Sage

Been interested in radio since mid 50' building a project transistor radio. Served in Vietnam in '68' with a small experimental Direct Air Support unit called IDASC. The fighting troops both Army and Marines called us with request for air strikes on an engagement with the enemy or their known locations, etc. Our Radio boys in turn wrote down the grid location, type of ordance to be used etc, and handed it to our operations staff with a hot-line to DaNang AirBase. Usually it was a call for a sortie of 2 F-4's with Snake & Nape(Air to Surface missels and Napolm). Our large operation room was fairly dark except for the lighted wall-to-wall, ceiling high maps of Vietnam. Once the Fox 4's were airborn, they made radio contact with us and the boys on the battle field, and the war was on the air. Very, Very exciting for all of us involved. Our radios cracked with on the scene heroic and bad events of top battles during that year in which Life Magazine printed stories.

Back at home as a young man I began study for ham license, but never completed it. Retirement brought me to shortwave radios again, and the Internet opened the door to achieving my ham license, which I did this year. I was shocked and disappointed that the radios I was accustomed to are no longer manufactured. But after much reading I accepted some of the new technology and bought a new YAESU FT-950at. I'm enjoying it and slowly learning about it's features.