Well, I guess I'll pass along my recollections as well.  I was 
interested in electricity and short wave radio from my childhood.  I 
was an Air Force brat and, when my dad was stationed in Alaska, we 
lived next door to the FCC engineer for a few months.  He took me to 
the FCC monitoring station for a day along with his wife and 
daughter.  He encouraged me to get a novice license.

When on base quarters became available, we moved to them on Eielson 
AFB and happened to live across the street from a ham.  I discovered 
this when i and a friend traced the feedline from an antenna in a 
nearby field back to his apartment.  He gave me the novice test and 
lent me a National NC120, which was the military version of the 
NC100.  He helped me put up an 80-meter dipole with a 40-meter  diple 
draped below it and fed with 70-ohm twinlead.  My mother put together 
a Heathkit DX-35.  It ook six months for my novice ticket to arrive 
and I was ready to go long before that.  When my friend from across 
the street was away one weekend, I bootlegged his call and ended up 
in a QSO with a sergeant who worked at the MARS station on base.  At 
the next radio club meeting which he, my friend from across the 
street, and I attended, the sergeant commented on his nice QSO with 
my friend from across the street.  When my friend said he was gone 
that day, all eyes turned to me.  Needless to say I remained patient 
till my ticket finally arrived on December 26, 1956.  My first call 
was WL7CAJ.  Since then I have been KL7CAJ (when I passed my 
general), K7BNA when my dad was transferred to a base in southern 
Idaho, WA6QND and later AF6Y when I lived and worked in Fresno 
California, and finally W7OQ when I retired to Oregon.  Over the 
years I owned a Globe Scout 66, a Centeral Electronics 20A with Globe 
Linear LA-1, A Hallicrafters SX-100, a Hammarlund HQ-170, and a 
succession of transceivers including the TS-520, Tentec Omni, TS-440, 
TS-480, and now the TS-590.  I played around with SSB when it became 
popular, but have always preferred CW and now am about 99% pure CW.

73,

Dave