My first interest in radio was during the late 1950's when I lived on a farm in Miamisburg, south of Dayton, Ohio. My dad helped me put up a wire antenna in the trees and build a crystal set. One of his colleagues at work, W8CEA now a silent key, had a hamshack and I was fascinated.

Early in 1960, we moved to Valdosta, GA. A fellow grammar school student, Billy Wallace / K4TVE, had a novice license and an EICO 720 + Hallicrafters SX-99, He helped me learn the code. When he got his general, his uncle bought him a Johnson Ranger (wow, what a rig!). I also hung out with another classmate, Ed Mathis, K4NVI who had quite the setup: an SX-100, HT-37, and Johnson Viking 500 (HIS dad owned the largest hotel chain in Valdosta !)

In 1961, I was first licensed as WA4DDO. I skipped the novice license (one year, non-renewable) because I did not have money for a transmitter. Just listening on the SX-99 receiver that I bought with grass mowning money, I got my code speed up to 15 wpm, more than adequate for the conditional class license. The local ham who gave me the test (can't remember his callsign) had a Yagi beam antenna, Collins KWM-2, and brandy new 30L-1 that just came out at that time. I admired them for years (now I have my own!)

We moved to Florham Park, NJ (WA2WSB) the next year and my dad helped me buy a Heathkit DX-60 and I was on the air with my own station for the first time. I became an NCS on the New Jersey Net (NJN) CW traffic handling where we passed 70 messages per hour at 30 WPM during the Vietnam War era, messages from Great Lakes Naval Training Center!

The next year we moved to Trumbull, CT (WA1ALZ). After the 2 year minimum wait time, some friends and I went down to NYC to take the extra class exam in the summer of 1963. I soon got a Central Electronics 20A, Lakeshore VFO, and built my own homebrew pair of 6146's and complete SSB receiver based on an early 60's GE Ham News article, a RTTY demodulator for an old model 14 tape printer, then a homebrew pair of 813's (unshielded, lots of TVI! I hung out with the SSB homebrewers on 3999).

I was then off the air for a while when I went to school at UConn (BSEE), Stanford Univ. (MSEE), and lived in Lisle, IL (an apartment city, no antennas allowed) west of Chicago where I worked for Bell Labs, Electronic Switching Division.

I got back on the air in 1973 when I returned to school at UConn for a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, and lived in the nearby countryside (Ashford, CT). I got a used Eldico 100 (SSB), a couple of Collins R-390A receivers and a Johnson Valiant from an estate sale (Herb Gordon of Harvard, MA). I had lots of fun converting one R-390A unit into a transmitter, the Collins/Glagowski T-390A! I still have these units today, but they are not yet back on the air!

In 1977, there was a window of opportunity to get a 2 letter call for free before the vanity system because the US Supreme Court ruled that ALL license fees were illegal and struck them down. So I applied for and received W1TR in late spring of 1977.

The Natchaug Amateur Radio Association (NARA) quickly recruited me as a CW OP for their field day operation, to battle the rival ECARS group (K1MUJ). Since I was the first recipient of a 2 letter call in the club, we used W1TR for field day operations thereafter. This is where I met my current XYL Lyn, WB1CCL, but it would be over 25 years before we became married (to EACH OTHER)!

In 1978, I moved to the Boston area (Chelmsford, MA) and worked for GTE Labs, Waltham, (yes, more telephones). I became involved in USAF MARS operations, was State MARS Director in the mid-1980s, and generally tried to balance career, family, finishing my Ph.D., and ham radio.

In 1989 I took a faculty job at Washington State University in Pullman, WA and later at the branch campus in Spokane, WA. It was lots of fun being a W1 in 7 land! My particular interest was 160 meters because I had 4 acres of room and tall trees on a high plateau (2300 ft) overlooking the city of Spokane. It was especially fun when the ARRL made Eastern Washington a separate ARRL section, because it was more rare than NV, ID, ND or DE, and I easily won the ARRL 160 meter CW contest for years until some big guns moved in.

I also operated an elaborate USAF MARS digital packet BBS on 2 HF channels and VHF to handle traffic coming out of Panama, Korea, Hawaii, and Alaska headed for Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and elsewhere during the Noriega episode and Desert Shield / Desert Storm.

In 1996 I returned to the New England area (Upton, MA), and was on the air, but not really active due to my focus on career, but now I have a really nice radio QTH, and a beautiful new XYL who is also a ham (WB1CCL), some new equipment, and antennas to enjoy the hobby in all its dimensions once again.

The most fun radio contact for me EVER occurred one night when Roger / VK4YB in Brisbane, and some of his buddies from Australia gave me a call on 160 meters (in Spokane) and caused me to almost fall out of my chair! A close second was when I lived in Chelmsford, MA during the mid 1980's and there was a big aurora, I worked Chicago on 2 meter SSB, wow what a contact!