(formerly KN8MWA, 1958) I was probably twelve years old and when I first encountered "Ham Radio". I had gone to the home of a couple friends whose parents had a shortwave radio (one of those table models with several bands). The sliderule tuning display showed several services like "police", "aircraft",…

(formerly KN6QNZ, 1958) Brookfield, IllinoisI first got interested in electronics through the hobby of model railroading when I was 11 or 12 years old and living in the Chicago area (4207 Grove Ave. Brookfield Ill). I was not doing the Lionel or American Flyer trains like my friends. I got…

(formerly KN6RMR 1958)

(formerly K4VOW, 1958) My Novice history actually began with the Boy Scouts where we had to learn Morse code to qualify for the rank of 2nd class.  I quickly picked up the code and before long was teaching Morse code to the other scouts as well as giving the code…

(formerly KN4ZMI, 1958) I started out with dipoles fed with 300 ohm tv twinlead, a Hallicrafters S38E receiver, and a Globe Chief 90A transmitter. I would later build a screen modulator, pending becoming a General class. One of my novice contacts was with a Mr. Nichols in Nicholsville, VA. On…

(formerly WV2BJK, 1958) Who knows where these things come from?  No one in my family had the slightest interest in radio.  But for me it was genetic.  At 4 years old I remember tying a peach basket on the back of my tricycle and proudly announcing that I wanted to…

(formerly KN6PZN, 1958) I was a student at Hamilton High in Los Angeles from September 1957 to June 1960 and was in Jack Brown's electronic classes.  I did learn the code from Jack, but my father, Leon K6PZJ and his brother Joe K6PZM and I all took the Novice and…

(formerly KN4ZLE, 1958) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." From "Tale of Two Cities" (1859) by Charles Dickens. Dickens was 99 years early in his assessment of my Novice career.  I was licensed in Aug. 1958 as KN4ZLE and upgraded to General in the…

(formerly WV6DAL, 1958) In the spring of 1958, my father decided that I needed a hobby. At the time, I was a skinny, eleven-going-on-twelve year old nerd with no athletic prospects. My father, more than six feet tall, 190lbs, big boned and probably disheartened over the paltry physical attributes of…

(formerly KN6RIM, 1958) Like many vintage hams, I was first licensed as a young teenager (age 15) in 1958.  My assigned call sign was KN6RIM.  1958 was the era of glow-in-the dark radios, no cell phones, computers, Internet.  Radio offered the allure of magically communicating through the airwaves. These were…

(formerly WV2BQJ, 1958) I first became interested in Amateur Radio in the mid-50s as a teenager living in Syracuse, NY.  I began as an SWL (Short Wave Listener) with a classic Hallicrafters S-38E receiver in 1956. My best buddy in high school (Gary Lindstrom, K2UZJ) became my first Elmer, helping…

(formerly KN9MOA, 1958)