(This is a copy of a response I made today in an eHam.net forum acknowledging elmers. I thought it was important enough to include here.)
I have had many, many elmers since before I got my novice license, from Spence Schubbe N8AP, who pushed me into studying for and taking the novice test in 1978, and Corwin Moore WB8UPM (and others) who encouraged me to look into ham radio before that, to Jim from Belleville whose call I've forgotten and whom I haven't seen in over 20 years, but who was my first on-air contact (3.5 miles distance on 15 meter novice-band CW) and who helped me build and debug my first keyer, an Accu-Keyer from the handbook, in his kitchen (etching the circuit board) and basement (figuring out where the errors were in the circuit diagram). Many other elmers, some of them not even hams, helped me learn about circuitry, antennas, swaps, operating, propagation, repeaters, etc. etc. etc., and I owe them all a great debt of gratitude.
The way I try to repay that debt is the way they repaid their own elmers - by carrying on the tradition and helping any aspiring or budding ham in the most pleasant manner possible to increase their skills, stations, and enjoyment of the hobby. THAT is what every ham should be doing - to be an elmer is to live out the sacred trust of amateur radio, and to attain one of the highest goals and greatest joys in life.
Ham radio and CW forever. 73 de kt8k - Tim
