I have been an amateur radio operator since the mid 1960’s. I received my novice license (WN9RSX if memory serves me correctly) when I was about 12 years old – approximately 1964 give or take a year. At the time a Novice license was good for one year and it gave you CW privileges on small slices of the HF bands and voice on 2 meters.

 

At the time I lived on a family farm in central Illinois (Rural Route Chapin, IL to be precise). The family had one television and a tall tower that had the TV antennas and rotator so we could watch TWO VHF stations – one in Quincy and one in Hannibal.

 

Upon passing my novice license my father and I began radio shopping. Somehow I ended up with a Collins 75A-1 receiver and a Johnson 50 watt crystal controlled transmitter (at the time Novice class operators were required to use crystal controlled transmitters). I also recall a “T-R” switch that switched my antenna from the transmitter to the receiver. It ran off of 110v AC and I think I had a regular light switch like normally found on the wall mounted to a box, which was mounted to my ‘ham’ desk/table. Also, of course I had a telegraph key.

 

I’m not sure how it happened but somehow I ended up on 80 meters. My guess would be that there were 80-meter crystals included with the transmitter.

 

On the farm space and zoning restrictions were not a problem. We built and put up an Inverted V dipole. The TV tower supported the peak of the Inverted V, the two ends were 20 or so feet off of the ground. There was about 30 or so feet of coax from the center point to my “Ham Room” which was on the second story and the tower literally was outside the window of my “Ham Room”.

I operated as a Novice using CW and my 50 or so watts (I think at the time Novices were limited to 75 watts). I made a lot of contacts and traded a lot of QSL cards. I was having a ball!

 

 

I can't remember how or why but I believe my Novice class license expired before I was able to upgrade to Technician or General.

 

As best I remember I studied the General theory and could easily pass the 5 WPM CW test and took my Technician class license. The Novice and Technician tests could be given by a General, Advanced or Extra class licensee. At the time there was an Amateur radio club in Jacksonville, IL that had several hams that would regularly give the tests.

 

Once I received my Technician license I could no longer operate on the HF bands and was limited to 6 meters, 2 meters and UHF. My new call sign was: WA9YFC.

 

I believe my first VHF radio was a Heathkit “Twoer” (which I built or put together from a kit). It resembled a lunch box and operated on AM and was crystal controlled if I remember correctly.

 

With it I was able to talk voice (AM) with other hams in the immediate area. It was no large feat to work hams in nearby (~ 10 miles) Jacksonville, IL and on rare occasions one may have a QSO with someone in Springfield, IL which was about 40 miles away.

 

At the time there was no FM and no FM repeaters. Eventually I graduated to a nicer 2 meter rig with a VFO. I believe it was a “Clegg 22er”.

 

The whole time I was a technician I was keeping up with my morse code. I purchased a paper tape machine that I could use to practice and continued to increase my speed. My next goal was to get my General class license. This required a trip to the FCC office in St. Louis which was about 100 miles from where I lived. Today 100 miles is nothing – but in the late 1960’s it was a major trip!

 

The theory for the General was the same as the Technician however because I did not take my Technician class in front of an FCC examiner I had to take it again – so I had to continually brush up on the theory also.

 

 

Finally the day came and my dad took me to St. Louis to take my General class test. By some miracle I passed it.

 

While we were in St. Louis we visited an Amateur Radio store (there were several and I don’t remember the name of the place) and I came home with a Drake TR-4 (used)! I was a happy camper!

 

By the time I graduated from high school I had my Advanced license which required another trip to St. Louis. The code speed requirement was the same as the General so I didn’t have to re take the code tests as I had already passed 13WPM in front of an FCC examiner.

 

 

I moved to Dallas, TX in the fall of 1970. At that time when you moved to a different “zone or district” you were required to get a new call sign. I became WB5NBZ.

 

I brought my Drake TR-4 with me to Texas.I tried some random wires from my apartment but the results were less than satisfactory.

 

I no longer have the TR-4 either.I can’t remember why I sold it – or what I traded for it.Wish now I had it back!

 

 

While going to electronics school in Dallas I brushed up on the theory required for the Advanced Class license (the code requirement was the same as for General - 13wpm).

From 1970 through 2007 or so I was inactive. I did at one point purchase an ICOM IC-230 (I believe) VHF Transceiver and installed it in one of my cars. Along the way I got married and we started having kids and there was no time (or money) for Ham Radio.

 

 

In about 2007 I acquired an FT-60 Yaesu HT and could work the local Carrollton repeaters, eventually that led to a Yaesu 8800 installed in my truck, then an ICOM 2820.

 

 

In about 2009 I acquired an ICOM 7000 and installed a Hi-Q Screwdriver antenna on a tripod neatly hidden behind my wooden fence. I could receive fair and never transmitted on it.

 

I started playing with programming PIC’s and was interested in a hundred other things that all took time.