Featured Story

  • Rod Hallen, KB7NK
    (formerly WN6BOW, 1962) It is hard to say when my interest in radio communications started. I remember as a young teenager returning home from a circus performance and to find a package waiting for me. It was a radio kit I had ordered which was designed to build 15 different…
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Please share with your fellow hams a story of your Novice year(s). The story should mainly focus on your Novice period. A story can be a photo or a few lines of text to a full blown story of several pages.

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Latest Comments

  • John Shidler, NS5Z
    John thats a great story. I didn't realize you were so much older than me LOL.. glad to call you my Ham Pal. Where have the years gone.. we are old fat and gray now, but still tearing up the airwaves.... More...
    17.04.13 07:53
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Late-1970s 1977 Russ Roberts, KH6JRM (1977)

Russ Roberts, KH6JRM (1977)

I was first licensed in 1977 as KH6JRM--a call I still retain.  Don Nakano was my elmer (I've forgotten his call).  I became a novice after years of broadcasting and military communications work.  I procrastinaged many years before making the leap into the "ether"  I went through all the license classes before reaching amateur extra in 2005. The novice experience was priceless.

My first rig was a quirky HW-101 with a mind of its own.  I must have taken that rig apart at  least ten times before I got the bugs out.  I still have my old J-38 key as a momento of that time.  Reaching California with a homebrew vertical and 50 or so watts was a quite a thrill.  I wish I still had that old "hot water" 101.  I keep an old, but totally functional Kenwood TS-520S as a momento of those novice days.

With the exception of the local 40 meter island net, I don't heat up the atmosphere too much.  My work as a news director for nine radio stations keeps me busy, but I manage to keep the filaments warm on occaison.

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We Need Your Help!

We are in special need of Novice stories from:

  • 1970s - especially 1974 (we have only 3 stories)
  • 1980s - we have only 14 (none from 1980, 1985-86) 
  • 1990s - we have only 2 stories
  • 2000 - we have none

 

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