On 12 Aug 2005 12:34:33 -0700, "Polymath"
wrote:

they are nothing
of the kind! Usually such people are a
variation of the CB Radio hobbyist...

Actually it was CB band competition between a friend and I combined
with my desire to understand radio that turned me in to a ham. When I
was back in school my friend and I started trying to see who could put
out the strongest signal. His father bought him an amplifier to get
over me. I was not going to ask my parents for an amplifier, and I
did not have any money to buy one since I was a full time student. I
had heard the phrase "Knowledge is power", so I decided if I could not
buy a bigger amp to get over my friend I would have to out smart him
with brain power.
I went to the school library and started reading radio handbooks
like Bill Orr's handbook. When a radio repair tech at the local ham
store realized I truly wanted to learn the science of radio he gave me
a copy of the 1983 ARRL handbook for free (it was 1984 at the time).
I read that book until it fell apart. Then I bought another ARRL
radio book, and then another radio book, and then another radio book.
I'm still doing that all these years later. The radios I talk on (a
Tempo 2020, Drake 4 B line twins, Yaesu FT-101ee, and a Midland 79-892
40 channel sideband CB) were all someone else's broken door stop. None
of them worked when I bought them. I repaired them all, and I made
most of my antennas. When I talk on those old radios part of me
smiles, because I know the only reason those radios are still working
is because I put them back on the air.
Anyway after deciding to ignore all the CB radio folklore I had
heard on the CB back in the 1970s and early 1980s, I learned the truth
about radio from reading the ARRL handbooks. I quickly became the
strongest CB station on the airways, and much of that was with self
taught radio know how.
A local ham noticed I was emerging from the CB pack as a potential
ham, and he started talking to me about ham radio. I aced the 5 wpm
Morse code test three weeks after listening to my first ARRL code
tape, and I don't even like Morse code. I aced all my exams, my 13
WPM code test, and now I am an Advanced class ham. When I passed my
Advanced written test a bunch old timers circled around the VE
examiners desk looking for a mistake on my test, but there was none to
be found. I made a perfect score, and out of all my test I only missed
one question.
One of the reasons I have not taken the Extra test is because the
old timers spit on the new no code Extra. I'm proud of my Advanced
class license, and I would not take kindly to an old timer spitting on
me if I had the new no code Extra.
In the past I used older equipment because I could not afford
anything else. Now I can afford the best, but I find myself poking
around in the old tube types and tube hybrids, because I don't know if
I can service the new surface mount technology stuff. If all I could
do was talk on the radio that would take all the fun out of it for me.
I think the best compliment I ever received on the ham bands was
when an old timer listened to all the things I was building and doing
and he said; "You are a true ham". That phrase from an old timer
meant more to me than any signal report or any DX contact. I am a
true ham, and I started on the CB band back in the 1970s just like
most other hams my age. I am not ashamed of my CB heritage. The
truth is I had a blast on the CB band back then.

Michael Rawls
KS4HY