Hello, since I see so many amateur radio operators with their own domain name, I decided to do likewise. I Became interested in amateur radio as a young teenager in Oak Hill, WV after listening to ham radio on the family console all band radio. Luckily there was a ham about 2 miles away and happened to discover where he lived by seeing his array of dipole and long wire antennas. After paying him a visit one day as he was working on one of his wire antennas, he invited me in and showed me his radio equipment. Even though he used amplitude modulation most of the time, he demonstrated Morse code which fascinated me, him being able to decipher those short tone bursts.
Soon afterward, my family moved to Essex, MD, then joined the US Army in 1958. I had kept up with amateur radio as far as reading every book I could find and using an old short wave radio to listen. The entry exams when joining the army helped me choose the Signal Corp and after basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, I was then transferred to Fort Gordon near Augusta, Georgia. We attended school as a radio carrier equipment repairman and then was selected to remain as an instructor for my remaining 3 year term. There was an amateur radio station W4MJI on post and began visiting it each day after the evening meal. I was fascinated by the equipment such as a huge BC-610 transmitter and Collins R-390 receivers. I learned the Morse code quickly and was allowed to use the radios when a control operator was there. We were able to call home many times while in the Army while contacting a ham near Baltimore who had a phone patch on the 40 meter AM band.
Was given the call KN3ROJ after passing the novice exam in 1961 which allowed me to operate the radio equipment using CW and spent many nights by myself working the world. Since a commute to the Atlanta FCC office to take the general class exam would have been difficult, I was given a Conditional license after being tested by two other amateurs at the club station. Being licensed under conditional terms meant I could be reexamined any time if the FCC wanted to do so. I was proud of my call K3ROJ which has a good CW swing to it.
Was extended 6 months because of the Cuban Crisis after Kennedy attempted to have Fidel Castro assassinated and remained in the same company as the morning clerk, typing daily reports. Then returning to Essex in 1962, thinking I could draw some unemployment money for a while, I was told there was a job opening not far away. Was hired by the Lever Brothers Company who at the time was only hiring Veterans and was told by many what a good company it was to work for. Becoming bored working different shifts, I began going to night school at different community colleges which the company paid for after each semester and was able to work day shift most of the time. Graduated in 1976 after 3 years receiving a degree in Electronics Engineering. Was offered a salaried position but during that time, the government was forcing all employers to hire minorities so we decided not to leave the union which at that time was very strong. We never actually worked in the electrical field since we had excellent benefits and luckily over the years was able to feed my 401K to the maximum each payday.
Retired early in June 1999 after working 37 years and settled down with amateur radio, gardening and traveling. What a surprise when I received a Yaesu FT-847 transceiver as a retirement gift and the next day was operating through the Russian RS-10/15 and Japanese FO-29 satellites since I already had a dipole for 10 meters and a simple 144/440 beam. Needing a good transceiver for CW on the low bands, I made my first trip to Ham Radio Outlet HRO in New Castle, Delaware to buy the ICOM 756PRO mostly because of the spectral display and still use it for PSK31 and other digital modes. In 2008 I began looking at the Software Defined Radio Flex 5000A and actually had it ordered but instead of waiting 2 months for delivery, I canceled after finding an SDR1000 on E-bay, including a nice desktop computer, external Delta 44 sound card, 100 watt internal amp, internal auto tuner and all connecting cables. It is amazing how signals can be plucked right out of the noise with click of a mouse using the SDR1000 not to mention being able to use a 25 Hz filter (within the software) withour ringing. Transceivers as we know them today will be obsolete since software defined radios are essentially direct conversion spectrum analyzers making it easy to filter and eliminate spurious signals.
