My story is much like others. Always fascinated with electrical things. Interest in science fairs led to further this when I built a flip flop transistor "computer" in 1964. It did everything the coming calculators did with math but...a big one, the output was in binary, the fair came up and I never delved further into changing the readout to something humans can read.

At probably age 9 or 10, I biked to the nearby train dispatch tower when trains would stop to pick up and drop off and add water to their engines. Oh ya, steam was still the way to go. I climbed those stairs to the tower and saw all the lights and switches and microphones and I was hooked further. The old gentleman there was more than happy, so he said, to have the company throughout the day. 

We had an old Everson table radio that was used prior to the tv days and then became only the baseball link. I took the back off one day and found the antenna was attached there. I saw tuning slugs and tubes and  rotors and began fiddling. I  turned the antenna panel and somehow, was able to hear 75 AM phone signals...at least the loudest on the band. The first ham call I heard was W3EBM...Empty Beer Mugs and was hooked even further. For CHristmas of 1959, I received a National NC-60 and now I had a real reciever. Somewhere slightly before that I visited W3ESV, Ray, an owner of a radio-tv shop who have a station of a homebrew transmitter, a National NC-300 and outside, a big shiny beam. I hung around the shop and learned about meters and scopes and circuits. On my new receiver, I heard a loud phone station which was W3QDJ, another Elmer and as he gave the address for a QSL card, I was surprised to find he lived in the same town. Next day, on the bike, I found his house, knocked on the door and ask it he was the ham with these call letters. At first he thought it was a TVI complaint from nearby but I saw his station...An Knight R100 which I had only seen in the Allied catalog and a Hammerlaud receiver. Bill became not only an Elmer but my first contact as a novice in April 1960 on 40 meter cw. He assisted me in building a Globe Chief Deluxe from a kit and hang my first of many antennas, a 300 ohm twin lead folded dipole. I was on my way.

And I can't forget K6ATX, a call familiar to many as the main character in several ham radio novels written by K6ATX. I loved those books and would re-read them often. I wrote to Walker Thompkins and he was kind enough to reply with a QSL card. I wonder how many hams, past and present and maybe future can attribute an interest thanks to Walker and Tommy Rockford.

I was off thanks to the person mentioned and have been active since those days, minus some inactivity during college only to be picked up right afterward.  move to a hilltop, a beam and some wires and an amp allowed me to enjoy and become addicted to huntin DX and new countries. That remains today. A move to a condo almost stifled my hobby but I became interested in the OSCARs, put up some small antennas in a courtyard where they couldn't be seen and I was on the air again, only to have both sats fall from the sky and I had no interest in the low flying birds so again, what to do. 

I read about a guy that put an antenna in an garage attic and had good results. I cut a half wave 20 meter dipole with number 14 wire, PVC tubes for the ends and middle insulators. I figured I could at least get happy with working WAS again. To my surprise, I was making contacts with South America, Europe, and the occasional Pacific and beyond. The antenna wouldn't fit so I had to turn the ends 90 degrees but it worked...thanks probably to the much better antenna tuners. I worked CW and phone and then got into digi with PSK and then RTTY, all thanks to free software and a computer. 

 We moved again and this time into an HOA home in FL. I strung my same antenna in the attic and this time had room for a straight run. After disconnecting the garage door opener which would activate with a transmit, all was good again.

And here we are today. I worked about 275 countries with that little wire and 100 watts. Today, thanks to remote ham , RCForb and all the software that goes with it, I am enjoying the hobby once more. As I said, I'm moving toward 64 years since that first contact in 1960 and enjoying it more than ever.

And if you get to this point, congratulations and thank you for your time in sharing a few memories of the best days and years of my life. Others have the same stories of Elmers and new rigs and getting on the air...this is mine. 

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