(1968)

I've had a lot of fun over the years and still find the hobby fascinating but those novice years...wow. Maybe it was the times but I had an absolute blast. I was 12 years old in '68 when I got my ticket. 75 watts (input) and crystal controlled. Somehow the "limitations" didn't seem limiting at all. Often as not you'd work a homebrew transmitter so I decided I'd run my homebrew 6L6 atrocity as often as the Viking Ranger my Dad (also a ham) got me, much to his amusement/chagrin. Also, who knew working VK3XB on 15 meters cross-mode was unusual? The feeling that with the 75 watt input limitation, if I ran 76 watts it'd be a one-way ticket to Leavenworth so I'd often load up only to 50 just to be sure (hey, I was 12!). My first QSO was with an old-timer (he was 13 I found out years later), my first DX was Angola! - which scared the crap outta me because back then there were certain countries you couldn't work and I wasn't sure about them. The fact that I worked two locals that were...gasp! GIRLS!! that went to my school! Riding my bike over to one girl's house..she had a Harvey-Wells Transmitter which made more of an impression than she did- hey I was 12 people...I got over it haha. Later we ended up in the same high school social circle and never mentioned our "secret" for some reason. In fact, there were quite a few teenaged YLs at that time.