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Featured Member(s) For September 2008 Peter Spotts - KC1JB - NAQCC # 2446  By way of introduction, I first became interested in ham radio as a tweenager in Santa Monica, CA. But Morse code gave me the willies. So, as a Boy Scout, I learned semafore instead. Big mistake. Twelve years and three major relocations later, I joined a buddy at work (WB1BUO) in attending a Novice course given by the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society in Wellesely, MA. The dream finally came true. My Novice call: WB1BUP. Eventually, I worked my way up to an Advanced-class license. Then kids came along; the last rigs (a Heathkit HW-8 and Heathkit's 2036A) went into the closet. After a 22-year lock-up, the hardware mysteriously began to creep back out of the closet in 2005. It's reappearance triggered the slow, inexorable purchases that brought my VHF/UHF and HF rigs into the 21st century. Those old Heathkits, sigh...they still have an honored, if temporarily disconnected, place on my shelf. But man, what changes! Move over, Rip Van Winkle. My HW-8 and my new Yaesu FT-450AT have virtually the same physical dimensions. But the difference in capabilities? How do you engineers say it? Exponential advances? Oh yes, I learned along the way that morse code (a.k.a CW) rocks! When conditions are so bad that the sound coming through your headphones carries all of the intelligibility of dry leaves rustling across the pavement on a windy fall day, nothing cuts through that hash like the sweet on-off tone of a CW signal. Mark Paley - K8LD - NAQCC # 2499   The shack photo goes back about five years. I have sold off a lot of those rigs but did just recently build another Elecraft K1 which is my main Qrp rig. I got in on the ground floor at Elecraft and built K2 # 250 and K1 #117. Both were sold but some day I'm sure I'll acquire another K2. I probably like building gear more than operating but do get a lot of satisfaction in making the occasional CW contact. I've been licensed since 1977--original novice call was WD8AFP, then KB8EJJ, KF8KL, and now K8LD. My FIST number is 7613. That's about it. 73 de Mark--K8LD-- |