From CB to Ham Radio…

I started in ham radio when I was in high school. I’m originally from a neighborhood called Ridgewood that straddles the Brooklyn/Queens border in New York City. At about the height of the CB craze in 1979, I became interested in CB. My Mom helped me get a Lafayette base radio and a Radio Shack 5/8 wave vertical antenna. I put that on top of the apartment building whereI lived in Queens. In the summer of 1980, we moved to Clearwater, Florida. I brought my CB and my antenna along in the move and good thing as the antenna was going to come in handy sooner than I thought. Beyond the various happenings of a know-it-all 15 year old New Yorker—which could not be a more arrogant or obnixious combination—I did not do much with the CB or antenna. I started at Dunedin High School in 1980 and a few weeks into classes, I heard an announcement on the school’s PA system stating that an Amateur Radio class was going to be held after school. I had heard of amateur radio (the barber in my neighborhood at home was a ham), but I presumed one had to be 18 to become involved. When I went to the first meeting, I quickly found out that there were no age restrictions. With that newfound knowledge, I started learning code and theory for the Novice test. Marion Shields, W4AFC (SK) and Paul Bostrom, KI4FI conducted the class along with the high school dean, John MacDonald (K4BR, ex-WD4COL).

“Kill the Big Bum”

When Marion first taught the code, the way it was done back then was to send the code characters slowly. As the novice test required only 5 wpm copying ability, I suppose the idea was to just do everything slowly. The other thing added were these little mnemonic devices. An example is the letter Y. This is made up on – . – – or dash, dot, dash, dash. In order to remember this, I vividly recall Marion sending the Y with the code key and repeating “Kill the Big Bum—ok, maybe it was bug. There is nothing wrong with the mnemonic, but when one sends and receives code at faster speeds–I can copy solidly at 25wpm nowadays—the picture of a CW operator standing over the cold corpse of a bum/bug sort of slows me down. It took quite a while to get past the remembering of that mnemonic. By the way, I know code is not required anymore, but if you do choose to learn it for fun, use the Farnsworth method. That is where the characters are sent at 18 wpm but the spacing is slower. Then as you improve your speed, you just decrease the spaces between characters. Learning the way I did, I had to relearn the code using the Farnsworth method before I could pass my 13wpm.

In October of 1980, I passed the Novice exam. The CW test was the hard part. The theory test was really easy. After receiving my novice ticket, I then needed to operate. The high school had a radio club with some equipment. They had a Ten-Tec Century 21 CW Transceiver along wth some tube-based EICO radio. I was able to operate this but having a station at home was what I really wanted. Remember that CB 5/8 wave vertical antenna? Well, CB operates on what is called the 11 meter band (around 27 Mhz). The amateur radio 10 meter Novice-class band operates at 28.1 to 28.2 Mhz. It only requires reducing the length of the CB antenna a little bit to make it resonant on the 10, band. We were going to make a dipole but Paul Bostrom saw in my garage I had this aluminum,. He asked what that was and we immediately repurposed the CB antenna (I was not about to go back to CB anyway). We had the antenna up in an afternoon. But, now what to use as a radio. I forget when we actually put the antenna up but I know the club loaned me the Century 21 radio. I used that radio for 100s of contacts. As an aside, when the club dissolved years later, I asked Paul if I could buy the Century 21. He agreed and I have that radio on my shelf I keep around for nostalgia. I operate it once in awhile too. Compared to my Elecraft K4 it is an awful radio, but it is still fun.

A group of us got together at the high school in the evenings to study for the Technician Class license (what would become the tech plus license). This was the general written test but short of the 13 wpm code.

Off to the FCC Office

As this was just a couple of years before volunteer testing came into place, I was still trekking over to the Tampa FCC office on Westshore Blvd. So here I am as a 15 year and 16 year old going into this government office building. To say it was intimidating would be an understatement. For the technician test, a bunch of us went over so there was good moral support.

At the office, you go check-in and then funnel into this glass walled room with desks. I remember this very stern woman at a desk at the front of the room just to up the intimidation factor. They were doing code tests first then we went in for the theory test. I don’t remember if I tried the code test but I did pass the technician exam. So now it was time to plan my next visit when I would sit for the code test.

