I'm an Amateur Radio ("Ham") operator. I was first licensed as a Novice Class ham in New Jersey in 1965, with the callsign WN2RPQ. Within a couple of years I had upgraded to General class, and my call sign upgraded too, to WB2RPQ. In those days there were Morse Code requirements for the Novice and General class licenses (5 WPM and 13 WPM respectively). I believe I got my Novice license by taking the exam through a fellow local Ham. But for higher level classes you had to travel to take the test at an official FCC examination office - which in my case meant a trip on the bus to New York City, quite an adventure as I recall. For those exams you really had to know practical circuit theory, because you had to actually draw circuit diagrams and design things.

My favorite operating mode was CW. For Christmas one year Santa gave me my dream present: a Knight Kit T-150A transmitter kit, with a 6146B final. I spent the whole Christimas school holiday down in the basement putting it together. (NB: current EHam reviews for this transmitter are scathing, and in retrospect I have to agree. But it was fun at the time.) I also had a Hammarlund HQ-100A receiver, and an Eico Grid-Dip meter built from a kit. As I recall, I had two antennas. We had a big lot, and my dad actually put up a 20 foot mast made of iron pipe way out in the corner of the front yard, with a concrete footing, guy wires, turnbuckles, and all. To this was attached one end of a dipole - this may have been my 80 meter antenna. I recall it was made of Copperweld wire, was coax-fed, and was probably 20 feet or so off the ground. I also had a 40/15 meter inverted Vee on the roof, with its center hanging off the TV antenna mast that was mounted to our chimney. This Vee may have been a folded dipole, and I'm certain it was fed with 300 ohm twinlead, if not made from twinlead.

My license and callsign lapsed after a period of inattention, but in 1975 I got interested again. By this time I had moved to Massachusetts, and I was a student at UMass/Amherst. I studied up, again both theory and 13 WPM code, and got my Advanced Class license with the new callsign WA1WGF (I've recently verified this in a 1981 callbook, which I guess qualifies me for the QCWA). I know I continued to use the HQ-100A receiver, but I don't recall the transmitter or antenna system I used while at UMass.

Later, WA1WGF also lapsed, and I pretty much forgot about ham radio in any serious sense for maybe 30 years or so. I stored my equipment in various places and evidently disposed of most of it. Both the T-150A and my trusty old HQ-100A have disappeared into the mists of history, and I do miss the receiver.

In 2008 my son, a Boy Scout, took a class for the Radio merit badge. Part of that class was a visit to a ham radio station, so I went along for the ride. The instructor took us to his house, where I think he had three antennas on the roof, and just seeing those got me excited again. He turned on his rig (I think it was a Yaesu FT-857D), and tuned around. The rig had a small orange bandscope and signals were easy to see. I could hear some CW as he tuned around, and found that even after all these years I could still read it - or at least some of it. I was hooked again. I even went out into my stored memorabilia and dug out my old J-38 key (like this one), but I've since bought a Bencher paddle and a keyer.

More study, alot of listening, a couple of exams, and a vanity callsign application later and I'm now relicensed as W9XC, Amateur Extra class. I'm still assembling a complete station, but I have operated a bit on 2 meters with a VX-170 HT. I still favor HF/CW and intend to refurbish and put on the air some boatanchor CW rigs I have. These days I have a few Kenwood and Icom transceivers with crystal filters, DSPs, and the whole bit. These run via several experimental antennas, including a not too long "long wire" just thrown across the roof, and a tuned 40 meter dipole made of #14 insulated copper electric wire and a 1:1 Unadilla balun, center-fed with RG8X coax - this antenna I put up and take down as needed. I also have a Buddipole but haven't used it much. Over the next few months I'll try mounting a reasonably-sized "skywire loop" antenna of about 250 feet or so, strung around between the roof corners and trees and fed balanced with ladder-line. It's alot of work sinking ground rods and wiring in lightning protection, routing the ladder-line, building masts onto the house, etc. etc. so it may take some time.