The Magic of HF -- Fond Memories.

My first introduction to radio was at the age of 13 with CB back in 1978. I had just seen the movie "Convoy" and the next day my dad bought me a 3-channel walkie talkie. I soon had a "handle" and began my journey.

Soon after, I had discovered an old multi-band radio that had TV/police/weather etc on the dial and began to listen to the local police and fire departments. Wow, I was listening to action as it happened live - sirens and all! I thought that this was really cool. A feeling of a little bit of adventure took me from my desktop. Next, while tuning for the NOAA weather station, on an adjacent frequency I came across some people who appeared to be talking on the telephone. What's this? I had just discovered the local ship to shore phone calls and shortly after, the mobile car phone calls. This was before cell phones existed and all calls had to be placed thru and operator. It was exciting to eavesdrop on all those 'secret' private calls.

The next stop was again another old multi-band AM receiver. This one had "shortwave 1" and "shortwave 2" on it. Remember those? I never heard anything on that radio spinning the dial quickly until one night I turned the dial painstakingly slow and picked up a British accent talking in English. When the station identified itself as the BBC, I was totally fascinated that I was picking up signals from a foreign country. This was unbelievable. I never knew this existed. And what in the world were all those strange and odd sounds and signals I was picking up? Was it Martians, or just the sounds of the band and universe? And how come I kept picking up these muffled voices of people talking and yet I could never tune them in so that they were intelligible. I spent hours trying to tune in SSB signals not realizing that an AM receiver would never accomplish my task. It wasn't until years later that I had learned that all those strange noises were signals like RTTY and Slow Scan.

Then at Christmas I got my first REAL shortwave receiver - one with SSB! Radio Shack's good old Realistic DX-160. I strung a 100' wire in my yard and the whole world opened up for me - all at my desktop in my bedroom. I spent hour after hour listening to that radio. I began to DX shortwave broadcast stations and was amassing quite a collection of QSL cards from stations, many which no longer exist like Radio Moscow, or Radio RSA. I bought book after book on shortwave and started listening for the Interval Signals that broadcasters put out so that I could add another QSL to my collection. I also learned about all the sub categories of DXing like, AM broadcast DXing, utility station DXing, FM DXing, pirate station DXing, etc etc. And how many of you have heard those mysterious "spy numbers" stations? They're still out there.

At the same time, I discovered what a sideband signal was and why I couldn't tune them in before. And that's when I discovered amateur radio. Boy these guys were cool. I never dreamed I would soon become one of them. I took electronics in high school as a freshman and my teacher was a ham. He encouraged me to get my "ticket" but at the time it was unfathomable. I listened to 40 meters every day and 80 meters every night. I just loved listening to the old timers ragchew on those bands and I often fell asleep while lying on top of my bed to the sounds of far away voices on 80 meters. (Far away to me was Colorado). I turned all the lights off so I had only the eerie glow of all the radios lighting up my room and the hiss of HF white noise, the static and crackle of the bands became as much a tranquilizer to me as counting sheep would be for others. To this day, because of that, I almost HAVE to have some noise in the background similar to white noise so that I may sleep easily -- a fan, or CD of rain, etc.

While this was going on I had upgraded my CB several times, eventually settling on a 40-channel SSB unit. ("120 channels!" - remember that sales pitch?). It was a different world than the "AMer's" channels. We didn't use handles on SSB, but rather assigned numbers and no slang or lingo. It was our way of being more professional and more like hams in our communications. And wow, I was able to have QSOs with people from Australia - all on only 5 watts and a vertical! And thus I became interested in DXing as a radio operator rather than just a listener and soon began to collect QSL cards from my CB friends all over the country. Of course being on sideband meant that there was no squelch so it just reinforced my daily dose of white noise. I was torn though. I still had my AM "buddies" and would venture into the world of AM like a kid who couldn't choose just one flavor of ice cream.

There was a group of us on channel 40 and some of the guys were exploring the world above 11 meters. They were trying to escape the mass of people on the bands at the time and had ventured into never never land. The hush hush illegal freqs above channel 40 but below 10 meters. (Not the freqs BELOW 11 meters. Those were for the lowly AMer's). There was an allure to being a lawbreaker, a renegade operator, one who would risk death and destruction by the dreaded FCC. At the time though, I was never able to venture into that world. Not because I didn't want to, but rather because I didn't have any money to afford the modification to my radio.

Well, shortly after my friends all got their ham ticket I followed suit with my Novice in 1982 while in my senior year of high school. I had to catch the bus to the FCC field office in San Francisco to take my test. For a nerdy skinny kid from the suburbs, riding on a city muni bus it was an adventure in itself. Kinda scary. I survived the trip though and passed the test.