A new Tech…but still working HF CW contacts…

Having received a new license, but sticking with my original callsign, I was able to get on 2 meter repeaters to talk locally. All the while I was still working HF contacts on CW. While my code speed was increasing, I was still hampered by slow characters. Paul at school found these code tapes from Jelly Ziliak KB6MT (SK). I had great success with that course. I essentially had to relearn the code with the faster characters. That took awhile but I finally made it to 13 wpm. My recollection is that I did not pass the test the first time. Of course back then, you had to wait until the next time they did the exams again (which was either 2 or 3 months later). But on the next try, I passed 13 wpm. So now I had a general so time to keep studying. Many of that same group that studied for Technician, started studying for the Advanced class license. Back then, that was the hardest test. Maybe it was because we were still in high school, but upon the next visit to Tampa (with that same stern proctor int he room), I walked out having passed the Advanced. I stopped there.

Phone slows me down…

Since I now could talk on the radio since I passed the general test, that slowed down my progress a bit on the studying for the 20 wpm CW test for Extra. I was still working on the air as well as studying with code tapes.

Finally an Extra…

There was one more trip back to Tampa for the Extra test…This was in early 1982. Not even two years since I first started this journey. By this time, I was a junior at Dunedin High School. I should add that for reasons that escape me now, I did not get a driver’s license until I was 17 so my brother drove me over to Tampa for the Extra test. Same as before, we funnel into the room with that same stern proctor at the front. As I recall, they first ran the code test played from a tape recorder at the front. The CW bounced all around the glass-walled room. The test was a QSO format with fill-in-the-blanks. So the test would ask questions like “What was the name of the sending station”? You had to simply write the name you copied. Same goes for the power that station was using or the height of the antenna (they liked asking about numbers as I recall). Magically, I passed! It may have been 7 out of 10 or something but I passed. I do believe I the Extra theory that same day but it could have been the prior time. I cannot recall if the FCC let you get credit for the written or code and come back for the other element for the Extra. What I do remember clearly was when I passed my Extra, this was the only time I ever saw that stern-faced lady at the front of the room smile. Perhaps it was just that I passed the Extra or the fact that a 16 year old kid did it, but she smiled and told me I could send for a special license form. I floated out of there….That was a great day almost two years int he making. It was also the last amateur radio test I have ever had to take.

A New Call…

With my Extra test, I checked the box on the FCC Form 610 (it was a 610 back then) to be assigned a new callsign. As with everything back in the era, things took time. But then about 6 weeks later, it arrived. When I came home from school, there on the table, fresh from Gettysburg, a brand new Amateur Extra license with the assigned station callsign of NY4I. Compared to my original novice callsign, that was so short. Now you may recall from earlier, I moved to Florida from New York. While this looks like an obvious vanity callsign for someone from New York, this was totally by coincidence.

So the next day I took the bus to school as I normally did, I walked into the front office and John MacDonald then WD4COL was standing there. I said, “John, I received my new call. It is NY4I”. Now John was from Georgia. He thought for what could have only been about 5 seconds and in that Georgia twang said, “New York 4 Idiots”. Ugh… He got a kick out of that (as did I).

So that is the story of how I came to be a ham.

There are other parts to this story. THese will all take a while to add.

Such as how I ended up contesting because I had access to an AEA MorseMatic keyer for Field Day (and could copy CW fast enough).
My late night DXing on 20 meters tucked in the corner of my bedroom/ham shack.
Contesting with my friend Howard Webb (SK).
Starting the Dunedin Amateur Radio Association VEC (not VE team but full-fledged VEC) and attending the first VEC conference in Gettysburg. Local activities at the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club starting back in the mid-1990s–but my first meeting was in 1981 with John K4BR.
Joint Field Day’s in Pinellas County.
How being a ham opened doors for me to be trained for what became my career.
Moving to Utah and how ham radio allowed me enjoy it much more.
Moving to Virginia
Back to Utah and joining the Utah Amateur Radio Club.
- Becoming Field Day chair of UARC as well as club president
- Sticking on for several years as the Microvolt editor (Newsletter) for UARC
- Starting the Utah APRS User’s Group
- Working communications and APRS tracking of the Salt Lake Pioneer Day 10K.
Visiting ARRL Headquarters in Newington, CT.
Working communications for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics
Lots of life changes in Utah (2003 – 2004)
Moving to Washington, DC (2004 – 2007).
Moving back to Florida (and picking up ham radio again after a couple years in the Alexandria apartment (2007).
Reconnecting with SPARC (2008).
- Field day 2008
- Vice President and contesting at the club station
Starting the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (2012).
Finally getting serious about HF awards (DXCC, WAS, etc).
Joining the ARRL Diamond Club.
ARRL Centennial in Hartford, CT (2014)
Admitted to the ARRL Maxim Society.

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