Like many others the CB fad brought me into radio communications. Soon a friend joined me in the quest for a ham license. We attended a Novice class held by the Twin Counties ARC in Conroe, Texas. The classes were held in an old trailer house behind a CB shop known as “Texas Peddler”. A few weeks later we both passed the code and written examinations, and then anxiously waited for the licenses to arrive from the FCC. After what seemed like an eternity, the precious piece of paper arrived proclaiming me WD5DXL. We had already obtained rigs and got on the air that evening, talking only to ourselves. We immediately began to work on getting CW speed up to 13 WPM. In only one month we both went to the Houston FCC office and passed the General exams. Three months later we passed the Advanced exam. This was in August, 1977 (I think). By the end of the year code speed was at 25 WPM. In 1978 family matters interceded and the Extra ticket was never earned. Later in 1979 a storm took down my tower and my station went silent.

After many years of inactivity, ham radio caught my attention again in 1993 when notice of a special sale on Icom equipment at Houston Amateur Radio Supply was received in the mailbox. An Icom HT purchased at that sale got me back on the air, but just on 2 meters. After meeting several other hams on the KA5AKG repeater, attendance at one of the monthly NARS (Northwest Amateur Radio Society) meetings was inevitable. After meeting even more nice folks at the meeting, interest in the NARS Newsletter published by KA5AKG led to the post of NARS NEWS editor, a post still held today. Through the years of association with NARS, and serving for many years on the Board as Treasurer, my activities in ham radio have flourished. Interest in the NARS VE test sessions led me to finally upgrade to Extra and become ARRL VE and W5YI VE. My latest projects include installing a mobile HF rig (Yaesu 857) in the Corvette and adding three more Yagis to the Force 12 C-4XL on the tower (150 foot Rohn 45).