I was ready to get on the air but I didn't even have a rig to use. I went to my friend's house who left 11 meters and had elmered me into ham radio and made my first ham contact using CW and that was such a huge thrill I can't describe. But many of you know exactly what I'm talking about! The other CW contact that I will never forget was an elderly ham whose father was buried in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno CA, who had asked me if I could take a picture of his father's tombstone for him as he hadn't seen it for something like 40 years. So I gladly road my bicycle down the road and sent him that picture. He was very happy and thankful and I felt good to be able to help him. I don't remember his call but I'll never forget that contact.

We had a local "Ham Radio Outlet" store in an old train station in Burlingame California (since moved) and even before I got my ticket, after school I would frequently catch the bus down there, or on a weekend, ride with my elmers down to the store and drool over all those radios while the guys drank coffee and shot the bull. Man, I never seen so many neat radios with all those multi colored displays and such. I wished that I was rich so I could buy all I wanted. My first rig was a Kenwood TS-520. When I got my Technician ticket, I got the Kenwood TR-9000 multi mode rig for 2 meters. I thought 2 meters was such a huge band at the time. 4 whole megahertz!! And where did I settle? You got it - on 2-meter sideband. The same group as before but this time we were all hams! Oh I ventured onto the repeaters too, but I liked the mode of SSB the best.

Eventually I parted with my good old 11-meter rig. I had fond memories, but the craziness and congestion was just no match for the vast amount of ham frequencies and courtesy generally practiced on the ham bands. So out the door it went - along with all those QSL cards. (Boy now I regret dumping those cards. They would've been neat to have now just for the memories.)

I eventually made it to "Advanced" class and had an actual QSO with my high school electronics teacher. We even exchanged QSL cards. It was neat to finally say I was a ham and talk with him on the air.

I ended up getting out of ham about 11 years ago because I left home and lived in apartments. There was no place for antennas so I sold all my equipment and vowed to return as soon as I lived in a 'house" again. I kept my license current and although inactive, ham was always part of me and in my blood. It was always in the back of my mind.

I STILL live in an apartment but one day about a year ago, I decided to take the plunge after talking to my old friend/elmer and bought a multiband HT. I contacted him on a repeater and viola; I was back on the air and chatting with him nightly on 220. Within months I had assembled a mini station. HF, 2 meters, 220, 440, scanners, receivers, and even a computer comprised my shack. And there is more planned. And as far as antennas are concerned, I'm lucky the landlord is my best friend so I was able to string an inverted V in the back yard of the apartment.

I wanted to contact my old high school teacher and let him know I was back on the air so I emailed him several times without a reply. Then I sent him a note on the back of a QSL card. Weeks later I received a letter from his residence, except it was from his wife. Before I opened it, I already knew what it was going to say. Sadly, my teacher had passed away a few years ago. I was bummed about it but decided to get his old callsign and create a club with it under his name as a tribute to him and am currently in the process of doing that.

Now that I'm back on the air, I am once again enjoying nightly chatting on the bands. I still love listening to the bands on a rainy weekend especially. There is just something about rain and ham radio that go together for me. And every night I listen to 80 meters just like when I was a kid. It's almost like I never even left amateur radio. Really in my heart I never did.

With all this new talk about digital HF and FM quality QSOs, I'm concerned. Certainly there is a place for it but I hope it never becomes the norm on HF. I prefer to see it used on certain frequencies like SSTV is. Why? Because I still love the sound of HF better than any other. There is more to ham radio than getting the most out of the least. There is more to it than getting the highest efficiency and number of QSOs in a certain bandwidth. Otherwise, just use the Internet to chat worldwide if you simply want perfect audio. Why even be a ham?

Yes, I enjoy FM and I am on repeaters and even Echolink too, but that familiar sound of hissing and crackling and all the unidentified atmospheric noises of the HF bands while sitting in front of my shack on a rainy weekend has a warm place in my heart that brings me back to my youth when there was a certain amount of adventure I felt on the bands. The challenge of DXing a weak signal in the static like a ghostly voice in the night. I was a spy in Germany during WWII tuning my secret shortwave transmitter. I was on a secret mission. I was an armchair world traveler. I could eavesdrop on the world. Gosh I hope we never lose that noisy analog mode. It would truly snuff out the last flame of magic left in it for me. Those who have never ventured into the HF bands are missing out on a world of wonder and what is really the heart and soul of ham radio. It was a world of magic long before cell phones and the Internet when hamshack visitors said "Wow! You talk all around the world with that? That's neat!" I wish I could recapture that wonder and magic that it gave me as a kid. In some ways I still feel it. And I'm still out there, listening into the night...

I hope some of you enjoyed my story of my experience growing up in ham radio. I'm sure it parallels many of your stories. I hope for many of you it brings back fond memories.

73 Mike N6HBJ

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