Doc Lindsey - K0EVZ - NAQCC # 0953
I was born November 1, 1942, in Arkadelphia, AR, in order to be with my Mom, who needed the moral support! I was born at home, but when Mom saw me, she had to be taken to the hospital.
From very early I was interested in radios. When I was 5 years old, I saw a diagram of a crystal radio in the back of a Boys Life magazine and built it out of parts located around the neighborhood. I strung up a wire in a tree behind the house, and stuck a wire in the ground. The radio did not work. But the next year I put up a dipole on top of the house, and could bring in KMOX from St. Louis, and could hear Harry Caray broadcasting the St. Louis Cardinals baseball games and I was hooked forever, and I do mean hooked.
When I was a freshman in college in Shawnee, OK, I heard some CW through an upstairs window. I sneaked up to see what it was all about. There a friendly Naval Reservist invited me in and introduced me to amateur radio and the wonderful world of CW. He was copying CW in his head at about 38 wpm, and I was bitten by the magic. He volunteered to teach me the code, and I was off and running.
Later that summer I moved with my folks to Mason City, IA. There a ham in our church became my elmer. Sadly I cannot remember his call, but his name was Frank. He taught me theory, and soon I had my Novice ticket and the callsign KN0EVZ. I got on the air on December 14, 1960, and still have the paper logs from that first QSO with KN3MKK at 1025 am local time. Apparently I had not heard of Zulu time yet! My first station can be seen in the accompanying photo. The station was QRP, and the TX was a sinle 5763 with 2 big watts out to a dipole fed with balanced feeders. The receiver was a superhet. My elmer assisted me in building all my gear. In those days all Novices were crystal controlled. I still have all the original 243 rocks and the original headphones!
I upgraded seven months later to K0EVZ, and have kept the same call for the last 45 years, though I was inactive for 33 years! I worked and confirmed 47 states and over 50 countries with that simple gear, which covered 80, 40 and 15. Sometimes it covered a couple of bands at the same time, and the FCC sent me a couple of QSL cards as proof!
I was active about four years, then went QRT due to the demands of college and graduate school. Then came Viet Nam, followed by recuperation from war wounds. Somewhere in there I married, started a business and a family, and did lots more graduate school.
In late 1978 Holly and I lost our middle son, Andy, and that changed everything for us. We decided to make a significant career change, and I began work on a doctorate, which I finally finished in 1982.
In February 1995 we were living in Rochester, MN. One late February afternoon I slipped on some "black ice", and destroyed my right elbow. The surgeons at Mayo Clinic were able to reattach the arm, but I lost the use of the arm. They urged me to find a hobby, and helped me to return to ham radio. I got back on the air in July 1996, and luckily regained my old call via Gate One! Happy days, for sure.
Since then I have been very active, but have been forced to re-learn keying and most operating with the left hand. It works fairly well most of the time, until I forget...and the results can become catastrophic!
At first I could not believe how things had changed in the world of amateur radio! I had not even heard of the WARC bands, for instance. And what had happened to the great rigs I used to drool over, like the big Collins 75A4 receivers and the Drakes, and the Whatevers? And what were those tiny little rigs which never seemed to drift, and which could be powered by 12 vdc, and which weigh 2 pounds and which were so tiny you had to be careful or you might accidentally swallow one?!
It has been a real revelation also to see how computers and the internet have played such an ancillary role to QRP and ham radio in general. And how clubs and organisations such as NAQCC have come into being. Wow! I still feel a lot like Rip Van Winkle, to tell the truth.
I will probably never get bored with it. I am having a ball, even though I spend most of my time still working CW and QRP thus far. Recently I acquired a Ten Tec Pegasus, but have not had a chance to get it up and running, due to recent illness (several strokes in the last year and a half). So much to learn. Oh, I upgraded to Extra Class three years ago.
Many of you guys are my heroes and elmers these days. I try to keep up through QRP-L and check in several times a day. I try to get into every QRP contest possible, including the FOX hunts, the ARS Sprints, the NAQRP Sprints (of course!-I am number 0953), Flying Pigs, and on and on. I am a member of FISTS, the A1 Operator Club, and have achieved DXCC. Have confirmed about 235 countries, all using QRP and very simple wire antennas, mostly homebrew verticals suspended from fishing poles! It never gets tiring.
So, look for me in there, mostly on 20 when it's light outside, then 30 or 40 during darkness. I am putting up more wire for 80 and 160.