Topband: Made it! 80 Years a Ham

Thu Jan 19 19:58:11 EST 2017

Congrats Paul...!!!
Mario
LU8DPM

bob hervatine <n2ns at arrl.net> wrote:

Paul,

I've never met you, but after reading your post on the topband reflector, I wish to both thank you for sharing your post, and especially to congratulate you on achieving 80 years as a licensed amateur op!

What a wonderful thing. And what an inspiration to new 'kids' (I'll be 70 years old in April) like me.

I 'almost' got my Novice class license in the 1950's, when I was a Cub/Boy Scout, but did not want to take the test, and start my '1 year clock' (term of Novice license then) running until I had BOTH confidence that I could pass the Novice exam AND had enough money on hand to purchase a basic single crystal transmitter kit. (Which then was about $40, as I recall.) But when I felt I was ready to pass the test, I would be short of cash, and vice versa. Then Little League baseball got in the way, and I let amateur radio slip onto the back burner until I was 50 years old. That's when I FINALLY got licensed and on the air. I'll always regret not having made that final push to get my license when I was 10 years old. My hat's off to you and all the others who DID earn their licenses as youths, AND stayed active throughout the years.

I don't recall ever having the honor of working you, but it would truly be an honor to QSO with you. (I'd have never been close to keeping up with you when you were working 35-40 wpm, but now that you're down to 20-25 wpm, I could hang in with you. No 'finger dexterity' limitations here... my CW limitations lie between my ears!)

Thank YOU for sharing YOUR kindness and knowledge.

73, Bob Hervatine N2NS

________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of PAUL M ELLIOTT <paab at valornet.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2017 3:34 PM
To: topband at contesting.com
Subject: Topband: Made it! 80 Years a Ham

Made it! 19 January 2017, is the 80th anniversary of my first ham license,
Class C operating privileges with W5GGV as my call. Was 14 years old at the
time. A little over a year later I upgraded to Class A.  Many years later
the Extra Class (with no added privileges) came along. Upgraded. Some years
later the FCC announced that hams with an Extra Class license who had been
licensed 25 years could apply for a two -letter call, no place on the
application to request of a specific call.  Was assigned W5DM.

First rig made from junked Atwater Kent radio parts. First antenna was a
wire going out a hole in the window screen to a tree.  First DX was VK2SS on
40 m CW, September 1937. (An aside. There were no phone privileges on 40 m
for USA hams). The VK2SS QSL card is hung on my wall. My card to him was
written on a postcard (Great Depression=no money to buy QSL cards).

Been fairly active over the years, except, of course, for WW II.  If
interested in WW II, you can do a web search on DD 792 for a small part of
my history.

The first 20 or 30 years I built my transmitters (all low powered) and
receivers. Operated CW only until SSB came along. Then I built a low powered
phasing rig. A BC-348H receiver was made dual conversion using 85 kcs  (kcs
then= kHz now) IF transformers from a BC 453 receiver.   Had a blast working
the world with a homebuilt "cubical quad" on 20 meters.  Since then mostly
CW.

I may have made one small contribution to ham radio.  In the April 1958
issue of QST, in Technical Correspondence there was a letter from me that, I
think, was the first mention in a ham publication that the formula for
determining the length of a "cubical quad" antenna was not correct.  Since
my measurements were made using a BC 348, a grid dip oscillator, and a 100
kcs crystal oscillator. I don't know whether I was just lucky to get as
close as I did or did a fairly good job with what I had.

In the early 1990s started out to get 160 m WAS from a 120 x 120 foot
electrically noisy city lot (SE NM) with a long ( ~3/8 wavelength)  but low
semi-inverted L antenna.  Ground radials of varying length in one 90 degree
segment. Made 160 m WAS.   Then started chasing DX.  Now have 189 countries
confirmed on 160 m, 324 on all bands.

Age, not surprisingly, has taken its toll.  CW now down to 20-25 wpm-at one
time it was 35-40 wpm.  Finger dexterity way down-has taken me over 3 hours
to type this email. Physical realities remain physical realities--I am now a
disabled, crippled old man. But---

No complaints-many people are worse off than I am.

Thanks to all who have had the knowledge and the kindness to help me over
the years.

73 Paul W5DM

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