Biography

I first got interested in ham radio in the mid-1970s. I saw an advertisement on television with Dick van Dyke promoting the book and cassette tape "Tune in the World with Ham Radio". It is copyright 1976 and I still have it.

I would have been 12 in 1976. I started listening to shortwave broadcasts on an old magic eye tube radio. I was in heaven. BBC, VOA, WWV, WWVH, Canada, Quito Ecuador and more. My dad had put up a 72 foot long wire antenna for listening, but he never had time. But I did. Then I read the book "Today I am a Ham" by Ethelyn M Parkinson and had to have more. I aquired (Don't know how, probably dear old dad) a Radio Shack DX-160 5 band solid state receiver and things REALLY opened up for me. I was listening to CW, British housewives gossiping, Radio Moscow, telemetry, obscure words randomly spoken that meant nothing to me, and even more. This went on for a couple of years. I, along with a buddy a year older than me, started studying for our Novice class ticket in early 1979. By summer, we were ready to test. We went to our local Radio Shack store where an Extra class ham worked behind the counter. He was allowed to test us in the back room of the store. We both passed the theory and 5 wpm code tests. My callsign was (and now is again) KA5GGH. I was never more proud of an accomplishment. My dad bought me my first transceiver, an old Heathkit HW-100. Yes, HW-100, not the legendary HW-101. But it was a great rig and I made QSOs all around the world with my homebrew inverted V antenna. But I was only active for about two years. I started working so I could afford a car when I turned 16. And with a car comes chasing girls. Then came college. The ticket was only good for 5 years, but that was the time period in ham radio where you could renew a Novice class license. Just fill out the paperwork and send in the money and it may have been good for life after that. But NOooo. I was too busy. WAY too busy with school and work and life, so my ticket expired. Marriage, kids and a career kept me longing for the days of HF, sending Morse code around the world, cross-mode communications, improving my code speed. Now that I have gotten old and approach retirement, it was time to get my ticket back. I aced the Technician test and was licensed as KJ5NGS on November 26, 2025. I am in the process of reacquiring my old call sign, but the FCC has no record of me being the prior holder of that callsign. I'm working on gathering data to prove it. If only I could find my old ticket. It is stored away somewhere. My first QSO in 45 years was on 2 meters with a local ham that lives 2.5 miles from me. I have the Explorer QRZ-1 radio from Gigaparts with the QRZ new ham discount. I also bought a Baofeng UV-5RM Plus to tinker with. I'm now studying for my General and working toward getting back on HF with CW. I still have my old DX-160 and my Heathkit HD-1410 Electronic Keyer that I built and that still works. I just need to get to building an antenna(s) and figure out what I am going to do about an HF transceiver.

Equipment

I have the Explorer QRZ-1 radio from Gigaparts with the QRZ new ham discount. I also bought a Baofeng UV-5RM Plus to tinker with.