Jim Leighty, W6UJX
(formerly WN6UJX, 1952)

When I worked Steve (Jensen, WN6RHM, his story on this website) on 80 CW I had only been licensed a short time.  Steve's dad (W6VGQ) was quite technical; so I suspect that's why Steve's dad made sure that Steve built his station himself.  As a result, Steve grew up to be a well respected engineer with his own consulting business.  My dad and mom owned a successful cesspool pumping business.  So, they bought me my first ham equipment.  When I talked with Steve I was using an Elmac A54H transmitter that was one of the early HF mobile rigs that I used at home. My receiver was a Hallicrafters S-20R.  In the short time that we were Novices we talked frequently on CW.  The Novice bands were lots of fun and I don't think we could ever have had a better time if we had been on phone instead of CW.  We met soon after our contact and eventually went to the same college, UCLA.  Oh, I grew up to be an engineer too (but maybe not so famous).  ...Jim, W6UJX