[BC] Who is a Ham?

[Rick Barnes]

To All,

First of all, Happy New Year!

I was a Novice for two years when I was in junior high school around 
1964 - 1965.  I don't remember my callsign back then but our junior 
high school ham radio club at Broadway Junior High School in Elmira, 
NY -- under the guidance of our physics teacher, Mr. Lyvers -- was WB2IYW.

When I retired from the Army after 20 years of service in 1994, I got 
my first civilian job as a country-western DJ at WANN (AM) in 
Annapolis, MD.  The owner and GM, Mr. Morris Blum (who operated the 
station into his 90s and was the 1998 recipient of the SBE Lifetime 
Achievement Award due, in part, to his involvement in the development 
of AM Stereo and EAS technologies) was a ham operator, NY3L.  Every 
time I would bug him telling him I was interested in getting more 
engineering experience he would say to me, "Young man, what you need 
is a ham radio license."

With Maury as my "elmer" and mentor, I took the ham exams at our 
local ham club in the Fall of 1994.  Although I passed all the theory 
tests through Extra in one sitting, I had some problems with the 
Morse code test.  I had been practicing the code with a computer 
program and, although I could hear it at a much faster rate, I could 
not physically write it as quickly in long hand since I was used to 
typing messages on my computer and I can type much faster than I can 
write.  Consequently, I ended up with a Tech+ license for that day (N3TRZ).

A month or two later, I went back with a portable word processor (it 
looks like a typewriter with a small computer buffer) and I re-took 
the code test.  This time I passed the 13 WPM code test and earned 
the Advanced license (KE3QJ).  A few years later, the FCC reduced the 
code requirement for Extra from 20 WPM to 13 WPM (what some hams 
referred to as "Extra lite") and, since my previous theory tests had 
expired, I re-took the Extra theory test (WG3A).

So, for the second time, I've been a ham since 1994.  I am a member 
of the Anne Arundel (County) Amateur Radio Club, which operates a 
repeater on 147.105 MHz (W3VPR) from Davidsonville, MD near Annapolis 
and the Voice of America Amateur Radio Club, which operates a ham 
radio station (K3VOA) from the attic of our building on Independence 
Ave. in downtown Washington, DC next to the National Capital 
Mall.  The VOA ARC 2-meter and 440 repeaters provide communication 
support for the annual Marine Corps marathon in Washington, DC.

73s,

Rick Barnes
Captain (Retired), U.S. Army
Supervisor, Broadcast Operations, Voice of America, Washington, DC
Ph.D. Candidate (A.B.D.), Capella University, Minneapolis, MN
E-mail (home):   WG3A at ARRL.net
E-mail (work):   rbarnes at voanews.com