ROTA-Radio

The Spark: 1970 and the “Sixth Grade Bug”

The journey into amateur radio often starts with a single moment of curiosity. For me, that spark ignited in 1970 as a 15-year-old in Michigan. It began with a science unit on electricity, but the real “hook” was following a telephone repairman around our home. He showed me how to wire a mouth-and-earpiece intercom with a 9v battery—my very first experience with electronic communication.

WN8FDJ: The Detroit Novice Years

In the early 1970s, I earned my first Novice license with the callsign WN8FDJ. This was the era of pure CW operation. I spent every afternoon after school at my desk, head-copying the code until my speed grew from a shaky 5 wpm to a solid 18 wpm.

The Gear: From the AT-1 to the HW-16

My first real station was a bit of a “Frankenstein” setup, but it worked.

• The First Rig: After a trip to a local hamfest, I scored a Heathkit AT-1 transmitter.
• The Setup: I paired it with an old, clunky general-coverage receiver that barely managed to pull in CW signals, and an 80-10 meter ground-mounted vertical.
• The First Contact: Despite the humble gear, I’ll never forget my first contact: Michigan to Texas. It proved that a few watts and some wire could truly bridge the world.
• The Upgrade: Things improved greatly when I built a Heathkit HW-16 transceiver from a kit. To my immense relief, it passed the “smoke test” on the first try and became my primary workhorse.

The Jan Crystals Connection

Back then, you didn’t just spin a VFO dial to change frequencies; you needed crystals. I had about a half-dozen of them, all purchased through the mail from a company called Jan Crystals in Fort Myers, FL.

The story hit a remarkable full circle fifty years later. In 2001, we moved to Fort Myers, and while driving down a road appropriately named Crystal Drive, I looked up and saw the Jan Crystals building. The shop is gone now, but that connection between my teenage self in 1971 and my life in Florida today remains one of my favorite “radio coincidences.”

The CB Interlude and Minnesota Winters

Following high school, my license expired, and I entered a brief period of “unlicensed” radio activity that spanned from my senior year of high school, through college, marriage, and the birth of our son shortly after we moved to Florida.

During the Minnesota years (starting in 1977), I stayed active on 11-meter AM to combat the -30 degree winters. I actually built a 20-foot tripod tower out of 1×2 wood strips on top of a three-story apartment building just to reach across the frozen Lake Minnetonka.

Closing the Decade: The Move to Florida

The 1970s decade of radio came to a close on Christmas Day 1978, when we moved from the cold of the north to the warmth of Lakeland, Florida. I was settled in, the “radio flame” was still burning, and the stage was set for a new callsign and a new chapter in the Sunshine State.