UA3QGN SILENT KEY

Hello, everybody! I am Slav, UA3QGN. I got my first license in 1975. It was a 3rd class license, which allowed me to use CW on 3.5 and 7 MHz. I was quite happy, since after 2 years of working as a military radio operator, I was able to meet friends all over the world. CW for me at that time was, and still is, the language of real radio boys. The “just CW” period in my HAM life was finished, when I got my HSC number #1310 in 1984. Then I put attention to more sophisticated modes like RTTY and SSTV. Don\'t forget, that there were no computer supermarkets at the time, and I had to build my own equipment to be able to use it. Another problem was that Russia still was \'the USSR\' and communists ruled every small portion of our life at the time. So it was difficult to get a special license for RTTY, because there were no Hams in my city, who used it! So nobody could control my messages... Our authorities did not appreciate it... I solved that problem, by getting two licenses - one for me and one for a club station of Voronezh Polytechnic University (UZ3QYN, ex UW3KLJ, UK3QAE)- It was not too difficult, since I was the chief of the club station at the moment :-).Some RTTY years passed by and I decided to use a microphone first time in my life. My favorite band was 14MHz and with my home brew equipment and a \"spider web double quad\" antenna I was glad to contact many stations on SSB. Then our country faced difficult time, we called it \"perestroika\", and my radioactivity was reduced dramatically. Many years passed by and I met a quite interesting mode again. Though some HAMs do not like it, I think it is a fantastic mode. Instead of using very expensive equipment and big power, I can use just 0.5W portable radio even walking along a street and still contact every place on the Globe! I am certainly meaning the Echolink, and like it, systems. So you are welcome to my UA3QGN-L link 366605 (145.325 MHz)! My next step in the great world of amateur radio is to show my family members the way to it. Now my wife Julia (RN3QUT) and my son Serge (RN3QUS) are making their first steps as HAMs, hope they will be really radio-active soon and one day you will meet all of us calling \"CQ, here are UA3QGN, RN3QUT and RN3QUS\".