My Ham Radio History      

 

My ham radio history somewhat overlaps my overall radio history, but I did not include ham radio specific events or milestones in that account, so I figured I'd make a separate history page dedicated strictly to ham radio.  I had been a CB operator for far longer than I had been a ham.  Initially, in the early days of my radio experimentation, I had little interest in ham radio.  Don't get me wrong, the capabilities and privileges of ham radio were certainly interesting.  But, I was turned off by Morse code, as well as the seemingly rigid and overly formal operating practices displayed by the hams that I listened to from time to time.  There didn't seem to be too many "kids" on ham radio either. The few who were, seemed to be viewed through the eyes of W.C. Fields by the adult hams.  A cold politeness was offered, but nothing close to an enthusiastic welcome.  In sharp contrast, I was used to a far more wild, crazy, and uninhibited bunch of people, with fast and loose operating habits, who's primary goal was to have fun with radio.  The large disparity in operating styles and requirements, between the CB and Ham radio services, pretty much kept ham radio at the periphery of my attention and interest.  But as the years rolled on by, a few factors would gradually change the way that I felt, and would eventually force me to reconsider the desire to obtain a ham license. The first, and probably the biggest factor, was the gradual degradation of the overall morality and character of the users on the CB band in the local area.  In years past, while we all played around and had a great deal of fun in the process, most of our gang respected other people (unless they picked a fight with us first) and even the agitators had a certain "code of ethics" which they lived by.  While these guys enjoyed playing head games with other people, they did it by using psychology along with wit and humor to accomplish their goal.  But by the early 80's, this was slowly being replaced by people who were just plain crude, rude, and abusive.  On-air fights became more frequent, jamming and interference increased, and there were often serious verbal threats of violence made by the worst of the malcontents.  It was bad enough that many of the old crowd slowly began to lose interest in CB radio. The hobby was becoming much less fun, having to deal with vulgar miscreants on a daily basis.  Some simply gave up and sold out, but many others did not want to leave a radio hobby which they enjoyed.  Suddenly, a move to ham radio deserved some serious reconsideration.  By that time, ham radio had begun to "loosen up" in its attitude as well.  Much of the former tight formality had rescinded a bit, and it looked as if even "less serious" former CB'ers could actually co-exist with other hams.  For my part, I had also matured a bit in my attitude as well.  By the time that I finally took the plunge and obtained my Novice license, I was already 21 years of age, and had calmed down considerably in my wild and crazy on-air antics.  So when a bunch of us finally decided to move up to ham radio, and after some prodding by Steve (WA3RQO), I finally decided to take the test.

So it was that on a late fall evening in 1981, Steve, being an Advanced class Ham, administered the Novice exam to "Uncle" Chuck, John (Cactus), and myself. The three of us had been regulars at the local hamfest circuit, and some of our other associates had already taken the plunge into ham radio. So we had been given the challenge to do so as well.  We had each studied the material, and sample tests had been provided to allow us to see what exactly we would be up against.  Due to my technical background, brought about by years of tinkering and technical school education, the only parts which I needed to study, were the FCC rules and, of course, learning the dreaded Morse Code.  Chuck totally memorized every question and answer, and aced his test, but I doubt if he actually learned any real theory. I took a short cut with respect to passing the code test. I learned all the required letters, but I never really developed any workable speed.  But when copying at 5 WPM, it's possible to write down the actual "dit's" and "dah's" as they are sent, and then translating the message later, and that's what I did.  Some would say that I cheated and, from a purist standpoint, maybe I did.  But if it was an acceptable method for Wayne Green of 73 Magazine fame to endorse, it was good enough for me.  I copied enough to correctly answer the required questions in order to pass the test, and that's all I cared about.  Once the code test was out of the way, it was the last time I ever touched a code key or seriously listened to a CW transmission.  A good thing too, since I felt that if I had to listen to any more code transmissions, my head would explode like in the movie "Scanners".

