My Trip Into Amateur Radio
By Tom, WB2KLD

Hi-Yo Silver!

YEP. Kimo-Sabe, that masked rider of the plains began my interest in Radio. We lived in a rental around the block from my Moms Parents. Every Saturday – starting about when I was 5 – about noon, I would walk to the Grandparents house to have lunch with my Grandfather when he returned home at the end of his DPW work week. While we ate, we would listen to the adventures of “The Lone Ranger” on the radio.

That continued until my folks built our home – about 14 miles away – when I was in the second grade. That is another story – meeting my future wife at the water fountain the first day of school. Anyway, for my birthday my Grandfather gave me a gift, an “all American 5” broadcast band radio so we could listen to the Lone Ranger during lunch even if we were no longer around the block. I soon discovered that the 5 tube radio could hear stations a long way away after dark. I became hooked on Broadcast Band DX.

One wee hour of the morning I had the volume up a “bit too much” and Dad came into my bedroom because he heard voices and music. That got us talking the next morning. He asked me, “Would you like to build your own radio?” Now, that seemed like a crazy idea. He told me that “There is a lot more to hear other than stations like WOKO, WGY, WOWO, KDKA. He related how when he was a youngster, he built his own “RADIO”. So began a joint project, winding what seemed like “miles of wire” around an empty oatmeal container. Before I knew it, using a funny looking rock called “Galena” and a WW II head-phone, I was able to hear MANY other signals from all over the USA, Canada and sometimes Europe!

The next part of my journey into this hobby came with an announcement over the school PA system in my Freshman Year. “Clubs will be starting next Monday after school. Late busses will be available. A new club this year is for anyone interested in radio. It will meet in Mr. Stiers classroom in the science wing”.

I met a group of like-minded students in that club. We lived in what was then a rural agricultural community. So, it seemed “logical” that the Piscataway Township High School radio club would be called “The Antenna Farmers”. We found out there was a lot more to radio and, if we wanted to we could actually get our own radio license! Wow. Very cool. Our advisor Russell Stier even let us call him by his first name during club activity time IF we got our own FCC License. Why? “Rusty” was K2YVN.

The next part of the trip begins. In the club was a fellow freshman, Novice Class Licensee Bill Hudzik, WN2UDT. (Now W2UDT, Vice Director, Hudson Division of ARRL). Bill invited me to join the Township CD (Civil Defense) Radio Group. “The guys will help you learn the “technical stuff”. I must have “hit it off” okay, a fine group of men. When I got my call-sign, WN2KLD, I was officially assigned to the communication group. (Small world, Barbara, my future wife, was a Girl Scout. Her Girl Scout Troop worked with Civil Defense as First Aiders and Shelter Workers).

Some of the guys in the CD group were active VHF operators and they invited me to join the “Central Jersey VHF Society”. I was extremely fortunate as the CJVHF members were from all walks of life including Bell Telephone Engineers, Fort Monmouth Researchers, Lockheed Electronics, Thomas & Betts and other companies. They introduce me to “Frequencies Few Have Dared to Fathom” and VHF Contesting. The club trustee, Joe Dunham, K2BJP, who lived near us in Piscataway, took several of us High Schoolers (all Antenna Farmer Members) “under his belt” and helped us advance in license class. K2BJP was the contest call sign – “K 2 Big Junk Pile” of Northern New Jersey. We operated VHF to UHF, from 50 MHz to 10,000 MHz.

One of the club members, who had a job that “If I told you what I do I would have to shoot you”, and his adopted parents (also hams) lived next to Washington Rock Park, said to be a viewpoint from which George observed British Troop and Naval Movements. The parking lot for the park was frequented by VHF mobiles, picnickers and lovers. Technically, the park closed at dark. However, the club members had a gazebo and room for two cars adjacent to the parking lot. They let us park and operate there, a very short distance from the actual parking lot. When the local gendarmes came into the park to chase away the lovers, I would pick up the mike and Barb would grab the logbook! We resumed what we were doing when the officer left. The acquaintance with that ham family provided an introduction to another part of amateur radio public service – MARS. MARS was then known as the Military Affiliate Radio System, now the Military Auxiliary Radio System. This was pre cell, internet and satellite systems. Amateur Radio operators would “handle” personal written and “phone-patch” traffic, messages from and too military members deployed around the world. A message by MARS could reach a family of a service person usually within 48 hours versus a month via snail-mail. MARS frequencies adjoin amateur bands. I often operated around 4.1 MHz when I joined Air Force MARS, call-sign AFC2KLD. Many, many interesting people were met through MARS, both civilian and military. Being a MARS Member often allowed us to gain access to very high-quality military radios and test gear that had been “declared surplus”.

