HI Joel,
Did you ever give up that Heathkit gear?  I know you have some Heath gear over to the side of your shack, but wondering if that is your original Novice gear?

Thanks Joel, that story bought a smile to anyone growing as a Novice operator.  I wish we could go back and do it all over again!

73 de jay..

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Joel Harrison, W5ZN via ADXA <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2026 2:06 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [ADXA] FW: 1973 QSL card
 

A lot of things happen during our day that is either depressing or just gets me down right PO’ed. On a very rare occasion something occurs that just down right makes the day, maybe even the entire month.

 

This email arrives today from a person I do not know but the Subject line caught my attention “1973 QSL Card”. I was a bit hesitant to open the attached file but I could tell from the thumbnail image of the attachment it was a photo of my old Novice QSL card, so I opened it. As you can see it is an 80-meter CW QSO with WN5IPT.

 

A couple of you ADXA folks; WN5DRY (N5EE) and WN5FMK (K5VR) may remember Don Nobles, WN5IPT who lived in Hot Springs. I had many CW QSO’s with Don as a Novice that continued after we had both upgraded to General. As I recall he was a fireman with the Hot Springs Fire Dept, thus my comment on the QSL card hoping he didn’t turn into a “cooked ham”. I recall having the opportunity to eyeball Don a time or two, he may have even driven up to my shack (parent’s home). The feature I remember about Don is he was red headed. Not unusual, I just remembered that. I saw from the email address the person who sent the photo was N5MES. I looked on qrz.com and it is Don’s son who lives in Mississippi, Don is SK. I had a nice laugh when I saw his son Jerry, N5MES, qrz photo when he was a “red-headed kid” !!!

 

73 Joel W5ZN

 

From: Jerry <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2026 12:41 PM
To: Harrison, Joel, W5ZN, (IARU Secretary) <[email protected]>
Subject: 1973 QSL card

 

Jerry Nobles

 

Sent with Proton Mail secure email.