My radio experience has been great. I just started by monitoring the airwaves first, then began "on the air" early February, 2000. I just was able to get my venerable old Drake T4X and TR4 combo going... I love all that copper.
I got my upgrade to General in late March of 2000. I passed the 13 WPM CW test BEFORE the April 15th changeover, too. For some silly reason, that was important to me. I especially love CW and these older rigs just make it sound like music! Hi Hi. I just started getting into phone and its a whole new world. I also have used an old Heath HW-16, both rigs sending thru a dipole about 20-25 feet up on a good day. I wanted to go "step by step" so I thought I'd start out with the older rigs. It was a great decision, I am having lots of fun with these rigs. I have seen the new Kenwoods, the Yaesus, and the Icoms, but they just don't quite have the character that these older rigs have, do they? Oh well, I guess that's what makes it such a great hobby.
I have recently been bitten by the QRP and Home brew bug. There is nothing more exciting, Ham radio-wise, than hearing your own call come back to you when you are using these cool homebuilt rigs! I recently found a neat HW-8, it has some real nice mods and puts out a very fine 2.5 watts. It covers 4 bands, and is in great shape. (Thanks Pickett!)
In February of 2019, about the time I had decided to upgrade to Extra, I finally got around to "upgrading" my hardware: I jumped in with both feet and purchased a late 1980's rig, a Kenwood TS-450AT. Still, not the state of the art, but it was back then. I am steadily and surely moving up in the radio world, maybe someday I'll catch up, and get a SDR, SOTA rig... Naw.....
I am a physical therapist and athletic trainer by profession.
I work at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. I am responsible for the rehabilitation of athletic injuries, as well as teaching prevention and rehabilitation to student trainers. I work with women's gymnastics, golf, and bowling, and assist when asked with everything else. pretty much everything except mens and womens basketball. My main responsibility is women's gymnastics. I travel with the team during the time from January to April.