Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Ed Gable, K2MP, discusses the history of the Amateur Radio Novice class license. From 1951 until the Novice Class test was eliminated in 2000, this licence class was the gateway to Amateur Radio for legions of hams.
About Ed Gable, K2MP:
After the passing of AWA co-founder and first museum curator Bruce Kelley, W2ICE, in 1998, Ed Gable was appointed the Museum Curator. There he steadily grew the museum in size by adding an addition to the annex building to hold the ever increasing size of the collection and grew the size of the volunteers and the number of docents. Ed retired in 2007, after nearly ten years of museum leadership. Today he is still active in museum activities and is called upon for special assignments from time to time. He has been a ham for 63 years and was first licensed as a Novice with the call WN2MPM. He remains very active, mostly DX'ing, where he needs just one more country to be on top of the ARRL DX Honor Roll. With this presentation Ed takes us through the days where entering the ranks of Amateur Radio operators was almost always done via the newly announced Novice Class license in 1951.
If you enjoyed this video, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association at
antiquewireless.org/homepage/membership
Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you'll receive news of our latest video uploads.
Ed Gable, K2MP, discusses the history of the Amateur Radio Novice class license. From 1951 until the Novice Class test was eliminated in 2000, this licence class was the gateway to Amateur Radio for legions of hams.
About Ed Gable, K2MP:
After the passing of AWA co-founder and first museum curator Bruce Kelley, W2ICE, in 1998, Ed Gable was appointed the Museum Curator. There he steadily grew the museum in size by adding an addition to the annex building to hold the ever increasing size of the collection and grew the size of the volunteers and the number of docents. Ed retired in 2007, after nearly ten years of museum leadership. Today he is still active in museum activities and is called upon for special assignments from time to time. He has been a ham for 63 years and was first licensed as a Novice with the call WN2MPM. He remains very active, mostly DX'ing, where he needs just one more country to be on top of the ARRL DX Honor Roll. With this presentation Ed takes us through the days where entering the ranks of Amateur Radio operators was almost always done via the newly announced Novice Class license in 1951.
If you enjoyed this video, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association at
antiquewireless.org/homepage/membership
Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you'll receive news of our latest video uploads.










