50 Years a Ham

In the previous article I mentioned that I attended the Contest Dinner at the Hamvention last week. One of the things they do is to find the ham that has been licensed the longest. If you've been a ham 25 years you stand up. As the years are incremented more and more hams sit down. When it came to 50 years, I didn't sit down.

It's a little scary to think about: 50 years. I was licensed in 1972 at the age of 15. The certificate was issued on May 24. I suppose it was technically wrong to keep standing since I was a few days short. But what's a little "rubber clocking" between contesters.

Although I was licensed 50 years ago, I have not been continuously active. Indeed, even in those earliest days I had a receiver but no transmitter. What operating I did was from our high school club station in north Winnipeg until classes were dismissed in June. It wasn't too long before I had a small 807 transmitter and a 20 meter dipole hung between a clothesline post and the eave of our bungalow.

I was again mostly inactive when I moved to Ottawa in 1979. Apartment life is not conducive to putting up antennas. For 5 years I only operated the occasional contest from other hams' stations, and those were almost exclusively multi-ops. It was nevertheless a productive time since that was when I fully developed my tower and antenna skills. It was just that I did it for others and not for myself. It was quite a thrill to be 100' up in the air for the first time.

In 1992 I tore down the station I built in 1984 and 1985 to build a new house. My interest in amateur radio had already declined and at that time I gave it up entirely. Radio was a distraction from the important things a 30-something cares about: career, women, sports and other pursuits. Worse, every local contest station I had once operated from had been dismantled and there were few if any multi-ops that needed me.

When I decided to retire in late 2012 the itch returned. Soon I was playing with radio in a small way: QRP and simple antennas. In early 2013 I started this blog. Hundreds of articles followed, at a rate of about one per week. That same rate continues pretty consistently. Many of the early articles I come across I don't even remember writing!

The contest bug bit again and with more resources and no dependants I was free to indulge myself. In 2016 I moved to this QTH and starting building towers and antennas in earnest. One consequence is that articles about small antennas mostly disappeared. It is possible that some readers drifted away when that happened.

I certainly won't have another 50 years. I am well past my "best before" date. I remain healthy and enthusiastic, so I will continue as long as I can. There is much more about this hobby to enjoy in the coming years. As with many older hams I know, the physical and intellectual demands of performing well in contests and the DX pile ups keeps us alert, involved and interested in life. 

Amateur radio is a great hobby and I intend to stick with it to the end.