WN5RMQ - 1976
I began in Amateur Radio by participating in a Novice license class that was held in the Houston area by the Twin Counties Amateur Radio Society, during the fall of 1975.
The club met on Houston's northwest side, initially in the meeting room of a Bonanza steakhouse on FM 1960, and later at various real estate sales offices and the municipal courthouse in Spring.
The purpose of the club was to help train and license new amateurs. It began by holding a class for the Novice license, and later both Novice and General license classes, covering the required radiotelegraph code and written examination elements. Sadly, the club seems to have disappeared at some point, although the Northwest ARS in Houston now serves approximately the same area.
I passed the Novice code and written examination elements near the end of 1975. My family moved at about the same time, and I made the mistake of sending the FCC a change-of-address card after my test materials had been submitted. I didn't receive the license until June, 1976!
I purchased a second-hand Heathkit Mohawk receiver, and built a single tube Novice transmitter, covering 80 and 40 meters. The crystal-controlled transmitter used a 6146, had an OA2 mercury vapor voltage regulator, and a pi network to match the plate impedance to the antenna. The plans were from an old edition of the ARRL handbook. (If anyone recognizes which edition of the handbook this came from, I'd appreciate hearing from you. A photocopy of the plans had been given to me, but I lost it). I put up a coax-fed 80 meter Inverted V, and had fun making contacts.
I passed the General class amateur exams at the FCC office in Houston in December, 1976.
Like most amateurs who enjoyed the "Novice Experience", my tenure as a Novice remains a favorite facet of my "amateur career".
My First QSL
I enjoyed a recent contact with an amateur whose call seemed familiar. I remarked to him that I thought we'd had a QSO many years before. Turned out, we'd had a contact 33 years earlier, almost to the day! Ron, WB5UPS, and I were both teenagers at the time of our first contact, in April 1977. Ron and I had exchanged QSL cards, and he was kind enough to scan and send me the image of the card I'd sent him back then. I hadn't seen one of my original cards in over 30 years!
Prior to October, 1976, Novice licensees were issued distinctive callsigns with a 'WN' (or 'KN') prefix. After upgrading to a higher-level license, the 'N' was dropped and replaced with a different letter. In October 1976, the FCC mailed out new licenses to all Novices that eliminated the 'N' from their calls. Because I upgraded to General in December 1976, I was in the last crop of 'WN' Novices, and held both 'WN5RMQ' and 'WB5RMQ' as a Novice.
Because the Novice calls were temporary, these "fill-in-the-blank" type cards were popular, so you wouldn't get stuck with a batch of cards with an obsolete call when you upgraded.
One other thing to notice about my old card. The contact took place in the 80m Novice band shortly after noon local time. D layer absorption occurred back then, just like now, but outside of summer, many amateurs continued to make 80m contacts throughout day. That's quite a contrast to today, when it seems the 80m band goes dormant after about 7:30 am!
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