The time between the USN and my marriage to Cindy was, if nothing else, interesting. I managed to trade away an SB104 transmitter, a SB310 receiver, a DX100 transmitter and all sorts of antenna stuff. In trade I got an old Eico 753 transceiver, which I subsequently blew up during a thunderstorm while talking on the phone with somebody else's wife.
    It was a pretty normal time for me, I guess you'd say. If you were like me then and could have even been aware enough of your surroundings to make such lame-brained decisions.
    Eventually I bought & put on the air a station centered on the Ten Tec Argonaut, the last significant QRP decision for some time. About two years later I was married to Cindy. About a year later we took a vacation trip to Canada, where Cid & I met Austin Brake & his family at Blue Ponds Provincial Park outside of  Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.
    Austin had a nice station that he'd built. His main rig -- other than his modified Motorola FM stuff -- was a Heath HW101. I was much impressed by the radio & not too long afterwards drove down to Cincinnati, where Heath at that time had a retail store, and bought a HW101 on installment. . . which leads to the next page.