New Hobby

So why did I decide to take up amateur radio as a hobby? I was a working student for a number of years, and more or less gave up hobbies when I started graduate school, and have always seemed to be so busy with work that I didn't really pick them back up. So once I turned 60, I decided it was going to be now or never. At first I thought I'd buy an old Dodge flatfender powerwagon, and fix that up. I started putting $25 per week away into my powerwagon fund, and spent some time visiting various websites to get a lay for the current market and start making plans. After a couple years of this, I came to the conclusion that a powerwagon would be a bottomless money pit for me, and I didn't really have a place to work on one. So then I thought about amateur radio.

When I was in Boy Scouts, I earned the electronics and radio merit badges. My Dad was an Electronics Technician in the Coast Guard, and my Grandpa was a Radioman in the Navy during WWII, so I suppose I was bred for this. As a younger man, back in the 1980's, I completed a union apprenticeship as an Experimental Auto Assembler at a major auto manufacturer, and spent time in their Electrical Department reworking prototype car wiring harnesses and various other electrical re-work. And back in the mid-1980's, I finished about half of the Associate's Degree program in Electronics with the Cleveland Institute of Electronics. With that background, I figured that I knew enough to be dangerous, but had enough confidence to get started--the perfect sweet spot. I set a goal of building my own radio, and getting good enough at Morse Code to send/receive at 20 wpm (my Grandpa has a Navy certificate showing he was able to receive Morse Code at 18 cipher groups per minute, about the equivealent of 20 wpm).

I joined ARRL, bought some test prep books, and went to work. I got an Elmer (ham radio slang for "mentor") in a co-worker, Tony, who has been an amateur radio operator for decades. I also registered on the QRZ.com website, because they have free online practice exams (and a low-cost handheld radio offer exclusively for newly-licensed hams). I also joined the local GM Amateur Radio Club that has monthly meetings. Within about nine months or so, I was able to complete the Technician, General, and Amateur Extra FCC amateur license exams. Then I built a few kits from QRP Labs to get some practice building kits. I built a 40-meter 50W amplifier, a 40-meter QCX+ kit, a QMX kit, and a shack radio clock kit. I actually built two of the QCX+ kits, because I couldn't seem to get the display to work on the first one. I was able to refresh my soldering skills and build a small collection of tools. I even got a workbench to work on.

I changed my FCC call sign to NS8TY. When I was a teenager I was in Sea Explorers (Sea Scouts). In the summer of 1977 I was selected to be on a training cruise, we went on the last Victory ship still in service as a military transport, from Bayonne, NJ (New York) to Sondrestrom and Thule Air Force bases in Greenland to respupply them with enough beer to make it through the winter. It was a great experience for me that I'll never forget. The ship was the USNS Pvt. John R. Towle (T-AK-240) and the radio call sign for the ship was NSTY. Hence, my call sign, NS8TY. The FCC requires the number 8 in there because of the FCC region where I live.

(Towle photo below scraped from somewhere on the internet)

Yeah, I know, the older I get, the better it got. haha