Every ham has an "origins story"; the author's is illuminated by a Hallicrafters SX-25's meter lamps.

When I think back to my youth and how I became interested in ham radio, it calls to mind fond early memories of this great hobby. Despite the fact that by today's standards my equipment was less than "top shelf" and I was a Novice in every sense of the word, I had incredible fun and adventure! At age 14, back in 1965, I went on the air, just barely, as WN0MYC. None of those fancy tape-recorded Morse code lessons for me. No, sir! I taught myself from the ARRL codebook, pronouncing "dit" and "dah" out loud. And I studied the theory books and schematics with wide-eyed confusion. To say I was clueless is an understatement. But when my ticket finally arrived from the FCC, how proud I was to have my very own call letters.

Gazing at radios

I had a great life growing up on a typical small farm in Minnesota. There was a lot of hard work, but when I had leisure time, there was a large grove with a tree house, a river meandering through the meadow where we would camp overnight and fish (and ice skate in the winter), a wooden "fort" in the back yard with underground tunnels and lots of other things to enjoy, like riding calves "bareback" in the barn stall. A childhood doesn't get any better than that!

The Hallicrafters SX-25 proved to be a source of illumination for both the eyes and the spirit. [Courtesy Universal Radio]

The venerable Knight-Kit T-60 transmitter, one of the staples of Novice hamming in the 1960s. [Courtesy Radiophile.com]

So how did ham radio get into the picture? I seem to have been born with a fascination for radio communications. I can remember as a very young child, at some public Christmas event someone received a set of walkie-talkies and I wished it had been me getting them. And I also recall gazing at the shortwave radio receivers in the Sears Roebuck catalog. Eventually, as a teenager, I came across some literature on ham radio and I began to read and read. Living on a farm, I did not have access to an Elmer, so I taught myself just about everything I know about ham radio. I do like to honor W0DYC (SK), who administered my Novice exam in 1965 and sold me my first "boat anchor" receiver, a Hallicrafters SX-25. It sure was heavy, but with a long-wire antenna it could really pull in the shortwave broadcast and ham stations. My transmitter was a used Knight-Kit T-60. It was almost humorous to see the small transmitter being dwarfed by the monstrous receiver. My first transmitting antenna was a vertical fastened to a big round log mast, with a manual tapped loading coil at the base. I actually had to go outside and move the tap wire to change bands.

Thinking back, this antenna was poorly installed and had a bad ground system. I have no idea what the SWR was, and I'm guessing my output was somewhat less than the maximum 40 W generated by the T-60. But I was making contacts. My very first QSO was on 80 meter CW with WN0MKU, who lived in a small town about 50 miles away. What a thrill that was! Even low power and an improperly installed antenna--or, at the time, the lack of such knowledge--couldn't stop me and I still have that first QSL card.

I had another negative force working against me then and I didn't even realize it. Recently, I did some research and found that the solar sunspot cycle was bottomed out in those years. But I remember the night I contacted a fellow Novice in Hawaii. Two "rock-bound" (crystal controlled) hams searching up and down the dial somehow found each other. I was so excited that I woke my mother to tell her the news--my tiny station had just sent a signal into the Pacific! I managed to work 44 states in those early years, while upgrading to General and then Advanced. I wouldn't complete my WAS award until 27 years later, when I got active again and became an Extra Class operator. I do appreciate that Novices were limited to CW operation on HF in those days; it gave me a love for the code that endures today.

"Any Amateur, Anywhere..."

The bedroom I shared with my brother was on the second floor of our farmhouse, and that's where I had my shack. My father built a sturdy table with plenty of room for my station. A window allowed me to observe the weather and the stars and ponder the other parts of the globe with which I was communicating. Nobody else in the family had any interest in Amateur Radio, so I was really on my own.

One of the great memories I have is doing "all-nighters" on the radio. Because of my brother sleeping just a few feet away, I could not have a bright light on. But, after my eyes adjusted, I found I could see well enough by the light of the radio's dial to make log entries. Most of the light came from the three dials of the SX-25 receiver, which radiated a soft amber glow. It was intrigue! It was covert radio operations! With my brother none the wiser sleeping in the nearby bed, I was making Morse code contacts around America. I wonder if other hams have similar memories. There's something about working CW in the thick of night that adds to a boy's--or grizzled veteran's--"clandestine" excitement.

The author counts the card of WN0MKU--the confirmation of his first ham contact--as one of his most prized possessions in Amateur Radio.

What is so great about my young radio years is that in spite of my naivety, I was still communicating by sending invisible signals through the air. At that point in my life, I just wanted to contact anyone, anywhere. When I got back into the hobby many years later, I had to teach myself a few things all over again, but this time I had a better understanding of how antennas and propagation work. Today, I have a simple but modern station, and still use a vertical antenna; CW will always be my favorite mode. Some things never change. Now, hovering around the 275 mark for DXCC entities contacted, I look back with fascination on those terrific teenage years, which are still some of the most exciting contacts I have ever made.

Rod Vlach, NN0TT is an ARRL member. He and wife Diane live in Willmar, Minnesota. He can be reached at nn0tt@arrl.net.

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