I transferred membership to Navy-Marine Corps MARS (NNN0IID) when I moved to upstate NY. That was a real joy. Often traffic was rather routine like “Have safely arrived at Marine Corps Basic Training Center. Will contact you by letter when time allows”. However, once folks were deployed sometimes messages were quite interesting. Sometimes you could “get to know” the individuals, like this series of messages from a sailor in Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean) to his girl. Routine “Hi, Miss you” type stuff, then, one message from Diego said, “Three weeks Stateside leave starting ….” Want to get married?” I delivered the message by phone, she screamed in my ear, “Answer him please. YES!”. OKAY, that was nice. About 3 months after their honeymoon, she called me. Please send him a message, “Guess what Bill. Your new name is Daddy”. His reply, “Wow, hope I can be there. Are you okay?” A few more months pass. Another message from central NY to Diego Garcia, “Bill, is Bill Junior okay by you?”

One of the Nav Cor MARS requirements was a General Class License. They gave one year after joining to upgrade if you only had a Technician License. I did and I upgraded.

What brought me to upstate NY? After high school I attended RCA Institutes in NY City. Remember, this was during our involvement in Viet-Nam. I found myself unhappy when I discovered that most future employers in the Electronics Field saw RCA as an RCA Training Facility, and they seldom would offer a job to an RCA Grad. I spoke with a neighbor who knew my background and he offered me a job at Gulton Industries, a company that manufactured some medical instrumentation and military components for the new “Space Industry” as well as components used in Inertia Guidance Systems and Munitions detonators. Nice job in Quality Control and 2 supervisors who were hams. Well, we abandoned Viet-Nam, no need for the stuff I was working on anymore. Laid off!

Barb saw a newspaper ad for people familiar with medical instrumentation. I applied. So did several others who had degrees in Bio-Electronics. Well, give it a try. I landed an interview. During the interview the repair department supervisor presented several “incidents” and asked how we would address the problem. Those Bio-Electronics degree holders had some pretty involved answers! My answers sounded “pale”. The interviewer said he was impressed by my answers! How and why did I answer the way I did? I told him “That’s what I would do when trouble-shooting my equipment”. He asked “What kind of equipment?” I said “amateur radio”. What a broad smile as he asked me “Can you start next Monday?” Small world, I actually knew him from on air activities, he was Bob, WA2CIO. After formal training with the instrumentation, they worked on and good reports from Clients, at a service meeting he asked me if I would be willing to re-locate, at company expense. They needed a full time Service Engineer in Upstate NY. Remembering a comment Barb made while traveling through the area while on our honeymoon, “What a beautiful area. I would love to live here”, without hesitation I said “YES”.

Boy, it is surprising how everything has inter-twined!

So, we moved to Middleburgh in February 1973, a few months before our 5th anniversary which was a target we had, our own home by 5 years of marriage.

I worked for that company, the Scientific Products Division of American Hospital Supply just shy of 10 years, at which point some new muckey- mucks in HR decided they could save a bunch of money if 3 of us that started at the same time would be “declared surplus” so we would not become fully vested at 10 years.

I started my own medical instrument company but could not compete when manufactures started giving Clients “free service if you use our expendable supplies’.

I went into real estate. I got my salespersons and broker’s license. Did that for several years but the market slowed and Barb and I had two sons going into college.

