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The previous house in Belize
The new house (on the same land)
I
have often envied those with pictures from their early years in ham
radio. As I was going through a box of old family pictures that were given to me by my mother before she passed away, I found a picture of me from about November, 1959. I am sitting in front of my Heathkit AC-1 antenna coupler, Heathkit DX-20 transmitter, Knightkit V-44 VFO, National HRO-5RA1 receiver, and Heathkit QF-1 Q-multiplier. I was 16 years old and had been licensed just over two years.
Some people are surprised to see that my last name is not "Palooka", but Pontek. When I acquired K8JP in 1976 after being K8HKM for 19 years, friends were trying to come up with some phonetics. An old friend, Carl, W8SDB, came up with "Joe Palooka," a current comic book and cartoon character by Ham Fisher. Here is the front page of a 1948 issue of the comic book.
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V31JP
Belize 
