I was inspired by a friend of mine in 1993, N2ZZQ, to get my Amateur Radio license. Generally, like most of us, we started with weak AM radio (AKA Citizens Band). There has always been a strong interest in radio for me. Call it an attraction virulent in nature. It's in my blood so to speak. Anyway, before deciding to buy the original "Now Your Talking" guide from Radio Shack (boy have they changed since then), I ended up getting a Pro 2032 scanner, which I still have and use. I could clearly remember getting home from work and the first thing would be to turn the scanner on to listen to the amateur VHF/UHF frequencies. This would not last for long because I was getting tired of listening and wanted to be able to chat with the "gang".

In September of 1994 I bought the book and started studying for my Amateur License. It would be in November of that year that I took the test, courtesy of the Rockland Repeater Association, then headed by K2CIB. January of 1995 I got my ticket and entered the amateur radio world as KB2SZX, a no code tech. A huge world of opportunity was before me. There was so many facets of the hobby, it seemed overwhelming.

After hanging my hat on several repeaters in the area, I would meet some of my closest friends, with whom I am still very close with today. These friends would prove to be very instrumental in my amateur career. There was always some coaxing going on about getting your General class license so you could operate on HF. That coaxing was all I needed to move up to General class. Oh the days of "13 words a minute" code comes to mind. I remember studying hard for it and passing the test. One of my closest friends Karl, KA2ZIK, loaned me a Kenwood 430 to use. At the time I lived in a condominium so you could imagine the stress of trying to figure out how to get on the air. We built a multi band dipole and put it in the attic. Surprisingly enough it worked quite nicely for being inside. My first HF contact was with a fellow named Gene in Pampa TX, KE5ZRR on January 7, 1996 on 17 meters SSB at 1635 UTC. One evening in June, I decided to turn the rig on late in the evening. Tuning around on 17 meters I heard a few folks chatting. I tossed my call in and much to my surprise a station acknowledged me. It was ZL1AXB, Pat Murdock in Auckland New Zealand. I practically fell off my chair and could not believe that he was hearing me with an indoor antenna and 100 watts. Well he did and that basically convinced me to get more air time. With more air time came the sense of feeling restricted to certain band restrictions. By September of 1997 I made it to Advanced class (KG2MP) and soon afterwards passed my 20 words per minute (remember that?) code exam to get my Extra class license. This was just around the time that vanity calls were being issued by the FCC. I decided to apply for a vanity call.

I remember trying to select my call based on the phonetics and CW parameters. Two calls on the availability list came to mind. N2KI and W2KI. Filling out the form, I selected N2KI as my first choice and W2KI as my second. One day in December of 1997, a very close friend of mine, WB2HMF, called me on VHF simplex. I just happened to be sitting at the radio. "N2KI from W2KI". I couldn't believe my ears. I jumped on the air and said "KG2MP WHAT?” He said "go check the FCC database". I did and low and behold I was now N2KI. The funny thing was my best friend was now W2KI. We each never new either of us was applying for a vanity. How strange is that? Frank Fallon, N2FF calls us "THE KI GUYS". So over the years during RTTY contests we've confused the best of them. ; especially if we happened to be on the same band working the same station, which has happened. Talk about confusion. We got through it though.

Over the years, friends such as KA2ZIK, W2KI (WB2HMF), KG2NA (KB2TJC), N2DBD, and KR2F (N2AJZ) come to mind. We started doing Direction Finding. Now, there is an addictive facet to amateur radio. We would do fox hunts on a monthly basis, inviting folks from all around to participate. Sometimes we would get a big crowd from as far away as Massachusetts. This snowballed into a really great outing for everyone. While we have all moved on to other things the HVDFA web site, www.n2ki.com/HVDFA, is still operational providing excellent data for getting started in DF'ing.

Packet radio was always an interesting part of HAM radio. The internet has pretty much blown that out of the water due to speed restrictions. Some of us die hards still like to keep things in the RF mode. As such I have been running a DX Cluster which still has an RF input of 144.910. The telnet portion can be reached by telneting to dxc.n2ki.com:7300 or by going to my web site www.n2ki.com. My weather web page is www.n2ki.com/n2ki-wx.

So here I am, many years into it and still loving every minute of the hobby, despite its changes. Yes, we joke about the "Extra Light" license since the FCC has reduced the code requirements. But it's the comradery that still exists in Amateur Radio today. There is a code of honor that is still expected from HAMS and for the most part still does exist. In our "new world order" amateur radio has taken a new place in the communications sector. Its volunteers, providing professional communications and enjoying what they do. I am proud to be part of it and thank all my amateur radio friends for special friendships that will and have withstood the test of time.

Thanks and 73. Catch you down the log. . . . dit dit