In 2009 I've been a ham operator for 40 years! But I did'nt get my lisence until January 1978.

You see... my brother got his lisence when I was 14 years old, my father followed up the next year and my mum the year after that, and with 3 ham operators under the same roof, I had no problem finding a mentor.

At home, things got a bit rough from time to time even with 2 HF stations in the house, and I guess my home looked more like a clubstation :) So I operated a lot as a second operater from 1969-1978.

Then i grew up, I moved from Froland in the Southern Norway up to Trondheim, got married, and I just had to get my own lisence, just before my daughter was born. She is also a ham operator :) Maybe it's something in the genes...

Most of my Ham life I've been most active on CW, and I love contest the most. Unfortunately I dont have much of an antenna today, only dipoles for 80/40, but they do the job, I'm not super duper active anymore, but I'm hanging around doing some QSL-manageing for LA5IIA and puzzles a bit with contests as NRRL HF Contest Manager.

Unfortunately my brother (LA2SN) passed away in 1994 and my father (LA9MN) in 1999. My mum (LA1TP) hasn't been much active and not my daughter (LB1KF) either. But I have two grand sons, the oldest is more interested in Captain Hook than Hamradio at the moment, but you never know... :)