Riding around one day I heard a new radio station on the FM band, WSCM, 97.3 MHz. I liked the music, kind of easy listening. Then one day they broke for news at noon saying listen for our special announcement after the break. At 12:05 I hear George Straight singing “The Chair”, WSCM came back as “MY Country”. I liked that era of country music. The announced they were looking for sales-staff. I called and got an interview. Tim, the station manager grabbed a stapler off his desk and said “Sell me this!” What? I thought for a few seconds and said something along the line of “You need a new stapler. This looks like many you can buy and I know it may seem a bit higher in cost. BUUT what makes it worth the extra cost is the specially designed chisel point staples that penetrate multiple sheets of paper with very little effort”. I became a radio ad salesperson. One morning Tim had a bit of a sore throat. He took the weather report off the teletype and asked me to read the copy. I became “weather-breath”, the weather reporter. I made a couple of comments to Tim about what I thought the local weather would be in our coverage area. Those comments were based on several years of observations with the local RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) and ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and SKYWARN programs. Tim compared my “reports” to the National Service Teletype out of Albany Airport. I had a better average than the NWS! One day we had an equipment problem at the transmitter site on Cotton Hill. Tim brought me up there to see the site. While there I saw some meter readings that “looked strange”. Our engineer was from LaVelle, Quebec. Tim called him long distance. Would he need to “make the trip?” Tim mentioned my comments and the engineer was soon talking me through the repair – working on a live transmitter. Bad filters in the audio chain. Clipped out a couple, wired in a jumper, no more audio problem and I got ANOTHER responsibility, Sales, Weather forecaster and Station Engineer.

When the station got sold, Tim went to work for what was then Channel 55 Television as Station Manager. He encouraged me to join their engineering team. I learned a lot, but amateur radio provided the basics. I was now a TV Engineer for a 50 KW station with the station in Scotia and the transmitter in Perth, near Amsterdam. On duty, 24 – 7.

When that station sold I went to work for Energy-Onix in Valatie. They manufactured commercial broadcast equipment ranging from 250 watts to 50 KW. Frequencies from “DC to UHF”. Their customers were domestic and foreign, commercial and governmental. I was hired as a transmitter test engineer and soon became in charge of the Quality Control Department and writing the owners / service manuals. I often spoke with the engineers of various countries helping to “build” what they needed. Transmitters, station controls, dummy loads, antennas.

When I spent several hours on the phone with the boss and a new licensee in Jamaica discussing his needs and the next day the engineer called for a clarification on a particular point and the boss couldn’t recall the conversation, I saw the writing on the wall. What shall I do? Where shall I go?

I was getting tired of working for others, on duty 24 – 7. I explored my background for a clue. I remember growing up Dad always said you can play later, let me show you something. Dad was a very accomplished Carpenter / Millwright and built several homes for us and others. Looking back, he taught me a lot. After Nam wound down and before the medical equipment, based on what he taught me, I challenged the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners exam and beat out some 4-year apprentices. The light bulb lit! Carpentry and Real Estate! Having a Home Inspection before buying was becoming SOP. So, I took a class in home inspection from Stratford Career Institute and became a home inspector. That was pre-licensing. When the State required licensing, I had enough experience to get the license by being “Grandfathered”. That was 20 years ago and my first “real job” that Ham Radio did not play a direct role in.

Well, I have done many exciting and enjoyable things in Ham Radio, including teaching licensing classes and becoming a Volunteer Examiner. Teaching – my son, about 4th grade, was listening to me one day speaking with a fellow in northern California. A few days later in Geography Class the left coast was being discussed and someone remarked about the California climate. Nice warm weather, the beaches, no snow in California. Craig said “No”. Teacher said “What?” Craig related my QSO. His teacher contacted me and we soon had a dipole rigged to an extra halyard on the flagpole and a station in the cafeteria and some pre-scheduled QSO’s in various areas of the country. All the 4th graders were invited in and they learned “real stuff” about climatic conditions and living in different parts of the USA.

Since then, being “exposed” to ham radio from a “young age” Craig became KB2KDP (now KK2V) and VK2KDP when he moved to Australia, Bill became KB2KVN and my wife said let’s make it an all-ham family. Barb is KC2JXZ.

Now my interests are “chasing DX” (working people in various countries around the world), contesting and helping other hams.

All in all, it has been a long trip (I got licensed on 9/9/1963) that has been surprisingly inter-twined with the hobby playing a major part. I am now Extra Class and also hold an Australian “Advanced Class” license – equivalent to our Extra – VK2RSG.

 October 7, 2021