At the age of fifteen, I obtained my first amateur radio license. I became interested in this hobby after visiting a neighbor’s home in the town where I grew up. Doug Manza had a complete Ham Shack in his house and I listened to him talk on his transceiver to other hams from around the world. I had a short wave radio that my dad had bought me and I was fascinated with this medium of communications.

Doug also introduced me to Morse code and I studied one whole summer listening to the code on a record at home. In those days, it was a requirement to learn the code which is a system of dots and dashes, in order to get a beginners license. Once I had mastered this, Doug ordered the written exam for me and I passed it and received my Novice Class license from the FCC. My call sign was WN1EYO.

To get on the air, I purchased a 75 watt HT-40 transmitter which was powerful enough to transmit for many miles on high frequency. I already had my S-120 Halicrafters receiver, so it was a matter of putting up my antenna and building my Morse code keyer. it wasn’t long before I was in operation. Code was received from all over North America and when atmospheric condition permitted, I could reach South America too. After a while, I had a whole wall of QSL cards from many hams that lived in several states and provinces.

Eventually, I wanted to talk on the radio so I purchased a Gonsett Communicator II which had frequencies for 2 meters and 6 meters. this is the same unit found in several of the civil defense shelters at that time. these were the only channels a Novice was allowed to transmit in voice and only a narrow part of the bandwidth which required certain crystals to be plugged in. this opened up a whole new world although I continued to use the Morse code at other times. I talked regularly with several different hams. My friend Burns had a teletypewriter in his shack and another by the name of Al, was blind. it amazed me that Al could take his radio completely apart and put it back together. he could also work on his car and play the piano. I visited several of the guys at their homes and went to ham meetings and get-togethers.

Later, I tested for a technician grade license and was then the owner of call sign WA1IZH. Amateur radio was a fun hobby for me. Some of the hams who advised me and supported me were Doug, Al McQuoid, Burns Getchell, Gene Merrithew and Roy MacLeod. these kind men influenced and encouraged me at my young age. I will always remember them. later, I entered a career in electronics with my first job at Honeywell in Boston.

The equipment today is far more advanced from those early days of tube radios. somehow, the challenge of building my own gear was fun and interesting back then. Some of my friends took up this hobby too. I attended gatherings from St Andrews, NB. to Swampscott, MA and met a lot of interesting people both in person and over the air waves.

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