I always had an interest in amateur radio but never could seem to manage to buckle down to learning the code, especially at 13 words per minute. Then, the Novice class license was introduced in 1951. With a bit of luck I passed the test. The test was given at the main FCC building in Washington, D.C. I had to take the bus. The examiner told me that I passed not only the the Novice but also the Technician exams. Thus I was really excited on the bus ride home. Actually my license arrived much sooner than I had expected. When it came in that tiny envelope I had no transmitter. Quick start building! A 6AG7 and 6L6 with a crystal for 3735. In those days if you heard a CQ on any frequency in the Novice band you would just call on the frequency you had a crystal for and the other station tuned the band. Crazy but it worked.
The good looking young man with the pencil on his ear is none other than W3TMZ. This photo was taken at the 1955 PVRC/FRC joint meeting. That is Charlie, W3VOS to my left and W4YE in between us young bucks.
Charlie and I spent a lot of time together learning the "how to" of contesting, equipment and antennas.
In a chronological order my interests first were to build a better station and antennas. Then I became interested in contesting and chasing DX. I participated in a lot of contests and did well in some and not as good as I could have in others. In the early 60's I got involved with the multi-operator contest station of W3MSK. Ed had built a terrific station with the help of a lot of us who spent many a day working on antennas and rebuilding his station. We managed to win quite a few world wide contests over the years. A terrific bunch of operators made this possible and we had a lot of fun. I could go on and on.
In 1968 got married and was living in an apartment thus no antennas. I started building VHF equipment. Carl Brown, W3LUL was my mentor. He was an excellent teacher. That is when I became interested in VHF and UHF activities. I built most of my equipment and antennas in those days. Again a learning experience. Also tried moonbounce from home with some success.
In the 70's the amateur satellites were launched and a whole new era of communications began. I became quite interested. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT) was located in the Washington, D.C. area and I was fortunate to get involved. Actually had an opportunity to work on several of the satellites as well as provide hardware for same. That hardware is still out there in space.
In the 80's became interested in a new form of digital communications, first via terrestrial means then via satellites. This was quite intriguing as well as challenging.
I can not recall what if anything about the 90's or early 2000 years except have returned back to the HF bands.