lapsed - ex-KP4EPH QRM de KP4CK (silent key) and KP4CL
Dad started as K4EPO in the early '30s, then became K4FKC> before PR went to KP4....
Mom was first female HAM in PR as K4EZR. Both were founding members of the PR Amateur Radio Club -and all the fun things that it entailed... You haven't live until you go to an antenna party.
As a kid, we moved to a house on top of a hill, mainly so the antennas could be a little higher... at one time they had three towers - one on the roof 50-foot, and two (100ft and 75 ft) on the sides of the house... plus assorted antennas draped from towers to available trees.
It was a great place for a 2m repeater "Frankenstein" so you can imagine it wasn't purchased at a store.
As a kid, I remember the weekend-long contests...
I stil have their QSL card collection - one of these days I might start cataloging them ... Interesting reading..
When I started flying RC you had to have a lience to use the radios, in 1960, the first RC radois hit the market and I Let my HAM radio go by the way side!!! Still do some RC though!! Sail Boats that is
In the pre-Internet days of AIM, IRC, e-mail, it was a challenge to talk to some places in the world. Prized certificates were "Worked All Countries" (try and do that and include Mongolia at a time when dedicated expeditions would be the only amateur radio operators) ...
Then there's always been the disaster communications support - Mom received a certificate from the Red Cross for her comm work during the 1948 Texas City Disaster - and she never left her desk in Puerto Rico....