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Martin was born and reared in Warren, Arkansas and has lived there his entire
life except for the war years. He served in the Navy and attended Navy
electronics school. He Married his high school sweetheart. His wife died in
1987. They had a daughter and a son.
Martin was first licensed in 1961 as a Conditional and because of Incentive Licensing he upgraded to Advanced in the late sixties. In 1988 he upgraded to Extra.
The DX bug bit in the early 1960's just as SSB was coming in. Around 200 countries were worked with a Hallicrafters HT-37 transmitter and a Drake 2-B receiver. After attending an ADXA meeting at W5HJA's home and going to WA5EFL's shack and seeing both had the Drake Twins, he had to have a set. The next 100 countries were worked the the Drake Twins. His current 300 countries were all worked solo without the aid of two meters, nets or Packet Clusters. The remaining contacts were worked using a Kenwood TS-940 and a Yaseu FT-1000 and some were worked as the result of seeing spots on the Packet Cluster. Now his main goals are ten meters and RTTY.
Martin was seven years old in 1927 when Lindberg flew the Atlantic and from that day forward he wanted to learn to fly. At the age fifty two he got his private pilots license and soon after bought half interest in a Cessna Skylane with a retired Air Corps pilot. Martin and his wife made many long distance trips to the four comers of the United States. To Banger, Maine; Miami Beach, Florida; San Diego, California and Denver, Colorado and many points in between. Fortunately his wife enjoyed flying as much or more than he did.
Martin worked in the family owned hardware, furniture and appliance store. He
was the third generation owner and when he closed the business upon retirement,
the business was 106 years old.
Updated: Tuesday, 19 June 2007 10:46