My first interest in the hobby happened, when I read a copy of a Superboy comic book. It was a story about his remotely controlled robot, and how the receive crystal cracked and changed the frequency. A nearby ham operator accidently came across this and was able to control the Superboy robot. That was my first introduction to the hobby, as strange as it seems.
In 1971, I obtained my novice license at 14, with the help of my 8th grade science teacher, Welton Stein, WA8JLM and his friend, Peter Miller, W8NSR. He loaned a homebrew 15 w output 80/40 m transmitter, and a Knight R100 receiver. Using a DPDT knife switch as my T/R switch, I made a lot of QSOs with that setup. From there, it was a B&W 5100 and a Drake 2B setup.
I retired in July of 2019, as a maintenance supervisor at a local mall for 14 years. Previous to that, 14 years in commercial two-way repair. And a short stint in between, as a full-time professional musician.
Now, I have found I like to restore old tube radios to good working order and use them. Some DXing, ragchewing, Digi modes, little pistol contesting, and backpacking qrp operations are some of the things I enjoy out of this hobby. I very seldom use phone, mainly, cw.
I want to thank my sponsors who thought I was CWops material, and recommended me for membership. Thank you, gentlemen!
This biography is what appeared in Solid Copy when the member joined CWops.