[steveo]

I’m impressed! How many years did it take you? Thanks for responding!

[AlexW]

“I’m impressed! How many years did it take you?”

I started in 1958. I quit around the late 80s when a tragic fire destroyed everything. I was in “top of the honor roll” but never got back into DX. I was K4ZKZ at that time.
It was a few years later when my mentor, Claude Bass, a blind man, died.
His wife asked if I would take his call sign.
Claude was an amazing man. He was a TV engineer at WMC, but fell into a transmitter and blinded in the 50s.
Despite being blind, he could still build fine equipment.
His 4-1000 amplifiers were second to none, and he stayed on top of the list as the number one DX chaser in the world.

[AlexW]

I forgot to mention a really interesting story...
When I first came to Slovakia in 2002, I looked up people that were in the radio business.
I found a guy in the small town where I was staying.
He was in the two-way radio business, as I had been, but he was also a ham.
He showed me the CZ/SK version of QST.
There was a story about OK3EA/OM3EA, the most well known ham in Slovakia.
I mentioned that he had been my first OK QSO in 1959.

Well, when I returned to Slovakia in 2005, I was telling a Slovak about Harry (Ok3EA) HE KNEW WHO HE WAS !!! He was this guys doctor for his children in the 60s.

To make a long story short, I was driven to a hospital where Harry was being kept.
He was in very bad shape, but his mind was still alive.
He had to be helped to sit in bed with a table, and could not hold his head up.
When I told him that he was as famous as DU7SV (Philippina DX ham) He replied, “oh yea..Philippina guy”
It was a nice visit but Harry died two days later. Almost 50 years since we met.