I got ham license.
After finishing elementary school I went to a junior high school
in 1972.
The school had amateur
radio club.I joined the club, but I did not have
a ham radio license yet.I had to look
enviously at senior
students
enjoy having QSO
everyday.I wanted to get the license
but
the examination for a ham operator was in
October.
I thought I had to wait till fall.But in August I found a lecture class for getting
the license.I
was on a summer
vacation in August. I luckily went
to take the class.In a hot class room I studied
basics of
electronics
and Radio Law needed to pass the final examination.
The class lasted for a week
and
at the end of
it,I took the examination.
I successfully passed it and
finally I got the fourth
class license.
In October I took a national examination for the third class
that included skill test of comprehension
and keying of the
morse code
of 25
words per minute.I succeeded the exam and got the license.
As I had known the morse code,practical exam
was not difficult at
all.
When I was in the elementary school
there was a morse
code class
in a community
center for children in my town.That was soon after
I knew ham radio on
the mountain top.I went to the center
for three days to remember the
morse code and in two days I
got it totally.
So it was not very difficult for me to get
the third
class license.
Back to junior high school ham radio club, which was JH1ZAG,
I never forget
the first day I had a QSO as a club station operator.A teacher in the school
had the first class license and he started the club.The club had 6 members.
As one of them I started having QSO's with many stations. The station's rig was
YAESU FT-200S and the antenna was inverted V on the school building
about 15
meters high.The antenna was only
for 7 MHz.
I enjoyed QSO everyday after school.All of the club members really liked ham
radio.
I learned a lot
how to QSO in the club.All the stations I contacted with
from the school were in Japan.In September I submitted application to get
my own call sign.It took about one and half a month to get my own license.
I never forget the day I received the station license.I looked in a mail box
at home everyday and at last I found an envelope from the radio
administration office.I opened the envelope
right away
and found
my call sign is JF1IMD.I was flying high.I was so happy to
have my
own call sign.I was allowed to start
amateur radio operation
at home.
In December my dad told
me he would
buy me
ham radio equipment
as a Christmas present.Dad and I went to Akihabara
where a lot of electric appliances stores abounded.I wanted YAESU FT-101S
but it costed about 130000Yen at that time.It was too expensive.Dad told me
YAESU FR-50B and FL-50B were less expensive. And also they were good
to know how an receiver and a transmitter worked.He bought me the receiver
and the transmitter.I wanted a beam antenna because
I wanted to have
QSOs with
DX stations.But Yagi antenna was too big to build
on the roof of dad's house.I thought GP
antenna would be
small
and the antenna was
good for DX.I asked dad to get me GP antenna
and he
bought one for me.On that day I slept laying the rig by my side.
I was so happy.Next Sunday
dad and I put up
the antenna on the roof top.
I tried to have QSO and called CQ.Very strong signal came in.
It was
60 dB over 9. My local amateur radio station called me.
He was very nice and kind.That
was
my first QSO as JF1IMD.
From that day I operated the station everyday.I liked QSO on SSB.
But I tried to have CW QSO, too.My first DX QSO was with a station
in Soviet
Union.It was
very exciting to speak to a person
in other country.
I liked English class at school and
had studied hard
so I did not have
any problem in communicating with the DX station.In those days
many Japanese stations
called DX stations and pile up was very heavy.
With the GP antenna and
10 watts
output,
I tried to get contact
with many stations around the world.I was active on 15
meters and
40 meters.My bright days started
and I hoped the days last for ever.
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