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.
I am Carl Yaffey, K8NU. I was licensed in 1954 as WN4EZB in Norfolk, VA. I had to take my test in front of an FCC examiner, as did everyone in those days. What a scary thing for a 12-year-old! But I made it through and started on my long Ham Radio career.
My first setup included a Hallicrafters S38B receiver, and a 6AG7 transmitter that was pretty much the same as the one described in "How To Become a Radio Amateur". I built it on a metal chassis instead of the wooden one in the article. I'm not sure how much power it put out, but it wasn't much! I had one lonely crystal for 3714. My antenna was just a 30foot piece of wire. I worked other novices in the area, but never got out of the state.
A local Ham took pity on me and lent me a 6AG7/6L6 rig which you can see in my picture. With the increase in power I finally worked some DX: California! I eventually built a Heathkit AT-1, followed by a Viking Adventurer.
When I upgraded to General, a Heathkit VFO was added, and I was on the way to the big time. The rest is history, as they say.
You can see my current setup on my QRZ page.
73,
Carl Yaffey, K8NU
