Those dag-blamed Rus-kees ... it's all their fault! You see, just over 46 years ago, the Soviets launched a little fella' named Sputnik. Sputnik was the first man-made object launched into space, and it went up in October of 1957. The basketball-sized satellite transmitted a little radio signal - sort of a "beep-beep-beep" which could be heard around the world, including my little corner of it, El Paso, Texas. And boy, did that little guy's signal change my life.

It was largely because of Sputnik, and the fact that this just-beginning high schooler had no meaningful hobby other than a paper route, that my parents one month after launch bought me my first shortwave radio for my 13th birthday. We all gathered around the sparkling new radio - a Hallicrafters S-38E - laughing at each "tone" we heard - thinking we were hearing some coded Russian spy message from space. It was a hoot, and shortwave radio became love at first sight ... err ... first sound. And because of that birthday present, countless radio tubes, meters, scopes, resistors, amplifiers, you name it, would go up in smoke at some point in time over the next 45 years. Oh Yeah, we found a meaningful hobby allright, ... Ham Radio!

In the months after the "novelty" of Sputnik's "beep" wore off, I started noticing these interesting stations of the Amateur Radio Service - "Hams" for short. And after study, and code practice, I took ... and passed the exam. School grades suffered, but what the heck! I was "KN5PLZ" - the "N" for "Novice" would later be dropped after passing a higher level exam.

But there was one pitfall of this great new hobby. It seemed that little Johnny's mother, down the street, informed my mother that the wonderfully melodic and artistically paced Morse Code "dots and dashes" that I was sending over the "airwaves" were, in fact, being clearly received by their son's guitar amp, for cryin' out loud.

Well, I've just celebrated my 45th anniversary as a "Ham" - and have rewarded myself with a brand new transmitter which has so many buttons, bells, and whistles that Marconi would shake his head in disbelief. And while I haven't had any bad reports from area guitarists, there is one unconfirmed report of this strange new melodic sound coming out of one neighbor's stereo sub-woofer speaker. Wonder what that could be?

You see, it's all the Russians' fault!
Dit-dit-dit-dit ... dit-dit!