We even attended his older daughter’s wedding in Yokohama. Over the years we have exchanged many visits in each Mako and his family quicklyīecame close friends. That remains one of my most memorable life moments. During the QSO I mentioned my age of 13Īnd that he was my first DX a few days later his QSL card arrived in the mail. Mako was starting his lifelong engineering career at SonyĬorporation and was in his early 20s. My first DX contact was JA1XS, Mako Takazawa in I got hooked on 40-meter CW DXing into Asia in the I was hooked and continued to log such “DX” contacts, eventually
Very first Novice contact was another Novice 40 miles away in SouthernĬalifornia.
Now I was off and running big time on 40-meter CW. I constructed a Heathkit Cheyenne mobile transmitter with VFO to Months later I upgraded to Technician, then General, which changed my call to My dad later popped for a Drake 2B after seeing Eventually, I convinced them that with headphones I could quietlyįirst receiver was a surplus military box and a Heathkit DX-40Ĭrystal-controlled transmitter. They were concerned the racket would disturb the household Parents graciously allocated part of a workbench in the garage (!) for me to Installed a 40′ galvanized telescoping TV mast with a 40-meter Inverted-V. The regulations, operating, and theory questions. Sessions to get my code speed up to 5 wpm and the ARRL License Study Guide for This provided an ideal father-son project,Īnd we both got our licenses. Morse Code also captured my interest, particularly when communicated via CW rather than semaphore as in some of my scouting activity.įather had a latent interest in radio communication, having served as a radar
I earned the Radio Merit Badge and was especially intrigued by HF communications that provided communication over longer distances.
My scoutmaster, John Boyd, K6HVV, was operating primarily VHF in local nets and emergency preparedness. I was active in Boy Scouts and already had an interest in electrical things. Like many hams of my generation, I got my Novice license as an 11-year- old in junior high school (1958).
0 kommentar(er)
