Recently, I was at dinner with my aunt, uncle, and wife, when I brought up having a ham radio installed in my Jeep. My aunt exclaimed, "I didn't know you did ham radio! Your grandfather did that too!"
My grandfather passed away when I was young, and I didn't really get to know him terribly well. I have memories of him, mostly that he was kind to me and my brother. Stories about him are fun to hear. He served in the Air Force, became a commercial pilot and captain for Eastern Airlines, and unfortunately contracted cancer.
The cancer he developed is called "multiple myeloma." It left him chair-bound. He was never one to allow that to slow him down, so he used the time to study things he wanted to do. One of them was getting his ham radio operator's license.
His call sign was KC4SXE, earning his technician plus license in October 1990. I earned mine 24 years later, in October 2014.
My wife and I discuss why people do what they do. It's often said we're a product of our experiences. I wonder if, during one of those few visits I had with my grandfather, he showed me his amateur radio, or talked about it. Whatever the reason, I picked it up. Just like him, I studied for my initial license when I was immobilized (after I blew out my knee) - after all, when you have nothing but time on your hands, you might as well use it. I recovered from my injury. Sadly, my grandfather did not recover from his illness. He went silent key in 1992.
My grandfather passed away when I was young, and I didn't really get to know him terribly well. I have memories of him, mostly that he was kind to me and my brother. Stories about him are fun to hear. He served in the Air Force, became a commercial pilot and captain for Eastern Airlines, and unfortunately contracted cancer.
The cancer he developed is called "multiple myeloma." It left him chair-bound. He was never one to allow that to slow him down, so he used the time to study things he wanted to do. One of them was getting his ham radio operator's license.
His call sign was KC4SXE, earning his technician plus license in October 1990. I earned mine 24 years later, in October 2014.
My wife and I discuss why people do what they do. It's often said we're a product of our experiences. I wonder if, during one of those few visits I had with my grandfather, he showed me his amateur radio, or talked about it. Whatever the reason, I picked it up. Just like him, I studied for my initial license when I was immobilized (after I blew out my knee) - after all, when you have nothing but time on your hands, you might as well use it. I recovered from my injury. Sadly, my grandfather did not recover from his illness. He went silent key in 1992.