I received my Novice license when I was 12 years old. At that time, I was living in Michigan while my dad worked at Heath Company designing Heathkits. My mom and dad actually met over ham radio (CW). Amateur radio has always been a part of my life. After moving to Indiana, my interests changed a bit as I went into High School. It was several years before I got back into ham radio. A friend of mine invited me to attend a Skywarn training class and after that, I realized I needed to upgrade my license. I was a Tech Plus for about fifteen minutes before taking the General Class exam. 2-meters was a whole new world for me... and it was only the beginning. After a few weeks, I dug out the old Heathkit HW-8 and built the first dipole I had built in about twenty years. My code came back quickly and I found that I really enjoyed operating at 1-watt or less. I designed and built the Tiny-Tornado transceiver which puts out between 200mW and 800mW on 15 through 80 meters. Since then, my interests in amateur radio have primarily been QRP and storm spotting. Besides building my own radios, I also make my own straight keys. More later...