Hi Wes,

Please don't lose hope in us younger hams. I for one recently got back
into the hobby after about 10 years. I earned my novice back when I was
13 but grew out of it during my college years and KC4GHA finally
expired in '97. I started getting the bug back about a year ago when I
was working a grave shift and listening to a Uniden scanner to keep me
company. One night when a nasty rotating super cell was moving into the
Austin area, I monitored two hams tracking the storm. One of the hams
happened to be a morning weather anchor at a local station and was
relaying radar information back to the other ham in the field. Well
being an life long weather enthusiast, this did it for me! Skywarn
initially attracted me back into the hobby. I went to take my
technician exam primarily to be able to use 2m/70cm phone for Skywarn
activities with the CW portion of it as an after thought. However, when
I got to the testing facility and the VE examining team found out I
held a previous novice licence and knew the code, they weren't about to
let me get out of there without atleast trying to pass the code part of
the exam. So I took it and I passed! I could hardly believe it was
still with enough to bearly make enough characters in a row at 5 wpm!

This was enough for me to save up and try to get back on HF. I shopped
around for a while. I looked at all the new high tech IC-706's and all
the others that do virtually everything for you. I also looked at some
other older radios and with price also being a deciding factor I
finally settled for a used FT-101B with a bunch of accessories for
about $350. I've been using this setup with a Cliff Dweller dipole
through a MFJ tuner and I love it!!! I work almost exclusively CW,
usually on 40M. My station works beautifully. I'm one of those geeks
that actually *enjoys* tuning up the final amplifier! I really like the
nastagia of older equipment with lots of knobs and switches to mess
with in order to change frequencies.

So at the age of 31, I enjoy amatuer radio more than I ever have and I
take pride in every qso I make whether it be a few counties over or a
weak dx contact on the other side of the globe. And you bet I will send
a QSL to EVERY contact I make! I always enjoy getting QSL cards (when
they do come, hi).


73,
Matt