What got you interested in ham radio

My first awareness of ham radio came from an article 'G3MY Calling!', by the late OM Mike, in an issue of 'Doctors Only'. My OM was a GP too and I loved reading the literature he got! It was in the early 1960s and I wrongly thought that such activities were not permitted in our country.

Another story, on how lonely housewives in the Australian Outback kept in touch through 2-way radio, further kindled my curiosity.

One afternoon, a decade later, I was listening to civil aviation chatter on the family radio tuned to 8.8 Mhz. The aviation transmitting station, with its huge bird-cage antenna, was very close to where we lived about 5 km from the local airport. Tuning to 7 Mhz, I heard what I later realised was a ragchew between two hams from South India!

Meanwhile I did the usual crystal diode -TRF - superhet radio - audio amplifier -other-gizmo routine till I was introduced to a local ham in 1976 and got my ticket in 1977.

Collecting marbles, stamps, and gramophone records, apart from carpentry and photography, were my other hobbies.

It is my opinion that it would be easier to attract those with hobby interests.

73

Nandu

 

Takes one to know one!!!

 

My parents were both hams when I was a kid. They used to take me with them to field days and ham fests. I used to hangout with them in the "shack" late at night as they chewed the rag.

When I went on to college, I put a CB in my car. I used to talk with truckers on the trip between home and school. Eventually, I purchased a radio and antenna for the house when I became an adult. Some of my friends that I had made were hams. I started listening to them on my scanner.....(kinda felt left out). I started studying to get my ham license and finally got my ticket. I found that amateur radio is far more productive than the CB. When I started learning more about amateur radio and how much has changed since when I was a kid, I started studying to get my HF license. I learned how to talk to the people on the other side of the world with just 100 watts and a pretty wire in my front yard for my neighbors to look at.

Never looked back.

 

A friends brother introduced me to ham radio when I was about 6 or 7 years old. He had set up a station using modified ex-RAF radios and some homebrew gear. I remember watching the valves glow and got a warm fuzzy feeling which still persists today 48 years later.

Adrian

 

Well I'm a 21yo radioamateur and been one more than half of my life. I think the keyword for me was contesting. Starting with RTTY and smoothly moving on to SSB and later on CW. Kids like to show that they are better than everybody else. So let them challenge, with the older guys. RTTY is great to start with, or SSB. They don't need to participate in CQ DX contest, they can start with something small. Some local contests.

I can't say it's gambling, but I still feel the excitement after every contest. Like I've done something big.

73! Chris ES7GM

 

This did it for me...
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/59abscad.htm

 

My grandparents had a neighbor who is/was a ham (I don't know if he is still alive). I was about 11 years old and one day I asked him what all those towers and antennas were for. He showed me his radio shack and all the QSL cards from contacts around the world. I was hooked immediately. He also gave me a bunch of old QST issues to read through.

I didn't get my Technician class license until 10 years later, but until then I was given a multi-band radio with shortwave (AM only, no SSB). I could pick up ham transmissions, but they were garbled. I figured at the time it didn't have a BFO, but that didn't wane my interests. I got my license when I was 21 and upgraded to General this past May.

All I can say now is thank you, neighbor, whomever you are and wherever you may be.

73s de KC8RLU.

 

Sky command

 

An old Hallicrafter receiver my Dad owned, to this date I swear that was the best receiver ever; it wasn't. A few years later a Novice class was offered, that's it I was gone at age 14.

 

I first got interested about a year ago when I took a Boy Scout Radio Merit Badge class. It stuck in my mind throughout that school year until I went to another campout and there was a demonstration with the BSA Venture Crew K0BSA. I went home researched and got my lisence a couple months later. It seems like Boy Scouts got alot of people into Ham as far as I've read.