Well I thought this would be a good time to tell you how I got started in Ham Radio. So here I go…

 

In 1990 I started a new job and my boss was and still is a ham radio operator. He would show me all his radios and I helped him put up some antennas. He told me I should get in to it that it was a lot of  fun. I had messed around with them a bit when I lived in Marathon in the Florida Keys. I thought why not, I’m always open to new adventures. Back then I had to start out with a novice license that gave me 2 meter privileges. Then onto a technician Class and 5 words a minute CW, then a General with 13 wpm, Advanced, and then Extra and 20 wpm CW. Any way I took my Novice and passed of course gave me 2 meter access so I bought my friends hand held Kenwood TH-215A which I used in the car. I went and took my Technician and 5 wpm code. I passed so that gave me 10meter HF. I was excited to say the least. My call was  KB8MUG.

 

I got on the internet and bought a Heathkit HW-101 cheap. When I got it I found out it didn’t work I guess that’s why it was cheap. I took it over to an electronics shop by my house. I knew he was ham too. I ask him if he could fix it and he said yes but to give him a couple of weeks. Well to make this a little shorter I got it back about 2 months later. (That’s another story) When I did get it back I was all excited to talk to someone but I didn’t have an antenna. So I thought Hmmm!! Let me see what I can rig up… I found a long piece of coax from my CB days and it had a PL259 on one end. I also found a roll of steel fence wire hanging in the garage.

 

I took the fence wire and stretched it out from a tree on one corner of my lot (100x100) to a fence post at the other. It was quit long and it was only about 7 or 8 feet above the ground. I ran the coax from the radio to the wire outside. (Now keep in mind I had no Idea what I was doing)  I cut the wire and connected the lead of the coax to one side of the wire and the ground (copper shield) to the other side of the wire.

I had no Idea what kind of standing wave I would have. I turned on the radio and let it warm up and I was receiving a lot of stuff.  At that time it was at the top of the propagation cycle and it was so good it was as clear as talking on your phone. It was amazing. I already bought a tuner so I played with that until I got the standing wave down to 1.3. I was surprised I could get it down that far with what I had and how high it was. Being very nervous I yelled out on 10 meter CQ, CQ, CQ this is KB8MUG. I got an answer right away it was I guy from Kiev Russia! I was so excited I never wrote down his call or name. I jumped up and started to do the dance…  You know the one! That was totally amazing. I’ll never forget my first time.

 

I have upgraded to General since then and I’m thinking about the Extra Class maybe soon, we’ll see! I also changed my call a month or so later to N8SMC. With my old call they kept calling me the MUG man HI, HI…  I just couldn’t have that. Since then I have gotten a vanity call with my initials K8TCC.

Well that’s that. I hope you enjoyed my little story now go have fun and make some contacts!!

 

 

Tom Causley K8TCC  73

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