When I was just 6 or 7, I built my first crystal radio. It blew my mind that I could hook a wire to a tree trunk, plug in an earpiece, and — without even a battery — hear KGIL, our local station in the Valley. Sometimes I’d catch “Twist and Shout” or another early rock tune. Back then, radio felt like magic. It was free. It was fun. It was news, music and connection — anytime, anywhere.

By age 12, radio turned into something even more powerful for me. My friend Neil Higashida and I discovered a booklet on ham radio at Radio Shack (yeah, I’m dating myself). We were hooked. We joined the Lockheed Amateur Radio Club in Burbank. We learned Morse Code, passed the Novice license test, and by 15, we both earned our General Class licenses after testing at the FCC office in L.A.

We were full-fledged radio operators. We studied electronics, built our own transmitters and antennas, and could talk to people all over the world — by voice or Morse Code. We communicated with people throughout the globe. This was long before cell phones or the internet. Most news and information came from three or four channels on a black-and-white TV. (Mom never did get a color one.)

Communicating globally felt like a miracle.

But the best part of radio? Listening.

I’d tune through the shortwave........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal