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VE6BUD Bud Bennett Calgary, AB Canada QCWA # 38209 |
I was born on April 6, 1974. I first developed an interest with radio back in 1988 when my father purchased a camper van with a CB in it. In 1989, I stumbled across John Kirk (Ex-VE6XT) watering his garden and asked him about the antenna in his backyard. (Which was a triband quad mounted on a rather tall tower!) When I found out that I could get a No-Code VHF-only license, I became an amateur in 1990. Not being satisfied with just being on VHF, I achieved my 5 WPM CW qualification about 2 months later and was quite happy to be on 80 meters.
My first rig was a FT-720R that I purchased used for $350 CDN. I remember tying up the local repeaters with endless questions and ragchewing with it until the belt clip, also doubling as a heatsink, nearly burned my hand!
This hobby also ties into my other hobby, which involves computers. I've been using computers ever since 1982 and I've been online since 1986. I've been on the Internet since 1992. I was actively on the air on 80 meters and 2 metres until about 1995, when I decided to take Broadcast Engineering Technology at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology to expand my electronics skills. At that point in time I sold off all of my equipment (Big mistake!) and used the Ham Shack that the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology had at the time. The shack that SAIT had allowed me to experiment with Mode B and to do some really good HF DX that just wasn't possible with my own shack.
Unfortunately, It seemed that paying tuition, buying lunch and studying were higher priorities than playing on the radios. Over time, the hobby became less of a priority and I eventually went inactive.
After I graduated from SAIT in 1997, I focused primarily on my career and became very heavily involved in computers as a hobby, completely forgetting about my previous years as an amateur, even abandoning the community completely.
In October of 2001, I got into a casual discussion with a Ham that I had met at a local shopping mall that I knew from a few years before. He had informed me that calls didn't need to be renewed anymore and that they were good for life. This gave me incentive to at least register my old callsign again.
In November of 2001 I finally decided to get back into the hobby again, albiet just casually. I purchased a IC-2AT from a local flea market and a FT-720R from EBay (Which I purchased for $85 BTW) and got onto 2 metres again.
Today, I'm semi-active in the local club events, go to the occasional coffee klatch and am mainly doing a lot of Shortwave listening with the occasional contact on HF.
March 10, 2020