I've been a ham operator since 1959 when I was 11 years old--KN7PVV. My brother K7PVT and I had paper routes and we saved our money for that first big piece on nice ham gear--an HQ 170-C. Big money back then. Used a Johnson Viking Pacemaker and eventually moved UP (WOW moved up) to an HT-37. Had a 6 foot roof mout tower on the parents house and managed to get a TH4 4 element tribander in the air. Had a home brew pair of 811's about 500 watts. Worked lots of DX and ran a ton of phone patches during the Alaska earrthquake and a ton more for lots of guys in the South Pacific during the Viet Nam erra. How time flies--moved to a 2 acre parcel in the foothills East of Seattle at 700ft, collected some nice older gear over the years now running, Collins, Drake, ICOM, Henry, equipment and 72 ft motorized tower with KLM KT 34XA, KLM M3 for 40 and a center fed zep at 120 ft between tall Douglas fir trees. Worked over 300 countries. Come a long way since those paper route days and it's still a fun hobby, even though computers, the internet, cell phones, face book, etc have tried to take over--- we all know that ham radio is here to stay! 73's Norm