Ham History

A Brief History ...

My original ham license (in 1961) was KN9GOG. Our next-door neighbor, Leroy Grubel (sp?) was, if memory serves, an engineer (electrical) at the local GE plant. Leroy was studying for the novice license also and we attended classes at the local ham club, building a small transmitter. All the parts were contributed by local hams, including the metal chassis. The final was a 6146 I think, driven by a 12BY7. Crystal controlled, CW only. My receiver was a rather poor general coverage unit, and I don't think I ever did make an on-the-air contact with that rig. What I did accomplish was learning to never pick up the open-chassis rig and allow my fingers to contact the plate switch. That wasn't the last high-voltage shock I've received in my life, but it sure as heck is the one I remember the clearest!

I remember, vaguely, Leroy showing my dad a dynamotor setup in the engine compartment of his car, later on, so he soon upgraded to phone. Being a novice class license, mine expired after a year and about the same time I discovered another fascinating hobby - girls! I lost contact with Leroy when he and his wife moved from the neighborhood. Graduating high school in 1966, I was prime draft material, but somehow wrangled a job-deferment, performing "work essential to the communications needs of the United States." Basically I was hooking up cables at the local Telco office for Automatic Electric. Later I began working in the Administrative Services department of the local insurance giant, State Farm. During the boom in CB radio in the late 70's. I was probably the only CBer in my community that actually bought the $20 license before I bought a radio! That led to a renewed interest in Amateur Radio as the CB band was quickly degenerating into mayhem. After a number of trips to the Federal Building in Chicago, Illinois to secure my ham ticket about 1981 as WB9VRC Amateur Advanced class, I then started studying for the First Class Radiotelephone License, which I received in 1983. That led to a career change from office machine repairman to 2-way radio repairs. The Radiotelephone license was eventually "grandfathered" to a General Radiotelephone license that never expires (still shows up in the FCC database as PG1827371). The Ham license expired sometime back, and regretfully I delayed renewing it until it now requires a whole run through the testing, licensing phase again. Maybe someday ...

By pure chance I ran across an announcement for the Peoria Superfest (a ham fest in Illinois) that mentioned they were going to be giving FCC exams today ... so I went. I'm now a new Amateur Radio Extra Class patiently (yeah, right!) awaiting my license to show up in the FCC ULS database. From no ticket to Extra in an hour was quite exciting I have to admit ...

The new Amateur Extra License finally showed up on the FCC ULS database - AB9PP ... hmmmm. Well, it's not a bad call but I think I'll apply for a vanity call-sign, either 1x2 or 1x3. The vanity call sign list for District 9 was pretty thin for 1x2 calls, so I opted for a 1x3. I considered getting K9GOG which would have been my first call had I upgraded from Novice all those years ago ... but it doesn't have any good alliterations that I could think of ... so ... on the theory that if you're going to have a Vanity Call Sign, be really vain, I applied for N9GOD and got it. Now, I realize you're thinking I chose that one out of some misguided sense of ego, but really it just stands for "Good Old Don" !

It's now October of 2008 and my Ham activities have been severely crimped by our move to a Townhouse. Given the need for stealth antennas, I've not yet been on the air on HF from this QTH. Once the gazillion boxes we moved are unpacked, I'll get back to building, home brewing and working on antennas.