A never ending story of ham radio

This old photocopy was originally taken at a railway station back in late '60s. The company of neighbor hams in a suburb of Tokyo was going to operate portable at a mountain there. These guys were the members of a local ham club. I have lost old photos when moving from Tokyo to here around 1980. This photo escaped being lost was miraculously found somewhere. I might have posted it before. If you have seen it before, just neglect this post.

My parents moved with their 3 children from here to Tokyo in mid '50s immediately before my entering elementary school when the tuberculosis sanatorium,

where they were working, managed at this place by my aunt was closed. It was a real exodus for them, I believe. They had worked hard to raise us in Tokyo until they decided to come back to this place in '80s.

From lt to rt; JA1NUT, JA1OXQ, JA1RHM, a friend of mine SWL, JA1OTE, JA1NPV, JA1HUY?, JA1RHL.

I was interested in this hobby at age 12. It was fascinating that I could listen to ham radio in communication with a small transistor radio with a small rod antenna. It was 7MHz I heard a lot of hams, only Japanese, talking each other with a lot of "jargons". It won't take too long before I learned about it and got the license. Since the authority enforced the beginner class license, there were a lot of young people starting ham radio. It was like the internet at present.

We were grown up in rather poverty. But my parents let us do whatever we wanted those days. All I could afford was, however, a very small home made set up. A single 6AQ5 transmitter and a 5 tubes receiver. Transmission/reception switch was a "banana switch" set at a corner of desk. The antenna was a dipole for 40m with ladder line feeder; the spacers were waxed chop sticks. While working on A3, I have known several hams, all pretty new, in the area. We founded a local club. This portable operation was an event in a summer vacation day. 

Unfortunately, most of them have gone QRT or even silent key. The only exceptions, I believe craziest guys, are me and JA1RHL. JA1RHL has moved to VK land and has been successful with his business there. He used to be active as VK1ARA. A few weeks ago, he has sent me a short mail from his home in Tokyo telling me he could not go back to VK due to this pandemic. No further mail. Wondering if he could get back to VK.  

When I went to a college studying mechanical engineering, I was a leader in the ham club with the call sign of JA1YGC. There were again a lot of members in the club. At a summer camp held near Mt. Fuji in late '60s, I have trained young members with Morse code. I have not lashed them to learn it but, later, there was a legend that one of them talked about Morse code deliriously while asleep at night. In another summer camp held at Ohshima, an island off the coast in Tokyo, we have met a group of girl scouts of the US led by a ham Bernie WA7CBX on the ship to the island. I could not converse well with him at that time but have remembered running across with him aboard on the ship. Later, in '80s, we have encountered on the air when he was enjoying field day back in the US. He has retired the US Army and has remembered of our eye ball very well. When he heard me on 40m, as he said, he shouted it was him or something. Even 20 years later, Jack WA7HJV has made a contact with him and even visited him living in a town nearby. Maybe, I have written about it elsewhere.  

A lot of fond memories. It must be a sign of senility for me that I remember old days in this way, continuously from one to another, without any context. It was surely good old days and is missed a lot. Through blogging, I have got in touch with a member of the local club, JA1HUL, who used to let me operate radio as a guest operator at his station before my getting the ticket. Strictly speaking, at that time, it was illegal but a really exciting experience for me, a low teenage kid. He has driven me into this hobby and has not been forgotten ever since. 

This is a never ending story of ham radio for me...