What was your magnet to Amateur radio?

My first CB radio 

All of us have a story regarding the steps that moved us toward our adventure in Amateur radio. When I was growing up CB radio was in its hay day and everyone had a citizen band radio either in their car or home or both. At a young age, I was around adults that had CB radios and thus it exposed me to the magic of radio. The solar cycle was peaking and the bands were alive and this, even more, sparked my interest. I thought it was so cool that you could talk to someone over the airwaves as opposed to a phone and not a cell phone as they were not even around then. I was almost a teenager and I picked up a Johnson Messenger 6 channel AM CB radio and way back then you needed a license to operate a citizen band radio. Eventually, I did apply for a licence and was given the call XM4240.  When I was young I lived in an apartment building in Toronto but was on the ground floor and that was not good for CB radio. My mom knew someone on the 8th floor and she agreed to me having an antenna on her balcony. So I ran the coax up to the 8th floor and I was good to go. At this point in time I was not interested in DX but to be honest I didn't even know what it was I was just thrilled to listen CBers chatting and occasionally introducing my voice on the air to see who was there.

My first SSB CB radio 

For about 8 years my CB radio endeavors took a back seat to school and then working for a living. Once married I began to rediscover my radio wonders, I purchased a SSB CB radio for the car. My new wife and I took a vacation from Ontario to the Maritimes with the SSB CB radio installed in the car. During the evenings I was in the car trying my hand at DX and at that time DX was working the U.S. states from Canada. One evening to my thrill I was able to work many states and I even had a pile-up of U.S. states that wanted to work me from the Maritimes!! At this point in time, I was hooked on DX and it began my ham radio adventure.
I now had a full-time job and was working on a family but my Amateur radio thrill was still very much alive. I was able to get a part-time job at an Amateur radio store that just opened up in my town. This was great exposure and allowed me time to study for my exams which I took and passed. My wife and I were renting a house in the country at the time and I was able to put up an R6 vertical antenna and through part time amateur radio job I got a great deal on an Icom 735 radio. I was fascinated with CW after learning it for my basic license, I wanted to keep my learning curve alive

My pre-amp mic 

regarding CW. I figured I worked very very hard to learn it I did not want to lose it and having said that our kids came along and ham radio took a second seat to family life. It was off and one with ham radio as the kids did there growing and maturing. Once the kids were in high school the amateur radio magnetic kicked in again! My CW was very rusty and needed to be brushed up on but I was determined to not lose this great "language" I acquired!!  From this point in time it has been an adventure and has brought me to the point where I am now with radio. It was the magic of CB radio that caught my interest and it started my adventure towards ham radio........what was your trigger toward ham radio......shortwave radio, listening to your dad on his ham radio or scanners...........do share how you received the spark for ham radio?

The Icom 735