Featured Story
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Mike Branca, W3IRZ (sk)
(formerly WN3HCI, 1956; W3HCI, 1957) Editor's Note: Mike didn't send in a story. Instead, he supplied a wealth of photos of typical Novice equipment of the era. Some is commercially built, some is home brew, and some is converted military surplus. Enjoy!Read more...
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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.
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
Late-1950s 
1957
1957
1957
(formerly KN1CKK, 1957) Have had my call since getting my novice ticket in 1957 as KN1CKK while I was in the 8th grade. A fellow student and his Dad were hams and I took the test from his Dad while sitting around their kitchen table. I am now 68 and…
(1957) I was also one of those who started with a Novice Class License, and I lived 65 miles from Washington, D. C. at Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River, Maryland, so I qualified for testing outside of the sanctum of the FCC office for the old Conditional Class also…
(formerly KN1IVR, 1957; W8IUS, K8BG) I was licensed in about 1957 with a novice class and slowly worked my way up to Extra. When I wrote that note I was a sophomore in high school and was using a DX35 (about 50 watts cw with the capability of AM phone)…
(formerly KN1BOW, 1957) I got interested through Boy Scouts, my first merit badge was Radio when I was 11 years old. I never had an Elmer before I was licensed. I probably could have if I had looked around or if a local club had an outreach program, but if…
(formerly KN8EAB, 1957) I remember asking my Dad what those red letters (W8VII) on the rear window of a neighbor’s car meant. Dad said he didn’t know, and that I should ask the neighbor. Bill Fearnley (our neighbor) was a professional musician and played piano at The Greenbrier resort hotel…
(formerly KN8GSV, 1957) I was 16 years old and received my Novice license in July of 1957. My call was KN8GSV and I put Otsego, MI. on the air. I studied the ARRL "How To Become A Radio Amateur" manual and learned CW with a door bell buzzer, batteries, and…
(formerly KN6DBR, 1957) I attended Alexander Hamilton High School. One of the required courses for boys was Electronics taught by Jack Brown. Jack also taught a class in Amateur radio after the school's regular hours. Jack was an extraordinary person and teacher. I was initially facinated by the aspects of…
(formerly KN6JEY, 1957) Just a few notes about 1957-58. I had been interested in getting my license for about 2 years, starting when I was ten years old. It started when I had been left alone to play with an HQ129X and a Viking Ranger at the house of a…
(formerly KN6YXH, 1957) I teach entry-level ham radio classes now, and explain to my students that most of the most important learning will come *after* they get their license and will include things that no one ever thought to put on the exam. After building my Johnson Viking Adventurer, a…
(formerly KN5LMJ, 1957) I was first licensed in July 1957 (can't believe it's been 51 years!!!) as KN5LMJ in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Since we were 175 miles from the nearest testing station in El Paso I was give the test by a local ham. I remember his name but not…
(WN6JRS, 1957, W6JRS) I was licensed in 1957, age 16, as a novice. The license arrived in June, WN6JRS. I remember taking the code test. It was given by the father of a high school classmate. He asked if I wanted a little practice code before the test. I said,"sure".…
(formerly KN5LVB) My Teenage Fifteen Minutes of Fame as a Novice In the fall of 1957 I was KN5LVB, a 15 year-old Novice licensee living In New Orleans and getting my first experience on the ham bands. Like most young hams, I was short on funds but long on enthusiasm…
(formerly WN2FJC, 1957) I belonged to a radio club in New Jersey at the Metuchen YMCA (K2YNT), beginning in 1956. In May of 1957, having passed the Novice exam three months earlier, I finally received my first call, WN2FJC. The club met every Saturday afternoon, and George Hyde, W2FFY (SK)…
(formerly KN4RID, 1957) (Editor's Note: Bill has generously shared scans of some fascinating documents accumulated during his pursuit of the first Novice DXCC Award. ) My journey in ham radio began via the Boy Scouts at age 12. I had to learn Morse Code to pass the First Class Scout…
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