David B. Hanson

W7BJ

David B. Hanson
Prescott, AZ

QCWA # 36150
Chapter 16

I started tinkering with electrical items in 1956-59. My mentor was the late George Lord, WØGTX who also was the MARS acting MN director with the call of AAR5AI. I was first licensed as KNØTWO in 1959 and upgraded to a conditional license as K0TWO within the one year novice license period. A conditional license was a general class test given by a VE due to excessive distance from an FCC office.

I became a MARS member in the 1960-70's and was assigned the call AAR5DL. George also involved me in ARES-RACES during that same period. That was a great time period because we received numerous pieces of military radio gear to use in service to MARS. There were teletype machines, paper tape code machines, radios, antennas, and other equipment. Other significant mentors in my early days were the late Ray Tapper WØPBL and the late Merle Haase WØPSD. I joined the Army in 1967 and was assigned the MOS of 31E20, field radio repair. They sent me to radio school at Fort Gordon GA. I worked in a support unit repairing and installing radios in M88 recovery tanks. At that time, radios contained tubes and resistors and during my training, they introduced the modular radio. I was honorably discharged in 1973. In 1984 I moved to AZ and received the call N7GLH, general class. I upgraded to extra class in 2012 and obtained the vanity call of W7BJ. Once again I volunteered to be a MARS member with the call AAR9LD. More volunteering made me a member of ARES-RACES, Yavapai County, certified as RACES class 1. Most all of my time in radio is now spent with MARS and ARES-RACES. Member of ARRL, 10-10 (04222), QCWA (36150), QCWA Chapter 16, OOTC (4627), Yavapai Amateur Radio Club, Verde Valley Amateur Radio Association, and Mingus Mountain Repeater Group. BA degree, Concordia College, Moorhead MN (1965). Licensed as a MN CPA, (03613) (1976).

I found this photo dating back to approximately 1960. There I am, still in high school, operating my new Heathkit Mohawk and Apache am rigs. I carefully hand-built these rigs without any problems, they worked perfectly the first time firing them up. This was taken in my bedroom at 1002 Bryant St, Alexandria MN. The cancelled novice license (next to my then current license) framed on the right end of the table is now mounted at my current station. I sure would like to relocate those rigs, but I did not put any identifying marks in the units. I know that I either sold or gave those units to W0PSD (see above) and that is the last time I saw them. They were probably melted down in China and now are a part of someones car.

February 1, 2015