Ham Radio: my History

[last updated: 2019-05-13]
ham radio home page
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I first got my license when I was in the 7th grade, Novice class - K7JWX

Novice licenses are no longer (2019) awarded, but at the time they were good for just 1 year, after which you had to upgrade to a Technician or General class. Both Tech & General licenses had the same test in more advanced electronics, which I could pass, but the Technician only required 5 words-per-minute Morse code, while the General required 13 wpm. I could manage about 10, but could not quite get to 13, so I got my Technician license when my Novice expired. The Tech license was good for 5 years.

After the 5 years, I was in high school and had other concerns, so I ended up letting my license expire.
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Fast forward some number of decades to 2019, and I met a man who was an active ham, and in talking to him about ham radio, I got excited to get re-licensed. He is current president of GEAR: Gorge East Amateur Radio club (link 15), and I joined the group and started attending their monthly meetings. They were hosting a class for people wanting to get licensed, so I registered for the class and started studying. Morse code is no longer a requirement for any ham license, so I was optimistic that I could pass the tests.

After some months of studying, I passed both my Technician and General tests on 2019-05-18.

License KJ7GUT posted to the FCC database (link 16) (search by: [lastName],<space>[firstName]) 5/29 (8 business days from passing test) :-)

Vanity call sign KJ7TTT approved and in FCC database 06/18 (14 bus days from application). :-)

Now get me online

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eof