Tri-State Member: Tom Hamilton (KA4P)
Tom Hamilton, KA4P, (also known as Big T; also known as Tom Turkey), earned his ham license in 1977 while living in Memphis, Tennessee. His first ham equipment was from Heathkit, which he put together on the dining room table. The dining room was now also used as a hamshack.
But let's give a little history here. Tom was born in Jackson, Tennessee on August 2, 1952. He attended Pope Elementary School and North Side High, where he played in the school band and also played in his own band (rock-n-roll, country, whatever people were willing to pay to hear). He attended Lambuth University in Jackson for a short time majoring in Music. Realizing music was not the field in which he wanted to continue, he started working for Proctor and Gamble where they make Pringles potato chips.
While driving to work on his motorcycle one day, he spied a young woman whose car had stalled. After driving by and looking in the car window to see what the woman looked like, he stopped and offered to help her. Three months later Tom was married to Debbie (now also known as Trixie, N4OYM). Shortly after their marriage on September 2, 1972, Tom decided to attend school to become a medical doctor. They moved to Nashville, Tennessee where Tom attended George Peabody College and Vanderbilt University. After graduation they moved to Memphis where Tom attended The University of Tennessee Medical. This is where and when he received his ham ticket and his only child, Amanda, was born.
After medical studies, the Hamiltons moved to Hawaii where Tom served in the Navy at Pearl Harbor and Barbers Point. While in Hawaii several interesting things happened. Tom lived in an area where antennas were prohibited, but that didn't stop him. He strung an antenna up a big pine tree in the backyard and also used ladder line made from wire and tongue blades. Don't laugh, it worked! His collection of equipment growing ever larger, he was prepared for anything including a hurricane. The hams were the only communication between the islands and the mainland USA. Tom and his family lived in the center of the ialsnd of Oahu near Schofield Army Base, so they weathered the storm better than many.
Pearl Harbor had its own ham station and Tom got many contacts there, especially on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tom was sent to Midway Island (famous in World War !!) for a two week stay. Of course he packed up his radios in his suitcases and took them along. For two weeks he was the only ham on Midway Island and it seemed like every ham on earth wanted to contact him and get a QSL card from Midway. So he had special cards made with gooney birds on them (Midway is covered with the big birds).
From Hawaii Tom moved his wife and daughter to Trenton, Tennessee where he set up his medical office (and his ever growing ham equipment). Tom kept in touch with all his ham friends from Memphis, and kept up with changes in ham radio including computers, slow scan, etc. The biggest ham event in Trenton was an $8,000.00 lightening strike to the hamshack and tower.
After about 14 years of private medical practice,. Tom decided to go into emergency medicine and moved to Decatur County Tennessee on the Tennessee River. After approximately three years in Decaturville, Tom finally built his dream hamshack. The shack is a separate building from the house, two stories with the upstairs used for books, boxes, storage, etc. The downstairs has a workbench, refrigerator, TV (for football games, etc.), special shelving for ham and computer equipment which can be changed as new equipment is brought in. Behind the shelves is a walk-in closet for running coax, working on connections, etc. All cables and coax are run into the shack through a large PVC pipe. It's every ham's dream shack, or at least it is Tom's dream shack.
So we leave Tom at the river, working radio, fishing, boating, and relaxing in his home on the hill, in the woods with the birds, squirrels, wife, and three dogs, Precious, Puddin, and Prissy. Wish you were here!
~Debbie "Trixie" Hamilton (N4OYM)
If you are a member of Tri-State, we would like you to send us a description of how you got started in amateur radio, and anything else about your amateur radio life you find interesting. Or, if you know of a Tri-State member you would like to write a profile about, feel free to do that also. Don't feel modest about writing about yourself, we just want some info on as many of the members of Tri-State as we can get. E-mail your description to us at memberprofiles@tristateradio.org. Be sure to give us your present and any previous call signs.
All pages created and maintained by the "hamsters" Geron Craig and Chris Wilson. E-mail us.