The Amateur Radio Station of
N8ATT
Boardman, Ohio
Bob Wright
It started in April of 1947 -- maybe it's best I don't start that far back!
I graduated from Boardman in 1965 -- no I guess that's not far enough back.
It really started in May of 1962 when I passed my Novice license. In those days you had to find a ham in the neighborhood, (the term "Elmer" had not even been thought of so it was just someone with a General class license or higher) who gave you the code test at 5 wpm and if that went well he/she gave you the multiple choice question test. The test wasn't graded by the person giving the test but was sent back to the FCC. You had no idea whether you passed until you received notice. This usually took about 10-12 weeks. You waited very patiently until that fateful day you could open that envelope and in my case I got the call WN8DUX.
My first rig was a Knight Kit T-60 (Knight Kit was from Allied Radio,
a very early predecessor to Radio Shack) transmitter running 60 watts into
a dipole and a Hallicrafters S-20-R receiver that my grandfather had given
me. You usually measured how good a rig was by it's size and weight. The
bigger and heavier they were the better, however in my case this wasn't
true. The S-20-R was
big and heavy but it was just good enough that with a little work I
was able to work the stronger signals.
The Novice license then was only good for one year and it was not renewable. You had to either upgrade or loose your amateur radio privileges. So, I began almost immediately studying for my Technician license. In September 1962 I took the Technician test, at the same 5 wpm and a little more advanced theory and operating practices. I lucked out again and was able to drop the "N" and changed to WA8DUX.
I never worked any other band as a Technician other than 6 meters. In those days there was little more activity than CW or AM (that's right there was very little SSB) on 6 meters. I initially used the T-60 on 6 meter AM and a converter ahead of the S-20-R to do the receiving. I really thought I had gone to heaven when I graduated to a brand new Clegg 99'er that ran a whopping 8 watts AM. With a beam antenna, maybe some band openings, you had a good chance of working WAS. I even tried 6 meter mobile with a dynamotor on the floor in the back seat and the Clegg 99'er into a home-brewed "halo" on the rear bumper. It wasn't something you could mount under the dash but if someone else drove you could sit in the passenger seat and be on the air to your hearts content.
College, marriage and kids all seemed to take away from time on the
air so ham radio took a back seat, the dynamotor was long gone, and little
got done on the air waves. Then in the 70's the ham bug bit again and by
now 2 meter FM had caught on and so I turned to HeathKit and put together
an HW2036A and I made up for lost time. This rig was easy to mount in the
car or take into the shack so a whole lot of hamming took place on 2 meters.
In about January 1980 it was time to upgrade to General and the call sign
changed to my present call of N8ATT. It was time to upgrade the equipment
as well so I gave HeathKit a whole lot of my hard earned money and got
an HW101, a great big Heath antenna tuner and thought I had really moved
up in the world. As a matter of fact I spent a whole lot of time building
Heath gear. Then in October 1981 another upgrade to Advanced and this time
I decided to
keep my call as it worked real well on CW.
Somewhere during this whole time computers moved into my life and again ham radio took a back seat. I began working with minicomputers (after working with PC's the minis seemed like mainframes) and the world of education. First it was for accounting and data retrieval and then along came the wonderful world of the Internet and then the World Wide Web. I was the Executive Director of ACCESS and it was our responsibility to provide the computer services and technology to all the schools in Mahoning and Columbiana counties. Just recently I made a change and am now employed by Boardman Local Schools as the Supervisor of Technology/IMS. I'm doing the same thing I was at ACCESS but now for just one school district as opposed to 44. It's like coming back home as I had graduated from Boardman some 31 years ago.
After the computers not only moved into my life, but took over my life, I decided to get back on the air and try to get away from the computer. The HW101 had lived it's useful life and I decided to get a "big" rig and moved to the IC738. After a very short time I found that the computer could be connected to the IC738 and combine both my hobby and my avocation. I built an interface and now the computer can control frequency, put the frequency into the log on the computer, keep track of what portion of the band you're in, the mode of operation, and more.
I'm not sure how long before ham radio takes the back seat again but the one thing for sure, sooner or later it will surface again. It's like riding a bicycle, you never forget how. Once you're bitten by the ham radio bug it never goes away!
CUL es 73, de N8ATT
