I am an inactive ham radio operator, have been for years but I started at the age of 15 with a novice license, a 50 watt Knight Kit 80-10 meter transmitter transmitter and Allied SX-190 short wave receiver with a long wire antenna and a Morse code key. Between the ages of 15 and 17 all I did every evening and weekend was play around on the shortwave bands on 88, 40 and 15 meters between 3.5 and 21 MHz (well, the novice sub-bands within them). My love of Morse code helped me when I joined the USCG to become a Radioman where I used voice, teletype and CW communications betwen Coast Guard and commercial maritime vessels. My Morse code speed increased from about 20 words per minute when I became a radioman, to over 50 words per minute two years later. I only stayed in the military one enlistment, but I sure enjoyed being a radio operator. After that I went to college to learn electronics technology, then the Federal Communications Commission as a regulator officer for a few years, moving on from them into industry.

In the Ham radio hobby, back in about 1994 I built a large 16 Yagi phased array antenna which I used to transmit and receive echos from the moon. I home brew built a 5 thousand watt capable linear RF power amplifier for 144 MHz moonbounce and enjoyed making contact with other hams all around the world while in Alaska. I'm now working in Qatar and have no radio equipment here at all, not sure what their regulations are for Amateur Radio here, but living in an apartment, I couldn't put up a good antenna anyway.

73 DE KL7FB, extra class license.