Story of a neighborly Ham
The sun was in the mid afternoon sky on a Summer’s day on Palm Drive in Covina. The year was 1974 and a young junior high school student walked across the street, yet again, to sit in the enclosed lean-to that was the Ham Shack of Mr. Byron Cory, W6BXK. The big 3 element antenna had moved to the south and west direction and Bruce went to listen to Byron talk to his long time friend in Australia. TALK TO AUSTRALIA!
Byron mentioned that we were at the low side of the Solar Cycle, and conditions were not that good. The voice that came through the transmission was slightly off tuning, but, as Mr. Cory put it, "by golly," we could hear what was being said.
It was truly amazing how in a shack with equipment running by tubes and a phone, Mr. Cory could help people get messages to each other, especially in an emergency.
The young junior high school student tried studying out of the big grey and blue book, and took a class in West Covina at the Tri Community Education Center but as a youth his math skills were very shaky, on a good day. The Code Test was daunting, also. Choosing the path of least resistance, he attempted to get into Citizens Band radio and raised pigeons.
Recently, Bruce, having completed a class of College Algebra to get Liberal Studies Degree from Cal Poly, Pomona in 1998, heard from a friend that there no longer was a Code portion of the Examination. ‘I can study for a test,’ he thought to himself. He bought a book by Gordon West and made flash cards for all of the questions, and passed the Technician Class Test in July of 2011, earning the call sign KJ6QCM.
(Bruce is currently hand writing note cards for the General Class Exam.)
Hand-writing by: Bruce Bolton, KJ6QCM
(Bruce is currently hand writing note cards for the General Class
Exam.)
Hand-writing by: Bruce Bolton, KJ6QCM
KEN BERGLOF, K6SRU
TCARA NEWSLETTER EDITOR
