Below is an updated (8/2006)
photo of my station with the newest addition -- a Kenwood TL-922A
linear
amplifier -- shown at upper right.
Below is a view of my antennas, including a Cushcraft D-4 rotatable
dipole.
It all
started when I was about 10 years old, living in the New Orleans area.
I had an
old Philco Shortwave radio with no cabinet. I used to listen to it
every night,
hearing all the foreign broadcast and ham radio operators. One that I
used to
listen to was W4AOE "Americas Oldest Eagle", he would say. I knew
then, I wanted to be a ham radio operator.
So, I
learned Morse Code and electronics over the next year or so. A friend
in junior
high school lived next door to a ham, and he helped both of us to get
our
Novice licenses. My call sign was WN5SAP. I knew right away, the FCC
knew my
sense of humor by giving me "SAP" for a call. Started out with a
homebrew 25 watt transmitter and a Hallicrafters SX -117, with a 40
meter
dipole, I was on the air.
After
cutting lots of lawns, I purchased a Globe Scout 680 from Sterling
Electronics
in New Orleans. They sold used ham radios there. Over the next few
months,
built a Knight T-60, one of the best transmitters ever for a Novice.
Still have
both today. For Christmas that year, Dad gave me a new Drake R4B. I was
the
envy of all my Novice friends. They always came over to my shack to
hang out.
Over
the next two years, I passed the General Class test and now was W
A5SAP. Never
did much phone back then, we were all CW freaks. I decided to build a
15 meter
rotatable dipole that was in the Amateur Radio Handbook. All my friends
thought
I was nuts. After completing the project, they all came over to help
put it up
35 feet in the air, with a T.V. rotor. Turned the antenna east and west
in the
summer of 1969, and sent CQ. The first station to come back was in
Gennany. The
shack erupted, "That's Gennany, That's Gennany" and gave me a 589
report. Everyone had a chance to make contact with him. The rest of
that Saturday
night we stay up working DX after DX stations. Built three more of that
antenna
for the little disbelievers.
I'm
also an accomplished pianist. At the age of 12 and 13, playing in
competition
with contestants twice my age. Played first chair Clarinet in junior
high and
high school, as well as Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, and Flute.
Learned to
play the guitar later, with the help of friends. It became difficult to
bring a
piano camping, to play around a camp fire.
After
high school in 1970, joined the Air Force, and became a MARS operator,
stationed in Biloxi, MS. Drove up to the radio room and outside was a
log
periodic that was huge, sitting on a 70 foot pole. When I went into the
radio
shack, there before me was a complete Collins S line, with even the big
floor
linear. WOW! A hams paradise. One of our MARS frequencies was 7.305.
With our
strange call signs, I can't tell you how many hams checked in, with
their call
signs, to find out what country we were in. I had to advise them they
were 5
kc's out of the ham band and on military frequency. Then there was dead
silence.
After
the Air Force, and somewhere between moving to other cities in
corporate life,
marriage and owning four businesses in New Orleans, the licensed
lapsed. Sold
all the businesses, semi-retired at the age of 49, and moved to Nixa,
MO. Two
years later, full retirement. In November of 2004, passed the General
Class
again. With the database open for WAOSAP, I had to keep the "SAP"
flowing. I cannot begin to tell you, how much I love being back in ham
radio. I
feel like a kid again, banging out CW late at night, with the warm
golden glow
of the tubes on 40 meters with a straight key. My Novice key.
Click here for news articles
featuring the activities of myself and the
Nixa Amateur Radio Club related to amateur radio communication during
disaster
relief.
