Back in about 1966, I got my novice ticket. Crystal controlled, CW, 75 watts, a 40M dipole, a home brew 15M rotatable dipole, a Hammarlund HQ 129X, and a Johnson Viking RangerII. I had a lot of fun with CW, a wall full of QSL cards, and though my Johnson rig ran 65watts AM, nobody wanted to talk. SSB was the big thing happening and I didn't have it, and couldn't afford it on my summer lawn mowing wages during high school. While attending college, I was the only operator in the college station and got to use the SSB stuff there, but I was soon on my own and being a ham was not in the formula.
My general class license expired without a whimper in 1972.
Jump to present day...
I've retired and live on top of a hill in the middle of no-where Nebraska. I'm surrounded by farm country, it seems that I have a pretty good QTH for a station here, and I've been considering getting back into amateur radio.
Now that I can afford the equipment, I wonder...
My concern is that my speaking ability is quite diminished. While I can make myself intelligible to people face to face, my ability to form words is quite poor to my way of thinking from cancer surgery I had 20 years ago. I guess I wonder if people will want to have a voice QSO with me? I've never operated above 50 MHh, and repeater operations hasn't caught my attention.
No matter what, I think I'll get back in for the CW fun I know I can have, but the lure of voice is strong. I've re-studied for the tech ticket, and think since I have to drive a couple hundred miles each way for the test that I'll go ahead and study and take both tests at the same time.
So... would you have a voice QSO with a guy that sounds like he's talking with a mouth full of ... um... to put it nicely - marbles?
My general class license expired without a whimper in 1972.
Jump to present day...
I've retired and live on top of a hill in the middle of no-where Nebraska. I'm surrounded by farm country, it seems that I have a pretty good QTH for a station here, and I've been considering getting back into amateur radio.
Now that I can afford the equipment, I wonder...
My concern is that my speaking ability is quite diminished. While I can make myself intelligible to people face to face, my ability to form words is quite poor to my way of thinking from cancer surgery I had 20 years ago. I guess I wonder if people will want to have a voice QSO with me? I've never operated above 50 MHh, and repeater operations hasn't caught my attention.
No matter what, I think I'll get back in for the CW fun I know I can have, but the lure of voice is strong. I've re-studied for the tech ticket, and think since I have to drive a couple hundred miles each way for the test that I'll go ahead and study and take both tests at the same time.
So... would you have a voice QSO with a guy that sounds like he's talking with a mouth full of ... um... to put it nicely - marbles?