(1961; 1977)

I first received my novice call in 1961.  I was a member of the Carmi Township High School (Carmi, Illinois) radio club.  Ken Hurt was the instructor and sponsor.  [see photo, right: WN9DDV is far right.]  W9IIU,  Bill Baker, (a local radio personality on WROY 1460 KC) had a general class and I attempted to upgrade.  I did fine on the code but did not grasp the theory.  The novice license expired.  I keep my interest in radio and in the 1970's passed the Novice, Tech, and General in rapid succession and got back on the air.  When I got the ticket back, I requested my old call sign.  The FCC was preparing to do away with giving old call signs back, but I got in under the wire.  I have kept the call wn9ddv all my amateur radio career.

As a novice,  I used an HE-10 Lafayette receiver and a Knight Kit T-50 transmitter and had many QSOs and got my code speed up to around 18 WPM.   Antenna was a random wire about 75 feet long.  The Pi network of the Knight worked well with the random wire.