Hi OM
I had a couple here that know me to send me this thread...
CP, it's been a while since we chatted and hope all is well with you.
Guys, I've had my ticket since 1960 or was it 1961, at my age memory isn't what it use to be. I'm pushing 79 real soon. I'm not active like I use to be, mostly because I'm a caregiver now and that takes up my time. I still have all of my gear and a couple of antennas up though. In my later years I was more into UHF and above and was real heavy into ATV for a number of years. I was Manager of Transmitter Operations for a number of years for South Carolina Educational TV Network. I had 11 TV stations, 8 FM stations and all of the Weather transmitters to worry about. So operating ATV was real easy for me. Of course being in the TV world for over 30 years I also had to have my 1st Class ticket. I use to make all of the Ham Fest and I was a real tinker from the word go, building was the only way.. I was working 2 meters when people said that you couldn't work across town. I was working 60 and 70 miles with a Heath Twoer. I had the first 2 meter mobile when the locals were trying to work 6 meters. I was working 432 SSB with 300 watts when the local said that you couldn't do that either. And you'll never see anyone in town on live ATV, we were working 100 to 125 miles with 160 watts Peak of sync out and with the antenna gain we were running about 3500 watts ERP. You know ham's, don't tell them that it can't be done... In 1992 I was awarded the Technical Excellence Award at the Dayton Hamvention in 1992 for the antenna I developed for ATV repeaters. So I've had my 15 minutes of fame and now it's all gone, in my ole age I think of all of the fun that I've had as a ham. Enjoy it while you can, hamming will bring you a lot of enjoyment and good DX to all of you.
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