1955: Jack Burks, K4CNW

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Jack Burks, K4CNW (ex-KN4CNW, 1955) My novice ticket arrived in the mail on Saturday April 16, 1955 around 1:00 PM.  After screwing up my courage, I called CQ on 40 meters and was answered by W4PKD.  I was so nervous that I didn't copy hardly anything that the guy on the other end sent but I told him that he was my first QSO, asked him to please QSL, gave him my complete address, and then signed off.  About 5 minutes later the phone rang and a voice said "may I speak to Jack, KN4CNW"!  The caller was Milt Farve who was the operator at W4PKD which was the club station of the Columbia Bible College.  Milt welcomed me to ham radio and invited me to visit the club station at the college.  My first QSO had spanned a distance of about 4 miles!  I had a lot of fun on the novice bands and 9 months later I upgraded to a Conditional Class license.  After the introduction of incentive licensing I upgraded to Extra Class.
Editor's Note - Check out Jack's personal ham radio webpage. http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=256233&ck  Jack's philosophy about ham radio is much appreciated.  You do not need big beams and high towers, and rigs which costs more than cars to have fun on ham radio!