My first call sign came to me in the mail in a few weeks.  This was before the days of the internet and on-line lookups, so I had no advance notice.  My novice call was KA3IJK, and I felt a surge of pride when it finally came in the mail.  But as much as earning that ticket was cause for mental gratification,  possession of a Novice license was still basically a useless commodity for me.  At that time, the Novice license granted no voice privileges at all, only CW privileges on the H.F. bands, which held absolutely zero interest for me.  So I immediately began to study for the Technician class upgrade.  Back then, the Technician license consisted essentially of a combination of the complete Element 3 General class theory, along with the previously completed Novice 5 WPM code. To upgrade from Technician to General, required only an additional 13 WPM code exam.  Back in those days, there were no Volunteer Examiners (V.E.'s). You had to go to the nearest FCC field office to take the exam, which was administered by FCC personnel.  Fortunately for me, there was an FCC field office within fairly easy driving distance.  So in early 1982, I took a day off from work, went over to the FCC field office in Oxford Valley Pa, and took the test.  After checking my calculator for hidden formulas in memory, and sitting me down in a room which reminded me of the Spanish Inquisition (Well, maybe it was just that I was a bit nervous), I took the test.  When it was over, I was told that I missed one question, but it didn't matter, as I could miss 5 and still pass.  As a bonus for achieving the next license class, I chose to upgrade my callsign to go with my newly acquired privileges.   So in a few more weeks, my call would officially be N3CVJ.  In the meantime, when talking on a band covered by my new privileges, I had to sign with "KA3IJK, Interim PA", to show that I had passed the test but was still waiting for my new call in the mail.  Since any further license upgrades would require an increase in code proficiency, I pretty much knew that this would be as far as I would go, barring the unthinkable (at that time) idea, that the FCC might reduce the code requirement.  A Technician class operator's privileges were not all that bad though.  You pretty much had full reign on every ham band above 30 Mhz.  While that limited much in the way of serious DX prospects, I was not a big fan of DX talking anyway, having gotten it pretty much out of my system from my time on 11 meters.  I was more interested in reliable local communications, and chewing the fat with other home town people, and the VHF bands fit that bill rather nicely.

The 2 meter band was the most popular of the VHF bands, and the primary destination for those "H.F. challenged" hams so, predictably, that's the band which I first obtained equipment for.  Before I took my tech test, I had already acquired an 8 channel Heathkit 2 meter HT (a trade from Steve).  I remember, right after I got my license, demonstrating to a bunch of my CB friends how I could make a phone call with the HT through a repeater autopatch.  Back then, that was a really cool trick, and it amazed a bunch of people.  Today, the proliferation of cell phones have pretty much reduced autopatch calls to a nostalgic novelty, right next to rotary dial phones.  I found that HT to be very limited in functionality and frequency capability so I also picked up a 2nd hand Kenwood TR-7400, 25 watt synthesized mobile radio for use as my base station.  My first 2 meter base antenna was actually an Antenna Specialist's Lo/Hi/UHF tri-band monitor antenna, which I had been using for my scanner, and which had a remarkably good SWR on the 2 meter band.  It was mounted on a side arm off of my CB antenna mast, and about 15 feet off the ground.  It was not the most efficient system, but it allowed me to access all of the local repeaters, as well as hang out with the local simplex guys. The local simplex group at the time consisted of a few of the former powerhouse guys from CB Channel 4, as well as a few others who had also cut their teeth on CB. The local frequency at the time was 145.080.  But this would change when packet radio would become popular and forced us to move away from the "packet racket".  Our simplex group would change frequency many times over the years, and we would gain and lose members as well.  I eventually picked up a 2 meter 1/2 wave Ringo antenna, which I mounted on the opposite side of the cross bar from the scanner antenna.  I soon discovered that the Ringo was not always better than the scanner antenna, depending on the direction of the received station.  I'm sure there was some interaction with the mast, which made the patterns from each antenna somewhat directional.  But despite these shortcomings, I ran with this setup for about the next year. At this point, I was still primarily on CB but, as the years progressed, I would slowly shift more and more toward ham radio.

In 1983, when I put up my crank-up tower, and the CB beam, I moved my 2 meter antenna over to a 20 foot mast which was attached to the electric service pole in the back center of the house. Using spare parts from another antenna, I also upgraded the 1/2 wave Ringo to a 5/8th wave "Ringo Ranger". I was also expanding my horizons in radio gear. I started playing around with 6 meter AM with the acquisition of a Lafayette HB-750, and 2 meter SSB, when I picked up a Kenwood TS-700A, all mode 2 meter radio from one of the locals.  Since VHF SSB work was normally done on the flat side, I put up a 7 element horizontal beam on the "ham antenna" mast. I also put up a 3 element 6 meter beam. This required a second rotator and control box, as my primary rotator was still attached to the CB beam on the tower.

