What got me into ham radio.

I was looking for an old vintage Hallicrafters, Hammerlund, Collins of Drake receiver as a decorator piece for my man cave/bedroom and started looking around in various places.

I mentioned this on a ham forum and a few other places.

I was scouting eBay and one of the guys I ship with started looking around for the hell of it. He spotted a Chinese Army Vietnam era rig, complete with a hand powered generator. He pointed it out to me and said, "I can see you sitting on top of a hilltop with that sending out Morse code messages that you are a Japanese holdout in New Guinea that doesn't know the was is over!"

I was aware the the FCC had dropped the code requiremenfort licensing and looked at my smart-assed shipmate. "I'll bet I could get a license to run that little rig!"

He laughed.

It was early on the tour and we were not too busy so when I had time I took on-line practice exams and the day after I got off my tour I drove out to a town in Ohio and tested.

I passed the Technician and General tests and decided to look for a rig similar to the Chinese 102e rig my shipmate had teased me about.

The guy selling the 102e told me it wasn't a rig for a newbie so I went looking for other rigs.

I hit the lottery and found the Brits had just released their stock of PRC 320 HF transceivers and they were simple to operate. I did a little research, liked what I saw and ordered one.

After making contact with a few DX stations with the little rig I was hooked and put together a little barefoot home station and have been a happy camper. I now have 185+ DX entities logged and over 165 confirmed.

Not a bad side track for a guy looking for an old Hallicrafters to use as a decoration! 



To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY