On August 13 of this year (2020) I reconnected with the most important person in my early life: Ed Hungness, K9GCM. Ed had been my Elmer, meaning someone who provides personal guidance and assistance to would-be hams. The term first appeared in QST in a March 1971 "How's DX" column by Rod Newkirk, W9BRD. But Ed did this for me in 1959 - 1962, so the Elmer term had not yet been invented. But he was certainly my Elmer, that's for sure!

I started on this path to ham radio when I bought and built an Allied Radio regenerative shortwave receiver kit called a Knight Ocean Hopper. I have no recollection of how that came about, but I do remember looking through the Allied catalog and picking out the Ocean Hopper as the one to buy. It had plug-in coils for changing bands. I bought all the coils that were available for the radio. Many others in my generation made the same choice and it became a very collectible radio.

Ed got involved with ham radio via short wave listening too, but several years before me, first licensed when he was just 12 years old. Much later in life he became a journalist and told that story in his column, which you can read here.  I was first licensed in 1960 at age 14.

When I was enjoying listening to the BBC, CBC & Radio Moscow, it was my mother who found out about Ed, who lived about a mile north of us in our neighborhood, just a short distance from my grade school. She asked me whether I might like to meet him. I said yes, so she made the arrangements. I don't remember whether she drove me over to Ed's house that first time or whether I went there on my bike.

But I remember going up the steps to his shack in the attic, walking inside a room with a low ceiling and exotic looking QSL cards all over the ceiling and all walls. At that moment, my life changed permanently for the better. Ed started telling me anything I wanted to know about ham radio and that was plenty.

The summer of 1959 fell into a wonderful pattern for me. I would go over to Ed's house during the day and hear all about ham radio from Ed. In the evening, my father would send Morse Code to me on the back porch of our house and then we'd eat ice cream together. What a great summer that was! My father didn't ever become a ham, but he definitely helped me out with that code practice. My dad had learned the code when he was in the Boy Scouts as a kid.

Ed was a great teacher. I remember him telling me all about the layers in the ionosphere and how they effected the propagation of radio waves around the planet. I learned about skip and muf and gray line propagation and sunspots, all important things to learn about to work DX. He taught me the etiquette of radio contacts, what to talk about and in what order. He told me about the important Q signals, short-hand messages used in Morse Code contacts.

He told me about dipole antennas and how I could make one for 40 meters and then use it on 15 meters as well. My father helped me build that one and run it from the roof of our house down into our neighbor's tree behind our detached garage. I made tons of CW contacts with that antenna once I got my Novice license.

Ed showed me how to log all my radio activity in an ARRL logbook. In those days we had to log all calls, whether it resulted in a contact with another station or not. He taught me about sending QSL cards by way of the buro or direct by mail and I sent off envelopes in hopes of one day receiving cards from the buro from DX stations I had worked. He told me lots of great stories about DX stations he had worked.

He showed me how to get the correct GMT time by going to WWV on a receiver. These were all great things that regular people knew nothing about. Talking with someone else from across the country or the world can feel magical. It's something most hams have experienced and I'm sure that was the case for Ed. I quickly learned from Ed that ham radio is a force for good and it has been important in both of our lives!