For the next couple of years, 2 and 6 meters were my only bands. 2 meters served my needs fairly well. After Art got his ham license, we would use 2 meters to coordinate our boating activities in Barnegat Bay New Jersey.  We found a repeater which allowed us to communicate from home all the way down to the shore (A distance of over 100 miles). I would used the TR-7400 as my "Boat radio", and I modified a VHF marine band antenna to work on 2 meters.  I eventually picked up an SBE 440 MHz crystal radio for cheap at a hamfest, and later, a Clegg crystal controlled 220 Mhz radio, as well as half wave Ringo antennas for each.  I mounted them to a crossbar that I attached to the tower, just above roof height.  Neither of those rigs worked very well (why else would they be so cheap?), but it did give me a taste of "other" FM bands.  During this time frame, several other former CB'ers got their ham licenses too, and in 1988,  two other hams and myself put together a 220 Mhz Repeater.

By 1990,  I had dropped completely out of CB, and had removed the CB beam from the top of the tower and had replaced it with a Cushcraft 10 element horizontal/vertical 2 meter beam, the 3 element 6 meter beam, and the Ringo Ranger.  On the former "ham" mast, I added a new Diamond Tri-Band VHF (144/220/440 Mhz) antenna. My radio stable had expanded to include a Kenwood TM-721a dual band 2 meter/440 radio, and a Kenwood TM-321a 220 Mhz radio. I had also picked up an R.F. Concepts 180 watt class AB 2 meter amplifier. I was also running my Yaesu FT-757 with a newly acquired 6 meter transverter for my 6 meter SSB forays.  Also around this time, some of the locals and I started dabbling with packet radio.  At one point, I had a full service PBBS system (N3CVJ/4) running with ports on both 2 and 6 meters.  I erected a 6 meter Ringo and used a crystal-controlled Genave GTX-600, as my 6 meter packet port radio. The Ringo Ranger at the top of the tower and a Kenwood TM221a  became my 2 meter port.  I ran the MSYS PBBS program, and it was a great learning experience.  But packet politics eventually caused me to lose interest , and when my packet computer went belly up in 1994, I pretty much dropped out of it.

The next several years were pretty much filled with much of the same.  Yakking it up with the locals on 2 meters, taking care of the 220 Mhz repeater, and playing around on 6 meter SSB.  My radio stable didn't change much in those years. I had picked up an Icom IC-551 6 meter all mode, which I ran for a spell. I eventually sold that rig and the Kenwood TS-700a, and used the proceeds from those sales to pick up an Icom IC-706, which combined both 2 and 6 meter all modes in one rig. I also acquired 2 Kenwood TM-631 and a TM-621 dual band radios for use in the mobiles (And the boat).

The big news for me came when mounting international pressure caused the FCC to reduce the code requirements for General class and above, to 5 WPM (I guess the idea was not so unheard of after all). This meant that pre-novice enhancement (<1987) technician class licensees were basically grandfathered into the General class.  But you had to show up at a V.E. session, prove that you had credit for the full Element 3, and sign the forms.  So in 2002, I decided to go to a local VE session, sign my name to the form, and walk out with the General license. I looked over the new Extra (Which was now combined with the eliminated Advanced Class) material just for the heck of it, and when the session came, the examiners persuaded me to go for the Extra, so I did.  I passed the test, and I now find myself holding a class of license that I never thought I'd see.  Ironically though, in the 7 years since I've upgraded, I still have yet to do anything serious on H.F.  I don't have a suitable antenna (loading up a 1/4 wave CB whip with a tuner doesn't seem to do all that well), for anything other than 10 meters, and there are many more things on my plate which need attention that I just don't have much radio time any more.  But one of these days, I'll string up some sort of dipole or long wire and see what's happening.  I'm now also involved with 6 meter FM and have linked the 220 repeater with a 6 meter machine which we use to expand our coverage area and the people who can access the system.  What will the future hold? I have no clue, but it'll be interesting to see.  I predict that advances in technology and the need for R.F. spectrum to support it will force the FCC to make some radical changes to the ham bands in the not-too-distant future.  Hopefully we won't loose too much......

73,

N3CVJ

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