Good afternoon Phil:
	Thank you for sharing that story. Hearing about your experience really embodies the heart and soul of the hobby as I understand it.
As a new Ham, I am on the look out for these types of experiences to share with my young children in hopes that they will also join as amateur operators when they get a bit older.

Best Regards:
Hai Nguyen Ly, KC1BLT


On Apr 25, 2014, at 3:30 PM, carolyn johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 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