The FCC calls me Culver. Please call me Stan.

Amateur Extra Class

10-10 = 8286

2012 - My 40^th Year in Radio: Still find some magic in 100 watts making signals that can be detected around the world from a single wire, 110 feet long, 12 feet high.

Enjoyed HamCation 2012. Didn't win anything though. Maybe someday.

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Feb 21 --- Just lost my wifeof 45 years, Wanda. It was sudden and quick. Not had interest in radio the pastweeks. Getting back into radio now Mar 7.

Thanks to all for the well wishes.

Thanks for all the well wishes.

Time heals.

Stan

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How I found Ham Radio.

I enjoyed listening to AM radio, music and the old dramas. I had an wire antenna around 200 ft long.I also loved to hear those weak daytime stations looking them up in White's Radio Log.

Somehow, I started repairing those table-top se ts, which consisted mostly of replacing a tube. As a teenager, I became known as the radio fixer among the neighboors and relatives. I would go house to house asking for any radios that were to be trashed. Collected a few, and repaired a few.

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Discovered "Hams" because of a catastrophy with Mom's AM table radio. I dropped it, the ball bearings jumped out of the tuning capacitor, and the repair was to replace the tuner with Grandpa's 5-pushbutton one which I mounted on top of the cabinet. Wow, it worked, but the band was skewed 50 %. I was only a teenager,I didn't know how to fix that?

I could hear these guys talking, and wondered who they were. Well, it turned out to be these "Hams". This was around 1959; they were on 160 meters, AM.

Obtained some books, but it wasn't until I was out of school, out of the "Service", and married that I decided to get a license: Oct '72.

Wanda helped me practice code. She learned it well enough that I used her for practice. But, alas, she had no further interest in radio.

Had a hard time getting a test for Novice. Nearly everyone around here was a "Conditional Class",and could not give exams. Had to travel to Atlanta to take the other tests. In '78 I also obtained a 2nd Class commerical license also. Before I got the1st Class license, they changed it.

Stripped and rewired several RTTY machines. They had too many wires. Found a tape punch in the local dump. Cleaned away the mud and made it work. On Sundays, I would punch tapes of the characters the guys were sending on 20.

Enjoyed RTTY until computers. The noise, ring of the bell, smell, and glow in the dark were gone. It just wasn't the same.

Spent near 20 years involved with Skywarn. I think it was even before Skywarn had been named. When the local wx office closed, I lost contact with the weather nets, and lost interest in Ham Radio. I was off for a long time. I surely have enjoyed being back though.

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Proud to welcome my oldest daughter to the bunch. She's Connie, NR4CB, who was licensed Extra Class in 2010. She remembers going to Field Days, and bikeathons as a child.

Though she has no antenna at home in Florida, she keeps the frost off mine when visiting. She brings a list of friends, and attempts to contact them all. She has a good time on the air. I have taught her the greatness of 10 when the sunspots are running.

She's active with a Florida 2-meter bunch, Field Day, bikeathons, etc.

She's now planning a multi-state road trip in conjunction with my son's wedding in Boston, mid June.