(formerly KN1FPV, 1963) My interest started in Amateur Radio several years prior to becoming a Novice. At the age of 12 or 13, I saved enough money from my paper route to buy a shortwave receiver. It was a Knight Kit Span Master regenerative receiver which I built on my…

(formerly WN4MVC, 1963; WB4DAK) My novice was issued in 1963 after much help from K4ZMM.  I had no confidence in my ability to pass the test.  Andy even set me up with a BC-454 receiver and loaned me a transmitter I think may have been a Johnson 75 watt.  My…

(formerly WN3ANW, 1963) I returned from 4 years military service in 1963. Inspite of some major personal defects my girlfriend married me anyway. After trying for several months to shape me up she finally said that, in her opinion, I'd be dead within a year if I didn't get a…

(formerly WN5CTC, 1963) I was 13 at the time of the Novice Roundup and to my knowledge I was the only Novice at Fort Sill.  The post MARS station was 2 blocks from my house and I would sometimes go there and hang out or operate under their station's license.…

(formerly WN7CTN, 1963) How did I get started in this crazy, wonderful hobby of Amateur Radio? When I was 5 or 6, my father built a cabinet that held a radio, phonograph and a bass reflex box with a speaker.  These were times before our family had TV.  Dad drilled…

(formerly KN3SWZ, 1962) At the beginning of 10th grade (1961) I met Ed Cox who had moved to the area from Pittsburgh, PA over the summer.  We found that we both wanted to be hams, but couldn't sit still long enough to learn the code!  We were both too busy…

(formerly WN9INK, 1963) When I was in grade school in Elmwood Park, Illinois, in the early 1960s, my first radio experiences were listening to a crystal set which I bought in downtown Chicago in 1961 for $2.49.   I could receive about four local Chicago area broadcast stations on it.  Many…