PLEASE: save time and money with eQSL.cc and ARRL's Logbook of the World. I enter ALL of my QSOs into BOTH systems. I receive MANY requests for QSL cards. If you do not send a stamp, or money for a stamp, with your self-addressed envelope, I will confirm your QSL via the bureau if your region has ARRL service.

Licensed since 1969 at age 10, ham radio has been an integral part of my education as a citizen of the planet. How better for a nerdy kid from a semi-rural American suburb to travel, through the power of imagination, to the far corners of the globe - and beyond, into space? This wonderful hobby formed the core of an interest that led me into the electrical engineering profession, where I have met many very smart people, travelled the world and been granted more than a dozen patents for useful inventions.

Shortly after becoming a ham, I was invited to the Talcott Mountain Science Center to be among the first to act as control station for OSCAR 5, one of the early amateur satellites. And oh, by the way, how's that for an oxymoron: amateur satellite! As it must have been in the early days of wireless, when hams made or scrounged every component in their station, who would believe that "amateurs" could even conceive of putting a satellite into orbit? The world of this 12 year-old was getting bigger, and fast!

I remember the day at age 15 when, tuning across the 15m phone band, I heard a woman's voice that I was sure I recognized. I told her that, crazy as it sounded, I had a memory of my dad talking to her while I looked on through the bars of my playpen. Sure enough, she found my dad's call in her logbook from 1961,the year that I was 3 years old! That ham was Molly Henderson, ZE1JE (SK), a nurse in Salisbury, Rhodesia who in 1961was explaining to my dad how to quiet a cranky todder - me! Amazing hobby? You bet!

I have also learned many fascinating "little things" in contacts with my fellow amateurs. One of my first QSOs with Indonesia was with Rudy, YB8FI/1.He told me that the temperature that night was 0^oC - freezing! Now, hold on a minute, last time I checked, Indonesia was in the tropics - how could it be that cold? Rudy explained that he was located at a tea plantation high in the mountains, where the climate causes tea to grow slowly, concentrating the flavor in the leaves. Wow! This is the kind of knowledge that increases my appreciation for the everyday things that surround me. Such person-to-person exchanges with hams worldwide have led to numerous "eyeball QSOs" and lasting friendships that I will always cherish.

While still a teen-ager, decades before the Internet, I had the pleasure to connect servicemen at sea, scientists in Antarctica and mariners in Liberia to friends and family via phone patch. My calls to DX stations were frequently greeted with, "Who is the YL station?" Embarassing, but I did get through! Being able to imagine myself in a faraway DX QTH has also stood me in good stead as the business world has become more international, allowing me to both feel present and project my presence into offices and conference rooms via teleconference to several continents.

When explaining our hobby to acquaintances - who, if they have heard of ham radio, always express surprise that it hasn't been killed by the Internet - I use sport fishing as an analogy. You may go to a particular kind of water at a particular time of year and time of day with the hope of landing a certain kind of fish, but you never know what you're going to catch until you cast your line. It's the same with ham radio every time you call "CQ." Radiosport? I guess so!

Add the effects of "space weather" on our communicating abilities and it's easy to see how ham radio has created in me a curiosity about social and physical matters beyond my hometown, country and planet, fueling an intense desire to know more about the deepest levels of our reality. And I'm not done yet! Who knows where this may all end?

And let me not forget to tip my hat to K1DXB, my Dad and Elmer. Without his encouragement (well, that's one word for it) to get into this wonderful hobby in the first place, I would definitely not be the man I am today. Thanks, Dad!!

73 -- Brian -- K1LI (also J7Y, guest op at BY4DX, ex-WA1LIR)