About

How It All Started

I am WD8CZG amateur radio operator and hold an Extra Class amateur radio license. First received my novice ticket in 1974 as WN8ORQ. Retook novice test in 1975 since license was good only for one year. That year the FCC started to issue sequential.
call signs and I received WD8CZG. Later years I upgraded to Technician, than General, to Advanced, and then Extra. Code was a problem for problem for me and the Advanced and Extra earned without code when the FCC changed the rules.

I have always been interested in radio from an early age. Always had a radio that tuned the ham bands and foreign broadcast bands. It was quite a joy to hear stations from far and near. My family lived down the street from a TV repair shop, so I always had an old chassis for parts and wire to build wire antennas. After storms damaged tv antennas became reuse parts. Neiborhood people would give me their old radios which some worked, and others did not. So, I tried fixing them, at times was successful. While in junior high I had a paper route and bought a Knight Kit Span Master regenerative shortwave receiver and a Knight Kit VTVM. One year for Christmas I received a Knight Kit Tube Checker.

My story

During my high school years, I attended an electricity and electronic vocational school. After high school off to join the Army. After basic training I was assigned to the signal school. There I was trained as for Fixed Station Transmitter Repair and Fixed Station Facilites Controller. After training I was assigned to an overseas microwave communication terminal and relay site. Returning to the U.S. I joined a transportable HF radio communications unit.

After the Army I worked at Western Electric as a Quality Auditor testing components and finished equipment. Later in my career Westen Electric became AT&T and Lucent Technologies and was promoted into engineering where I gained experience in equipment design, cable assemblies, setting up a cable assembly department, and computer programing to interface manufacturing equipment, and testing.