[ARC5] Ham-iversary

[Gene Smar]

Sixty years ago yesterday, I took and passed my Novice class Morse Code test.  I recall the date, Nov 9, 1965, vividly because there was an international event that occurred that same evening.  
After I had successfully received and sent Morse, a requirement for ALL Ham licenses at that time, at 5 WPM in front of my Elmer, Harry W3IGH (SK) in his attic radio shack, he turned on his receiver, a Hallicrafters of some model (I think it was an SX-100), and tuned in CW at the low end of 80 meters.  The code down there was blindingly fast, at least to me, so I asked Harry what was being said.  He told me that one Ham in Canada was asking another Ham in New York state if he had been affected by the blackout.  According to Harry, the New York Ham said no, he wasn't part of the power failure.  
The following morning I heard on the news that New York City, the surrounding suburbs and much of the northeast US and parts of Canada had experienced what is now known as the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965 .  So, each year, when November 9 roles around, I am reminded of my auspicious beginning in this life-long hobby of mine.  
I received my paper license in the mail about a month later.  My shiny new callsign was WN3EWV.
It's been fun.

 73 deGene Smar  AD3F




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20251110/cf83a916/attachment-0001.html>