Are you in my log? Find out here:   (Last 10 QSO's Shown)

It's 1962 and there I am at age 11 witnessing my uncle, W2DTL (SK), in New York make contact with my cousin, K2BOZ (SK), onboard a USCG ice breaker at Antarctica. Wow, gee whiz! I get the ham radio bug.

Receive my novice license, KN3YRT, in June, 1963 at age 12. Become proficient at CW with two other teenage novices who live close by, KN3YZF and KN3ZMI (now WC5D). We’re on the air all the time. Using my EICO 720 75W input, crystal-controlled transmitter, I am able to work the world. CW is easy for me, but the theory is difficult. My brother-in-law gives me his Navy electronics books (written for anyone to understand) and I am finally able to pass my general test after two previous failures. By this time, my novice license has expired and I am issued the callsign WA3BQT.

My father (SK) sees my interest in the hobby as having real educational value so he pays me to do extra jobs around the house and I start cutting all the neighbor’s yards for “peanuts.” Dad then matches my savings dollar-for-dollar. With this support I begin to construct my dream station. I work my butt off. By the time I am 14-1/2, I am running a Drake 4-Line with an SB-200 amplifier. Thanks, Dad.

It’s now 1967. I turn 16 years old. Learn to drive. Get a girlfriend. And, well, . . . . girls are a lot more fun than radio. Really! Who knew?

Fast forward ten years. I’m getting ready for marriage (after so many different girlfriends!) and am going to lose my independence. Wonder what’s going on in ham radio? Buy a QST. Wow, this looks really interesting now. What’s Yaesu? What’s Kenwood? Where’s my license? Oops, I find it and it’s expired. Darn it.

Travel to Philadelphia, take novice, general, advanced, and extra class tests in one sitting and pass them all. Find out you can request a callsign and ask for N3ND because it’s short, easy, and clean to send on CW. Become obsessed with this strange new CW method known as iambic. Get married. XYL doesn’t understand this stuff. She hates wires and towers.

Fast forward 35 years. Still the same XYL who doesn’t understand this stuff and claims she feels like a mistress. She still hates wires and towers. She even impacts my daughters to think the same. I am a loner in my own home!

I love DXing, contesting, CW, and all the associated geek stuff that goes with ham radio including computers and electronic technology. HF mobile is a hoot. I still have an obsession.

The hobby became a profession. I’ve worked over 30 years for a large communications corporation based out of Schaumburg, IL.

C U on the air.

Dan – N3ND

Shack picture August 2011