Craig

Craig Miller, W8CR 14 Was a Very Good Year For the longest time, until fairly recently, most hams I’ve chatted with on CW have always been older than me. Time had to run out eventually, I suppose. The older I get the pool of CW ops even older than me has been dwindling for obvious reasons. In CW, as you meet a new contact, it’s customary to exchange one’s age and how long you’ve been a ham. Several times I actually forget and have to do some quick math in my head (2022-1974=46 or is it 48 years?). Usually, the younger operators I bump into are in their 50s, many empty nesters finally getting their ticket later in life. Just the other night, I bumped into a new callsign I never worked before on 40 meters, a KI5 in Texas. His prefix indicates a relatively new callsign issued in the past year or so. His CW was good, a little rough on the edges but well-formed characters and easy to copy. We were going through the typical introductions when he popped up that he is 14 years old! Sure, there are plenty of youngsters getting their tickets but on CW? Almost non- existent, or so I thought. We had a pleasant QSO exchanging rig and antenna info, the normal stuff. I told him I got my first license at 14 as well, a long, long time ago. I made sure he knew how impressed and proud I was to hear him on the air, we always need more CW ops in this world when it seems everything is going the impersonal digital keyboard computer to computer route. Operating CW is like playing a musical instrument, each brass-pounder has their own characteristic, kind of like an accent. It was getting late and the band was turning to crap so we pulled the plug with well wishes and hopes to chat again soon. He asked if I could send him a QSL card, I said I would. Wow, I must have slipped into a Twilight Zone episode, nobody asks to QSL (at least by mail) anymore. A 14 year old, on CW, exchanging QSL cards? I hear the theme song and Rod Serling’s voice now… The next morning, I looked him up on QRZ.com to get his address and I almost had a stroke. He has the exact same station I had as a young punk novice/general back when Gerald Ford was president. Of course, there was some more modern gear, and the vintage dust collectors must have been his dad’s (or grandfather’s). I’ll ask him when I send him the card along with a picture of my station, back then: My new friend’s station: Good ol’ Heathkits, the Drift King Twins. These put many-a-Novice on the air when your sole income is summer lawn mowing jobs. Being 14 was a very good year.