Biography

** My previous call was KC1WJ, held from August 7th 1990 till August 11th 2015**



Hello there!

I've been a licensed Ham (although not continously) since 1977. I started getting into SWL at the age of 7 or 8. My father had an old Hallicrafters receiver that I loved listening to.

It wasn't just the fact that I was hearing stations from all over the world, there was something else to it. The glow of the tuning dial lights, the way the s meter moved. It was the whole package. I was hooked. When I was 11, I had saved enough money to buy a Heathkit HR 10B receiver (which I built). Some of my solder connections were pretty ugly, as I was just learning to solder. I strung a long wire in my parent's back yard and started to tune the bands. It was truly thrilling. Imagine being eleven years old and listening to hams all over the world on a radio that you had built yourself from a kit!

I learned Morse code and studied the test questions. When I was ready, my Novice exam was administered by my Elmer, George - WA1PIX. As I got into my later teenage years I drifted away from the hobby. You know, girls, cars and then going to college. In the mid 1980s I got the itch to get back on the air, but my Novice licence had lapsed, so I had to start all over again. The code came back to me rather quickly, just like riding a bike. Once you know it, you really don't forget. I went from Tech to Advanced within a couple of years. More recently, I've thought about going for Extra, but the Advanced ticket has a bit of nostalgia attached. For one, that license class is no longer given out and second, you HAD to know CW to pass it.

As of now, I have the capabilities of operating 80-10, 6, 2, 222, and 432, although I am most active on 80-10, 6 and 2. I don't even have an antenna for 222, Hi hi!

Some of the most fun I've had on the air was when I operated portable C6A from a little island called Spanish Wells in the Bahamas. I did this twice, Once in 1989 and another time in 1991. It sure was a blast being at the DX end of a pileup!



Anyway, that's a little bit about my ham radio "career". Hope to see you on the bands sometime soon!

73
William (Bill) / WA1WK