I became interested in ham radio when perhaps nine or ten years of age. I remember a few houses down I saw a beam installed on a small tower, tower didn’t look so small in those days as I recall.  The amateur showed me around the shack, but never invited me in while in was in contact with another station. As most kids of this age I was curious to say the least. I started visiting my local library.  Our library had a very good selection on ham radio as I recall, guess a local ham cleaned out his shack. I remember reading a article on construction of a razor blade radio. Soon I was off looking for those needed parts, to this day I can’t recall where or how I obtained headphones! I was able to listen to local police department and soon found hams and recall feeling sorry for those guys setting out in a shack, little did I know about shacks in those days. It was not until I joined the Navy and was attending Nuclear Power School in 1965 that I was licensed with call of WN4GFY.  Later when I wintered over (1969) in McMurdo, Antarctica I operated KC4USV. With exception of emergency communications amateur radio was our only link back to civilization.