Ham Radio Legacy

My dad served in the U.S. Army in the late 1950s. He became a telegraph radio operator.

If you were a fan of the late 1960's show, "Hogan's Heroes," you might think of the character known as "Kinch" sending messages via morse code on an old-style telegraph key. Ten or so years later, my dad was one of his outfit's "Kinch's."

Anyway, his years of military service is where our family's ham radio story begins. You might say I'm a ham radio legacy.

When dad came back from Europe, he quickly passed his test to become an amateur radio operator and was issued the callsign "KN4KYN." In those days in the late 50s, a novice (or temporary) license was designated with the "N."

Soon, he upgraded his license and became K4KYN.

In my intro "Hamming it Up," I told you a little about how I became an amateur radio operator at age 12. I learned morse code from a recording dad made on an old Realistic cassette recorder. He went letter by letter, symbol by symbol. 

• This is A. Dot Dash. (. _ )
• This is B. Dash. Dot. Dot. Dot (_...)
• This is C. Dash. Dot. Dash. Dot (_._.)

And so forth.

It didn't take long. A young mind is a sponge. Throw in some natural curiosity and enthusiasm and you've got a winner. Before you knew it, I took and passed my exam and was on the air. I enjoyed long chats with American ops and shorter, long distance contacts with foreign stations. My call sign was WA4ZJW.

That's a lot of dots and dashes!

I operated through my high school and early college years and then my station went dark as life got busy. 

Fast forward to the COVID shutdowns and we all had lots of extra time on my hands. I had been thinking of getting my station back on the air. I consulted with my friend, Ed, on equipment to purchase. Then, I set up the new station.

On a parallel track, I studied for and passed all the exams to get to the highest license classification offered, Amateur Extra.  I remember the volunteer exam team calling out "Extra Extra, Read all about it" once they had graded my exam.

I was thrilled. I had passed three exams in the span of three months in late 2020/early 2021.

The last piece was to apply for a "vanity callsign" so I could be awarded my dad's old call sign. He had let his license lapse and his callsign was about to be up for grabs. I made my successful application so I could keep K4KYN in the family.

Let's face it, there are lots FEWER dots and dashes!

Five years in, I'm still having a great time with this hobby. And, moreover, I seem to learn something new almost weekly. The pursuit both challenges AND entertains me. 

Just like before, I still enjoy the variety of long morse code chats (hams call them "ragchews") and I love the thrill of a quick foreign contact. Just yesterday, I worked an Italian station. 

I never lose the thrill of knowing that my signal, created in my modest ham shack, went around the world. Call me a nerd. It's pretty cool.

JG