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Click for more detail... I was originally licensed in June 1967 as WN8YCD (West Virginia) along with the
rest of our novice class. W8GUL (recently SK) was the lead instructor of our
class. Of the original group (WN8YCC--WN8YCG) only Bill WA8YCG and I retained our original
call signs. As of December 2008, I'm sad to report, WA8YCG, William H. "Buzzy Bill" Jacobs is also now SK. I waited (im)patiently for my license to come in the mail. I already had my crystal-controlled, 60 watt Knight Kit transmitter, and an unstable, noisy, unselective Hallicrafters S-38 receiver. When my one-year novice term ended, unfortunately, I wasn't quite up to speed on code, but in those days you took the Technician license by mail as well. So I exchanged the N in my prefix for an A and my Knight T60 for a Heathkit Lunchbox on 2 meter AM. I made several attempts at the 13 WPM. I had to drive to an FCC district office, and they only gave the exam quarterly. With some work and a lot of encouragement from my school pal Pete, we drove to Pittsburgh and passed our 13 WPM, the general written exam, and an additional written exam to make Advanced. Somewhere along that timeframe I started the quarterly payment plan for ARRL Life Membership. This was probably a good idea. I recently got a 40-year pin from them. I used a borrowed HW100 for a while and then found my own HW101. It was an estate sale, and the original owner did an excellent job building the unit. I got active on the NTS traffic nets, and the addition of a Drake TR22 got me on the local FM repeater. Through WA8NDY and WA8WCK I also got active in WV AF MARS, and used a Heathkit MARS/CAP transceiver (similar to the HW12/22/32 series, but without VFO) which I built. My antennas were never much, typically dipoles, and I never managed to get them up very high, so I guess you could say I inadvertantly experimented with NVIS. Through HF and VHF contacts and local club, NTS, MARS, and state convention activities, I made some very good friends, some of which are still around. I moved to Texas in 1980 and got away from radio for a while. I couldn't do much for antennas in apartments. Oddly enough I was right across the street from Texas Towers when they were at 15th and Jupiter before moving to Summit Ave. Thanks to lunchtime chats with coworker Walt N5HAF, I caught the bug again, practiced the code a bit and upgraded to Extra. After that I spent most of my ham time teaching code classes or helping with VE sessions for the Texins Amateur Radio Club. At one hamfest I picked up a Drake 4-Line and strung a 20 meter dipole from the apartment livingroom to the back bedroom. Since I had the MN-4 to go with the radio, I was hopeful it would work. My one contact was with W8GUL back home. Way too much RFI. Out of consideration for my neighbors above and even in the next building, I shut down, but kept the rig ready for emergencies. In late 1999 I was "downsized" out of a job and decided to return to 8-land. I got on HF sporadically, mostly to handle NTS traffic, and have always kept a scanner or 2m Rig on to monitor the local repeaters. Since I live between Morgantown and Fairmont I have been participating in both the Monongalia Wireless Association (W8MWA) and the Mountaineer Amateur Radio Association (W8SP). I am also active with the West Virginia State Amateur Radio Council (W8WVA) and WV Chapter 30 of the Quarter Century Wireless Association. I was elected president of MARA in 2002, and although I have enjoyed serving the club for the past several years, I have finally managed to hand that job off to a younger, more energetic candidate for 2009. I still plan to participate in the various activites. MARA is a small club but we have some good times. It's more like a extended family. We have a great Field Day, operating 2A from the hilltop repeater site for W8SP |145.350 - /PL103.5| |443.875 + /PL103.5|. We have put on the Midnight Convocation of the Royal Order of the Wouff Hong ceremony at our Section ARRL Convention in 2004, 2006, and most recently at our 50th WV Convention/Roanoke Division convention. I am extremely proud of the crew. They work hard and do an admirable job. MARA also sponsors an Adopt-A-Highway. Worked All Counties-WV has been a MARA project. We also have an annual Mother's Day special event station, as the birthplace of Anna Jarvis is in nearby Grafton. I recently stepped aside as
President of MARA in hopes to get some younger folks to bring their energy and
enthusiasm to the mix. I did, You can keep up with the adventures of MARA through our Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MountaineerAmateurRadioAssociation/
MWA activities include Special Olympics Summer Games and the Mountaineer Triathalon. At holiday time, MWA provides communications for the Morgantown Holiday Parade, and we have a joint MARA/MWA Christmas dinner. The MWA website has recently been overhauled, and is looking mighty fine. Check out http://www.w8mwa.org/ We've had Technician License classes at MWA for several years now. Last year we added a General License class. We usually get six to ten new hams per year. A few years ago we moved our classes from the University campus to the Red Cross suite. Some of our members are Red Cross Volunteers, so it works out very well. We schedule the class so that the week following the last class is the next regular quarterly VE Session. There's so much more for hams--even Tech licensees--to do besides hang around on the repeater. In order to bring more to the classes we teach, I've been trying out all kinds of stuff like Satellite, IRLP, APRS, digital modes, SSTV, FSTV, just about anything that we read about in the magazines. I've recently added 33cm and 23cm equipment to the collection so I'm QRV from 160m to 23cm (except 60m--I haven't quite got the hang of that yet!) 73, Bob WA8YCD Revised: April 2009 Last modified: Sat Apr 11 09:12:44 2009 Does this page contain inappropriate content? If so, Report this page... |
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