Merrick - my first QTH
A Happy Fellow
A Happy Fellow
A Happy Fellow
Like many hams I was a Short Wave Listener first, and spent many hours tuning around the SW broadcast bands with a National NC188. The photo below appeared in a 1972 issue of a magazine called "Communication World" which, along with articles on foreign broadcast stations (such as "A Visit to Radio Tirana") and handy hints like "How to Build Better SWL Antennas," published pictures of readers in their shacks.
WN2HTO
A Happy Fellow
A Happy Fellow
I have to credit my father for getting me into ham radio. Even though he was not a ham at the time, he used to say "why are you just listening when you can get your license and transmit?" So I did. I took my ham radio license a few weeks before summer camp started in the summer of 1972. On the hope I actually passed I brought up my recently purchased Heathkit HW-16. My parents called soon after camp stated with the news I had passed, and WN2HTO was on the air! Sort of. I had NO CLUE what I was doing. Didn't make a single contact all summer
When I returned home my friends Roy (WA2SLO) and Mike (WA2DLN) helped me set up my first ham shack and hang a proper antenna for 40 and 15 meters. The SWL cards that filled the wall are gone, replaced by my new collection of ham QSL cards.
Up on the roof
My two terrific parents let me put install a TH-3 beam on their roof. Above the beam is a 2m CushCraft circularly polarized antenna, which I used for contacts through amateur radio satellites Oscar 7 and 8. I will never forget the thrill of hearing my own signal coming back - with Doppler shift - from the bird. (Read the whole story here.) (My mom freaked out everytime I went on the roof to tend to my antennas, but I was in heaven.)
Dad gets his ticket
Dad gets his ticket
Dad gets his ticket
Shortly after earning my General ticket my Dad earned his Novice (WN2TSD), and we - well, he - sprang for this Star ST-700 and SR-700A transmitter/receiver pair. (Not sure, but I think we bought them at one of the famous George Washington birthday sales at Harrison's in Farmingdale.) That's a Lafayette HA-410 10-meter rig up top, which I used extensively in the mobile and while participating in many "bunny hunts" with the Wantagh Amateur Radio Club.
WB2EZK & WB2HTO
Dad gets his ticket
Dad gets his ticket
Here we are, me and my dad, Lou - who later earned his General ticket (WB2EZK) - in the shack, circa 1976. By this time we had sold the STAR pair and bought a much more reliable Tempo One transceiver.
QSOs with my dad
After dad passed away in 2010 I found his paper logbook and created an electronic version (it was only 486 QSOs so it didn't take that long.) When I reached the last page I was delighted to see that I was his last QSO (I was living in Boston at the time, running a TS-120 from my condo.)
Also in the log were a number of QSOs dad and I had when I was at the University of Maryland and would work from the school's club station, W3EAX. I've edited dad's HRDlog to show those QSOs, all of which were on 80 meters.