Ham Radio

About the time we got our first TV, my best friend's father got his Amateur Radio License. His call sign was K4RVE, strange the tidbits we remember. Mr. Walker worked at the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (at that time the home offices were in Wilmington). After work each day he would go into his radio room and enjoy his hobby. The only problem was that in those days TV's had very little filtering to stop interference and of course when he would transmit you could see it on our TV screen across the street. You could read the dots and dashes of the morse code as good as if you were in front of a shortwave receiver. These signals always amazed me because I new I was seeing what was one half of a conversation that might be with someone on the other side of the world. This small nuisance to some peaked my interest in radio which eventually would lead to me working in the amateur radio industry for 16 years and getting an Extra Class Amateur License. To this day I am still amazed and thrilled to hear a person on the other side of the globe with just a little copper wire and a few watts having a conversation with me with nothing but air connecting us.

The picture is of an antenna Mr Walker was building out of copper wire and bamboo poles.