How I Became Interested in Amateur Radio

It all began with a 5000 watt radio station in ... (oops, wrong story!), well in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, actually. Being the only radio station in town, it tried to satisfy everyone's interests. In so doing, they satisfied practically no one, including my sister and me. So, we tended to listen to whatever other stations we could receive at night. I was a MW DXer by the time I was six years old!

In my teens, I developed an interest in electronics and started buying electronic magazines. Popular Electronics or a similar magazine used to have a monthly listing of the schedules of SW broadcast stations that could be received well in North America. Since I was still a MW DXer, this seemed to be a logical extension to my interests, and I set about saving for a short wave radio. A friend of my father was a ham and actually help me locate a receiver. He wondered if I wanted to become a ham. I thought about this but decided that I had nothing to say. (O how times have changed. I still don't have anything to say, but now I say it anyway as any of you who know me will attest.)

I was satisfied listening to short wave broadcasters and DXing now and then. Every few years I would become interested for a while and then the interest would die out, and the receiver would be stored for a few more years.

About 1993, with my interests high again, I joined the Ontario DX Association. In 1995, their monthly magazine, DX Ontario, added a ham radio column called "QRZ?" This got me interested in ham radio again, and after taking a course given by the Oakville Amateur Radio Club, I got my license in February 1996, and made my first contact on March 31, 1996.