Things I learned as a 13 Year Old Advanced Class Ham (in the previous century)

Things I learned as a 13 year old Advanced Class ham.



I started out on hamming at an early age. I got my Novice at age 13, and upgraded straight to Advanced about six months later. Yeah, I was a pipsqueak and a squirt, but I quickly became a good operator on phone and CW by carefully observing other good operators, and by reading everything I could get my hands on about good operating procedure. I’d say I was a smart kid, but not a jerk or a snotnose or anything like that.



Still, I could not escape the diligent “mentoring” of many of the 50 and 60 year old long-time General Class ops I encountered. Here are but a few things I learned as a 13 year old Advanced, taken from actual conversations. And as always, I swear I am not making any of this up.



1) “You are a BOY in a MAN’S hobby.” I don’t remember the exact context of this advice, but it became a catch phrase among my ham friends for many years. I thought that was a stupid thing to tell someone, since I could do anything the older hams could do, except buy gear without begging my parents, of course.

2) “I believe you operated illegally. This frequency is reserved for Advanced and Extra Class.” I remember being a LOT more offended by this than I should have been. The guy was just trying to help, I guess. But I could not BELIEVE that he didn’t think a punk kid like me could get an Advanced ticket. The NOIVE of the guy!

3) “Never pick apart a man’s signal on the air. Instead, you should send him a letter explaining exactly what is wrong.” I don’t remember exactly what the problem was, but a guy was either drifting, or had a hum on his signal, or something that he needed to know about right away. Or so I reasoned. All I did was say something like, “You have a bit of a hum,” or “I think you are drifting.” It was more of an offhand remark than a harsh criticism or attempt to embarrass another operator. It was nothing like that. I thought I was doing the guy a favor by pointing out a problem, maybe before the FCC pointed it out. So EXCUUUUSE MEEE for violating one of somebody’s unwritten rules of hamming.

4) Electronic keyers have no “personality!” You need to use a straight key so you can “swing” your code. The Lake Erie Swing should be your code sending style.

5) When I inquired about a rig for sale, an older ham told me “I don’t do business with children.” Hmm. Probably thought I’d outsmart him and rip him off. Whatever.

6) An Olde Pharte who seemed bothered by younger hams in general snidely predicted that I “…would discover what little girls are made of and drop [ham radio].” Unfortunately, he dropped dead long before I dropped ham radio. Oh, well. Nice try, though!



As I got older, I tried to be understanding and respectful of younger hams, and was glad they even had an interest in the hobby. At the same time, I grew to understand why those geezers thought younger hams, like all younger children, needed to be “seen but not heard.” Now, get off my yard, ya whippersnappers!

 

Having been a 14 year old ham (that soon went to Advanced) I can concur that the ham population is sometimes its own worst enemy. Talking down to kids like they're stupid, not trusting them, jumping on their mistakes under the guise of "Elmering."

I saw this as a kid too. And clearly, sometimes it was mean spirited, sometimes not...but my 14 year brain hadn't yet been calloused by years of a-hole adults. So while I could handle CW and DX chasing just fine, it was hard to shake off this kind of treatment. I seem to remember that dealing with ham radio men was like walking though the woods - step carefully, shake off the thorns when they grab you, worry about the cuts later, and always keep moving. There were good guys in ham radio to be sure, but you had to weave your way through woods to find them.

I did drop ham radio and came back 20 years later, this time wearing boots and long pants.

 

The only thing I remember from being 13 IS what little girls were made of!

 

I started the hobby in 1966, and had boxes of old QSTs from the 1950s, and other such rags (donated to me by my Elmer). I remember seeing pics and articles about a lot of teenaged operators. I suppose there were plenty of old codgers back then (and even today), but I think they were/are the exception rather than the rule.

 

Oh, and another thing I remember "learning." There was a local net on 28.8. Might have sometimes met as a Ten-X net, but it was a frequency where a number of locals (most of them oldsters) hung out. At one point, someone (still not 100% sure who, though I had a suspicion) decided they really needed to QRM the net. It wasn't long until there were some sly innuendos that a certain teenager was responsible. Nobody had the guts to come out and flatly accuse me or anybody else, but the cracks about teenagers in general, and teenage hams in particular, would fly whenever the QRMer showed up.

The lesson to learn was teenage hams were ill behaved. Write that down.

 

This is interesting because I had the exact opposite experience. I went from Technician (N7FCG) to Advanced within several months when I was 13/14 (1983). I was treated like a rock star at the local ham radio club. Everybody was kind and helpful to me. There was another kid there my age (Mike, KA7MHF now WA7CBB), and we had people falling over themselves to help us out. Rex Stuart (N7BUL) even let us use his station to work 1983 Sweepstakes! A brand new Kenwood 930 and a tri-bander at 50 feet! How awesome was that? I never had a bad experience on the air, and I was on HF all the time. Got lots of nice QSL cards from people who were thrilled to work somebody my age. It was the golden age of repeaters, and I had a Kenwood TR-2400 with a Bianchi leather case that I listened to during classes at school with an earphone, and I couldn't wait to get on the air when the bell rang. Using the phone patch was a party trick that never got old. I remember listening to the curmudgeons on the air but I never personally experienced any vitriol.

 

R.I.P., Marv.

 

Yeah Marv, 73 OM. Catch you down the log.

Hey Corey, your ticket is coming up in December brother. Get it punched for ten more.

 

When I was 13, I was riding motorcycles, smoking dope and hanging out with girls. The thought of being a nerd never crossed my mind.

 

I was a nerd till age 15, when the wheels promptly fell off.