First licensed in 1976 in Pittsburgh, PA with the call sign of WB3FAX, I now reside in Pegram, TN. Pegram is about 20 miles west of Nashville, a.k.a. Music-City USA. I had no real Elmer (someone to show one the ropes) in my early years of radio. After experimenting with CB radio in the early seventies, I decided to pursue a ham ticket when I entered the eighth grade. My Novice test was administred by volunteers who worked at the local Westinghouse research center on Ardmore Boulevard in Pittsburgh. (If you were part of that class and are reading this, please contact me.) These fine folks also conducted an electronics class in conjunction with the ham license preparation study. My thanks to these volunteers, who treated us with more respect than we deserved at the time.
My coveted ticket (Amateur Radio License) arrived from the FCC in December 1976. I was on the air with a Heathkit HW-7 transceiver (3 watts output, about half the power of a Christmas tree bulb) and a piece of wire nailed to my neighbor's house for an antenna. It took about 3 weeks of calling people fruitlessly before I made my first Ham Radio QSO with WA1ZXJ, Evelyn Petitti on January 19, 1977. We used CW (Morse Code) on 7.121 MHz, in what was then the 40 meter Novice band. Novices were only permitted to use CW, and it would be some time before I had a phone rig. I eventually learned to tune CW signals properly, and I started making more contacts. I remember making nightly QSOs with Don Aiello WB3CCG who lived in the next neighborhood over, about 3 miles away. It was great fun. We would hammer away on our little morse code keys way into the night, much to his parent's chagrin.
In 1980, I moved to Nashville, TN to attend college. Radio took a back seat for several years as life intervened. I was basically inactive from 1980-1988. Although I kept a limited station ready for action, I very rarely got on the air. In the late 1980's I started to get back into the hobby. I caught the DX bug, which is chasing far away countries (DX) on short wave (HF) bands. It wasn't long before I was hunting for a good site for a home; preferably high on a hilltop or ridgetop, with appropriate real estate for an effective tower and antenna installation. I found that site in October 1991, and then began building the ham radio station that I had dreamed of since I was a child. I was chasing lots of DX and enjoying CW operation on the HF bands.
One cold winter evening in January 1993 as I was tuning across the 160 meter CW band, I stumbled upon a CW contest in full bloom. I started working folks one right after another, and I enjoyed the operating experience a great deal. All fifty states were contacted in a single operating session on the 160 meter CW band -- more than I had worked during a decade of casual operating! The following year I entered the contest full-time, and I submitted a score. My call sign at that time was WR3O. It wasn't long before I was being contacted by other Contesters, and being invitited to participate in more operating events.
Some time in 1994, WA6KUI (now WO4O) extended an invitation to join the brand-new Tennessee Contest Group. That seemingly innocuous telephone call was a major turning point in my ham radio life. The TCG turned out to be a great bunch of folks, with room for both the novice and the world-class operator. Most of my ham radio operating these days is focused around operating contests and chasing DX. Few things in life compare with the camaraderie of my fellow contesters.
Beginning with the March/April 2008 issue of the National Contest Journal, I began writing a column called "Contesting 101." I invite your questions regarding contest operating. We hams are a curious breed. Lucky I am, to have found this wonderful hobby. See you on the air!
73 (Best wishes)
-Kirk K4RO
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