W4NTA James C. 'Jim' Webb Peachtree Corners, GA QCWA # 18534 Chapter 49

A native of North Georgia, I was raised "in the country", not far from Atlanta until I was nine years old. First licensed in 1959 at 13 as KN4QLS, I was probably one of the most excited novices you'll ever meet. This was back when calling "long distance" was still costly enough to make one think twice before dialing; and I was talking to folks in other states almost every night, even if it was by Morse code at 5 WPM!

In 1960 I upgraded to General and some years thereafter to Advanced. I held the call K4QLS until 2012 when I upgraded to Extra and took the vanity call, W4NTA since it had a lighter 'weight' on CW. For many years between 1964 and 2012 I was inactive, but after retiring in 2012, I immediately took up Ham Radio again and am enjoying it more than ever. What a great hobby!

Together, my wife and I have four kids whose ages range from mid 20's to mid 40's. They and the grandkids provide us endless joy (and some consternation). We live in Peachtree Corners, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, about 17 miles northeast of the city.

Aside from Ham Radio, I enjoy vintage record collecting and trailering with 'The Tin Can Tourists', a wonderful club of vintage trailer buffs. My wife and I enjoy kicking back at the beach and good old country and western music. We are died in the wool Grand Ole Opry fans.

CW is my principal operating mode except when mobile when I check into some of the SSB nets on 75, 40 and 20 meters. I'm even playing with PSK31 lately. It looks like a lot of fun but I'm still pretty shaky with the operating procedures.

A Yaesu FTDX-1200 transceiver is my primary rig and pushes several dipoles that zig-zag through our townhouse attic. The joys of living with an HOA! I even have a 75 meter full length dipole I call my 'Perverted Vee' since it wraps in so many directions I'm afraid to get near it with an antenna analyzer. Still it loads up, sans tuner, at < 1.5:1 SWR for 100 kc on the 75m phone band! When I'm feeling especially nostalgic, I'll fire up a fifty watt Heathkit DX-20 CW only transmitter with an old J-38 straight key and listen with a Hallicrafters S-38E receiver.

As you can imagine, I'm not boiling the ether but manage to work more than enough stations to make hamming plenty of fun.

Have been doing more contesting lately; learning the ropes and finally trying for DXCC. Mostly, I enjoy just chatting with folks I meet on the air.

Hope to talk with you sometime.

73!
Jim

November 3, 2014