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Charles K. 'Charlie' Perry Kingsport, TN QCWA # 27198 Chapter 182 |
ZERO BEAT - Official Newsletter - Kingsport ARC
Charles K. 'Charlie' Perry
September 9, 2010
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time
I have always been interested in ham radio! Some of my earliest recollections are of tuning across the short wave bands on an old GRUNOW all-band home radio, listening to the ham radio operators.
When I was a kid, I would tear apart old transformers and coils to get the wire, which I would then use to string up long wire antennas.
This frequently got me in a bunch of trouble as my Dad was strongly of the opinion that they were only fit for attracting lightning. Down they would come!
In 1943 I entered the U.S. Navy and was sent to GENERAL ELECTRIC's in-service school in Detroit Michigan. There I was trained as an electronics and instrument technician.
I was then assigned to the amphibious corp and I served on USS LSM 152 seeing action in the South Pacific.
When my stint in the Navy was completed, I came back home to Kingsport ,TN. I went to work for Tennessee Eastman Corporation. I worked there for 39 years, retiring in May, 1986.
My first time on ham radio was at the station of a neighbor who I found by listening on a short wave set. He was W4MCZ, Ralph Daugherty (now SK) and he let me talk to W4LNF, Jim Litton (now SK), another prominent local station.
That done the trick - I was hooked! I wanted to get on the air as soon as possible and, at that time, the easiest route was by getting a CB license. I became KMM5729 and I spent many happy hours at that hobby. Needless to say, it eventually did become to be more of a hassle than a pleasure, so I started practicing Morse code and studying theory for a ham license.
As I progressed to the point that I could copy 5 wpm pretty solid, I started looking for someone to give me the novice test and exam. Thanks to John Sanders WB4ANX, a man who has helped many folks in this area to enter the world of amateur radio, I got my novice call, WN4OZX, in November, 1969. Then, later a trip before the FCC Examiner at Knoxville, TN saw me upgrading to General class license and my call became WB4OZX in July, 1970. Three more trips to Knoxville and a lot of studying and practice were required for my upgrade to Advanced in 1971. I got the new millennium off to a good start becoming an Extra Class in May of 2000! Along the way, I have changed my callsign to K4OZX (with the help of my good friend Bill Price, W4CZ).
I have made many new friends (and not too many enemies, I hope!) in this wonderful hobby and, to say the least, I have enjoyed every minute of my operating time. I am a life member of ARRL, QCWA (#27198), and 10-10 (##3392). I received WAS certificate #21773 on 3/22/71 and DXCC certificate #16522 on 7/19/76. I belong to the Kingsport Amateur Radio Club and the Bays Mountain Radio Club,and I am still very much radio-active. I don't tell this to many people, and please don't spread it around, but my KB4JTA is my son-in-law! Anyway, listen in on the bands and give me a call - I'm sure that we will have a ball!
