OHIO PERIOD

By October of 1980, I received my General Class license... KA8CDB (can do boy). A local ham had a Drake TR-4 he wanted to sell. This was my first real station: TR-4, 5 band vertical, good RF ground, antenna tuner, dummy load.... I still operated mostly with CW but was starting to also use SSB. I found CW easier to make contacts because of lower QRM; it was much easier to deal with other QSOs since the tones were always slightly different. However, I still had very little time and did on send or receive QSL. During this period, the furthest QSO I had was a contact with a Ham in Columbia on 40 meters. The only QSL card I received was from KA3GGH, Jon  in Pittsburgh, on October 25, 1980 at 14247  UTC,  on 80 meters using CW.

NOVICE

During the late 70's-early 80's, I worked in Ashland, Ohio. For most of the 70's I was too busy with education and young family to do anything with Ham Radio. I did get a small, inexpensive general coverage shortwave radio in 1974 but it burned out during an electrical storm within 3 months of its purchase. However, in Ashland things started to change. A co-worker told me about the local Amateur Radio club: Ashland (Ohio) Area Radio Club. What a great group of Amateurs! I soon became an un-licensed but active member. The club conducted Novice classes every Saturday. I joined the next class available during the Fall of 1979. That was before the advent of the VE system... except for the Novice Class. Some time before April 1980, I think November 1979, I was licensed as KA8IMF.

I was still not able to afford my own radio. However, one of the guys in the club loaned me one in the late Spring of 1980. I was able to purchase from another ham a vertical antenna. I think it covered all HF bands and was a fairly good one. It was an old, crystal controlled Hallicrafter. I have not been able to identify the model. Maybe someone else can help. It was un-usual (for me) in that it has a strange tuning system. I do not know how to describe it nor do I remember exactly how it worked. As I remember it, it had something that looked like an eye or light that either brightened or went off or became more narrow when the radio was in tune. I had 4 crystals: 2 in the Novice portion of the 80 meter band and 2 in the 40 meter band. I also borrowed a 2 meter radio and was active in the Mansfield Ohio ARES group. They were extremely active and were the center of activity in all of the central, northwestern part of Ohio following weather fronts from the far west of Ohio to East of Mansfield using 2 meters and 80 meters.

Unfortunately, during one of my many movies I lost my logbook so cannot remember my first contact. Since I was so limited in terms for useful frequencies I did not have that many. The first QSL card I have was dated 22 APR 1980, 0108 UTC, 599 RST, 8.707 MHz, A1-CW with Don, KA8FCC, a fellow AARC member and the friend that reintroduced me to the Amateur world. Don was an Extra class ham but with the suffix FCC who would want to get it changed?

 Most of the member of the AARC were exclusive CW operators so I too turned in that direction. I was only a Novice for a few months. By October of 1980, I had gone to Detroit to take my General Class test. I passed it easily. Since the code requirement was the same, I also too the test for an Advanced license. I missed it by one questions!