Heath

[PHILLIPS FAMILY]

       Brian,
Don't misunderstand my meaning my friend. When i got my novice license,
i had a brand new heathkit AT-1 i had purchased, and built and was ready
to go, ( that will give you some idea of my age hi ). All i needed was
the mail man to bring my ticket to the world.  ( those days it took
about six weeks before you received your license from the commission ).
Many times a day i would walk into my ham shack and look at the AT-1 and
the army surplus BC 312 ( i think ) receiver. My hands would shake, my
heart would race,  i was scared half to death. I was afraid the old
timers would not talk to me, or would laugh at my shakey fist, and my
five words a minute, if that. Well it  finally came, with sweaty shakey
hands i opened the envelope and
carefully removed that tiny piece of paper,  i read every word
carefully, and there it was KN8YNG. With great excitement
i turned on the AT-1 transmitter, pressed down on the surplus key,
loaded the dipole antenna that had been up for close to a year, ( a
fellow ham friend had showed me how ),  after several deep breaths i
tapped out cq, cq, cq, de KN8YNG, nothing, so i sent it out again and
waited, nothing, this went on for some time, i was sure by now no one
wanted to talk to me, my code speed was next to nothing, fist really
bad, to tell you the truth i had no idea what i would say if someone did
answer me,  but you keep trying, and suddenly out of the noise, so faint
i could hardly hear it, i heard KN8YNG . I will never forget the feeling
i had when i heard my call for the very first time. My first contact was
a lady in IRONTON OHIO, i still have her QSL card. I have meet thousands
of  the greatest people our country and other countries have to offer,
some in person and some on the ham bands, ham radio is a hobby i have
enjoyed for many years. One epiece of advice an old timer gave me,  he
had been on since the spark gap days ( before my time ). I think
everyone can send code faster than they can receive,  at least at first,
myself included, one day after i had become a little cocky i sent my
call out at about ten to fifteen wpm, i couldn't begin to copy that
fast, you know how that is right, well suddenly my army surplus BC- 312
receiver came alive, i had never heard anything like that before in my
life, i feared the receiver might catch fire, the electrons in her tubes
had never had to deal with anything like that before, the cone in the
speaker screamed, trying to keep up, then nothing, i knew he was waiting
for me to respond, not a chance. No way in this world was i going to
answer this guy, then i heard my call again this time at a speed i could
copy, i didn't answer that time either, then he said i know you're still
there, let me give you some advice, never, never send faster than you
can copy. I never did get his call, didn't want it.
I guess the point i'm trying to make is we all have our day in the sun,
our 15 minutes of  fame, heathkit came at just the right time, it gave
us a great deal of pleasure, should someone bring it back, be sure to
send me a catalogue, who knows maybe i'll buy heathkit again.
                                                        73's Phil
K8YNG

Listserver Subscription:listserv at listserv.tempe.gov - "subscribe heath 'name' 'call'"
Listserver Submissions: heath at listserv.tempe.gov
Listserver Unsubscribe: listserv at listserv.tempe.gov - -"signoff heath"