[nlh]

If I may wax nostalgic for a moment:

I got my original Novice license in 1990 I think (age 12). I was SO excited to participate in my local club’s Field Day outing - but it was a nail biter for my physical license to arrive in the mail in time.

I’d somehow gotten the word from the FCC that my license was issued and I got my call sign (KB2NDR) but I was so worried it wouldn’t get to my house in time for the weekend (and it didn’t!) - but the club president was super chill and said “I trust ya” so he let me participate and I still remember every minute of that weekend to this day.

It was my first full-fledged ham event (my first all-nighter too), sitting in the tents working on HF rigs I could only dream of affording at 3am with guys chain smoking cigars. They were probably chuffed at this nerdy 12 y/o who wanted to play along (minus the smoking bit).

“…CQ Field Day CQ Field Day this is K2-Zed-O, K2-Zulu-Oscar…”

(That weekend launched my short intensity but long lived ham life. Leveled up to Extra and I still have K2KD active today but haven’t touched a radio in years)

[Aloha]

I got my ticket at 14 in 1996, which led me to a career in the LMR/Telecom world - I have few regrets, my job is close enough to my hobby that it never gets old. I did my extra on a lark without studying for it.

I did end up getting a vanity 1x3 along the way, because my original call was awful, both over phonetics and spoken.

[nlh]

Awesome! I went KB2NDR -> AA2KT (because at the time AA was the hot new prefix for Advanced) and then when vanities came out I grabbed a 1x2 that I’d dreamed of getting had I been licensed in the 70s :)

[gosub100]

Age 11 in 1995 I mowed lawns and shoveled snow and spent $90 on a hand held CB radio so I could hurl insults at truck drivers on channel 19. It was my dream to buy or build an illegal amplifier so I didn't have to ride my bike half a block away for them to hear me.

[Brian_K_White]

KA2PLF, similar, 12 or so, which would be 82 or so. Novice required code and only allowed code at the time. Took part in a few field days from locations up in the mountains in upstate NY where they threw pipes into a lake for ground and strung huge dipoles in the trees.