My father (former holder of WB2YHS) was a communications engineer, so I
had always been around electronics and radio transmitters. I had spent a
great deal of time working with him at various radio stations.
My Grandfather WB2ROH (sk) - From as young as 4 years old, I can
remember hanging out with my grandfather and listening to him talk to his
friends and relatives on his ham radio station. My grandfather was born
and raised in upstate New York, and had moved to Long Island to work for
Grumman Aircraft. Since moving to the island he had always stayed in touch
with his friends, and my uncle Mert - WB2FWG,K2AO (sk), with his ham
radio. Sitting next to him listening to the conversations to the dim glow
of filaments was always fun. It was my grandfathers passing and the
inheritance of his equipment that finally pushed me over the edge to get
my license. I still keep his picture up in front of me in my shack to
remind me that the enjoyment I get from this hobby was a result of him.
Jerry WA2FNQ - In 1974
at the age of 14, I went to the FCC office in New York City with my father
and one of his friends Jerry. At the time my father was chief engineer for
WBLI and Jerry was the chief engineer for its sister station WGLI. I took
the test and passed to get my first FCC license. A Third Class Radio
Telephone license and a broadcast endorsement Subsequently Jerry hired me
to work at WGLI, playing pre-recorded shows and doing transmitter
operation for other unlicensed DJ's. After my grandfather passed away in
1986 and I decided to get my license, I started studying the code and
finally got to the point I could handle 5WPM. When the time came to take
the test, I contacted my old friend Jerry. Both Jerry and his dad
K2AAW(sk)were Hams and at the time the novice license test could be given
by two examiners. Jerry arraigned for me to come over and and take the
test with him and his dad. We had a nice chat and through the course of
the conversation Jerry's dad had asked me every question in the question
pool and some that were not. Then we went down into his dads shack and he
dug out an old tape recorder and a code tape. Oh my god! these are 5
letter code groups, not the plain text I had been working with. How am I
ever going to copy a full minute of this. Well after a couple of minutes
of this torture, They said "OK very good, now lets see if you can send".
Wait sending, that's not part of it. I had never even attempted to send
anything before. Well after a few minutes, they said "OK Very good". I
never was really sure if it was passable code or It was just so bad they
wanted me to stop.
