Biography

Sometimes life changes in mere moments with long standing new effects. Elegant forces push circumstances larger than our planning calendars. At age 14 in Detroit, back in the summer of 1962, my universe got oddly nudged. I never saw it coming. It seemed very strange then but now, divinely perfect.
My Mother accused me of firing an arrow that stuck into the ground of our back yard where she was on her knees weeding. The arrow had just missed her. She thought I had done it as a dangerous practical joke. She confronted me in our den as I watched television and ate my lunch. I swore I knew nothing about it. She said I could finish my lunch after I found the culprit. I was innocent, clueless, and curious as to how this event had happened. I proceeded up our street carrying the arrow and now feeling like Marshall Dillon on the trail of an armed and dangerous outlaw.
About three houses up our street, I spotted a man twice my age with a strange look on his face. It seemed too coincidental that he was walking towards me. I asked him if he had shot the arrow. He instantly confessed and explained he was trying to put up an antenna and his fish line broke. Say what?
This was the most bizarre explanation I had ever heard about anything. I had him break it down for me and gained some dipole theory and fishline physics for 14 year olds. Within minutes, I was in his basement getting my first tour of an amateur radio ham station. A well lit big desk was called the operating table. The receiver sat here. Click. The large transmitter there. Click. Power inrush sound and purple lights came on from mercury vapor rectifiers. Pre-Hendrix technical sacredness. Here was his chromed microphone like the broadcasters used. My God, this was the coolest thing I had ever experienced. Owned by a private citizen and licensed by the federal government. It had assigned call letters by the FCC that were his unique identity. And the station wasn’t a pretend toy or model. It was real and actually worked. He had QSL postcards from all over proving his contacts. Within minutes we were calling CQ and chatting with someone 100 miles away. Next contact much further away. DX! This was the latest technology. No satellites, cell phones, or internet yet.
I had met an important new friend that was answering all my questions like a spiritual guru. I connected lots of dots. Up to this time, this was the absolutely coolest day of my life. He gave me my Novice test about 30 days later. I had learned Morse code. I was getting to the ham stores every weekend. QST magazines and a license manual were in my bedroom and bathrooms. I was so hooked it became my new glasses. I saw everything through the eyes of amateur radio. I was on board with the greatest hobby in the world. And the friends I would meet along the way were some of the neatest brightest people on the planet. Great, great friends. My life was enriched to an extraordinary level.
Evolution happened fast but created a lot of memorable milestones. It was good bye tubes hello transistors, ICs, and micro-processors. Transceivers replaced separates. Computers created paperless logs, new modes like packet, DSP, and SDRs. Stations got really small and some were even in space operated by astronauts. The backbone is still communications. We are collectively pragmatists, communicators, helpers, educators, and understanding folks. We tend to rely on science and technology for our solutions and facts library. We are international friends without political, religious, or economic borders. All with the potential to put an arrow in your back yard and violating the age old rule - never talk to strangers!
Will we eventually discover how life creates these gifts starting with such bizarre circumstances?

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Solar Powered

Active 80 thru 10 HF - 2, 220, 450 VHF

Astron RS-35M
K2
Begali Sculpture - Begali Eclipse
MacLoggerDX
100' inverted L @ 40'

FTM-400DXR
Anytone 578
Anytone 868
openSPOT4 Pro
Discone @ 50'
M7 450 Yagi @ 42'

Previous Calls WN8NRB, WA8SAI, WA6BGT, WA1UKA, KB1HE

73 John WD1V

@JohnSeney