to be able to be active with Traffic Handling on HF.
When I first joined Navy Marine Corps Mars in 1995 CW was still used.
I value the use of CW and know that it comes through in the most challenging conditions.
I do not think it is dying. I actually think that there is an increase in participation in this mode.
Colleen Roth, N8TNV;




----- Original Message -----
From: Tom Behler <[log in to unmask]>
To:  [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, Apr 26, 2014 07:19:53 AM
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
> >