1970: Alan Applegate, K0BG

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Alan Applegate, K0BG (formerly WN0BHE, 1970)

Spurred on by my brother Evan, KØHYG (sk), I was first licensed as a
novice effective April 14th, 1970 as WNØBHE. It wasn't until the 25th
of April that I actually received the license in the mail. The wait
seemed a lot longer than it really was.

At the time, the bands were in fairly good shape, with 15 open most of
the day. Although I could use my 40 meter dipole on 15 meters, 90% of
my work was on 40, and mostly in the evenings due to work and family
duties. It didn't take long to realize an old S40B and a DX40 wasn't
going to cut the mustard as the bands started heating up. Regardless,
I plugged along and managed to work WAS and WAC within a few weeks.
Most of the 40 openings were into South America, and it only took
about 2 months to work every country south of Panama.

I passed my General in October, 1970, and in the interim got my code
speed to a solid 20 wpm. Once I received my General, I upgraded to an
NCX3 which allowed me to use 20 meter CW, and of course phone. I
passed the Advanced in January of 1971.

I changed jobs in October of 1971, and started traveling the wild,
wooly west. To stay safe I installed a used HW32, 20 meter Heath
monobander in my company car, and I was bitten by the mobile bug.
After a transfer to Denver, in 1973, I found myself working for CW
Electronics, the only amateur radio dealer in the state. I took a
Wednesday morning off in February 1976, to take the Extra exam, which
I passed. During the 6 block walk back to CW Electronics, I don't
think my feet ever touched the ground. I was delighted when my KØBG
call came in the mail about 20 days later. Here it is 30 plus years
later, and I still enjoy CW work. Not like I did back in my novice
days, however.

On the current state of affairs; no CW requirement, and the lack of a
novice class license? We're all remiss. Perhaps there are those who
blame the ARRL (I've been a member since January 1970), or the FCC, or
big business. The real truth is, it was complacency, and every single
one of us is guilty!

Alan Applegate, KØBG
http://www.k0bg.com

(c) 2007, Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!