I was first licensed as WN9WZV in 1968 while serving time as
a high school sophomore in Indianapolis. Later that same year, I
passed my General exams and became WA9WZV.
My first station was a Johnson Adventurer 50-watt transmitter and an
Army surplus BC-348 receiver. Soon to follow was an EICO 753 AM/SSB/CW
transceiver kit. Later rigs included a lot of QRP and QRPp stuff
including the Heathkit HW-8 and Kenwood TS-130V transceivers.
I operated 100% code for nearly 25 years. In the beginning, it was
straight key CW. Later I managed to grasp the swing of a
semi-automatic bug. In the early 1970's, I built my first electronic
keyer using TTL IC's. In the early 1980's, I made my Commodore VIC-20
computer crank out some serious Morse code in between games of
Centipede and Gorf.
I foolishly let my license expire in 1995. In July of 2002, I
tested again ... this time with my sons Josh/KG4VBJ and Justin/KG4VBK.
I retired from my own software business in 2003 and began county hunting
in 2007. My son Justin/KG4VBK and I enjoy passing out counties on CHN while
mobile as well as participating mobile in the MARAC Contest and state QSO
Parties.
de Gary, K4EXT
MARAC Historian
