Any amateur (HAM) radio folks here?

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Deltona, FL USA
About a year ago, i was encouraged by several friends to get my FCC license for Amateur Radio, as I am a avid electronics guy and was fixing their radio equipment.

Went to a testing session and paid my 15 bucks for my Technician class license (learner's permit). Passed that, the Volunteer Examiners (VE's) asked if I wanted to try for the General license. Sure. Passed that. Then they asked if I wanted to try for Extra. Sure. That was one of the toughest electronics exam I ever took, but i did pass it too. One of my great days in life.

Amateur radio is a fun hobby to me. I was glad to help some of my neighbors when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. Most are from PR or have family there. I was able to make contact with fellow ARES members there and relay messages. My neighbors kept trying to give me $. Nope, we are volunteers/amateurs for a reason. No money. Instead they fed me quite well!

Just received my accreditation to be a Volunteer Examiner. Next month will be my first exam session. It is a fun hobby. Not on the air much, but have fun with going to HAMfests and swap meets. lk

73,
KX4CT
Dave
 
congratulations. Dave.
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I too am an Extra Class ARS operator and started out in the late '60's.

Returned to active operator status in 2012.
 
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Been wanting to get my basic AROC but can never find the time to study or to go take the exam. Always liked radios and listening to HF bands around the world.
 
My dad was a ham (w5LRI). It never appealed to me. Recently I went to a local ham meeting and was bored to death. I do have a 2m setup in my jeep since one group I go out with uses 2m instead of cb.

Also in an emergency you do not need a licence to transmit.
 
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as a teen I got a novice class (back when CW was required); then let it lapse and got back in several years ago - general class. I have a few HF SSB rigs; and some mobile 2m/440. I have quite a few new friends now because of our local 2m group. digital modes are fun too. most/many kids don't see the point; when i started I had an interest in electronics - which was easier when most stuff used discrete components.
 
Congrats Dave. I'm an Extra Class license holder myself. I've always enjoyed radio since I was a young kid with a cat whisker set with an antenna strung between a couple of trees. It seemed like magic I could capture radio with such a simple set up.

I've been involved in several community service projects with AR: Bike races, marathons, building antennas, storm chasing/reporting, Shuttle Columbia debris retrieval, ARES, Boy Scouts, setting up equip. for a group to talk to astronauts on the space station (twice). I talked with a Russian once while driving via a repeater/internet link!

During a field day one year, I met an old guy who served in the Navy in WWII. I watched in amazement at him sending & receiving code while carrying on a conversation with me. And the code was just flying by too. Never heard it that fast. He rarely wrote anything down. Just enough to verify his contact for FD. I have a video of that somewhere....gives me chills just remembering that experience.

Wish I had room for longer wavelength antennas!

73!
 
I'm a lifelong SWL'er, been licensed for about 20 years, General, never attempted the Extra exam but should have.

Wife is a Tech, has been for about three years and expects to test into General this summer.
 
It is fun to DX and get some QSO's around the world. I am getting ready to install my iCom 5100a in my truck. Right now it is on my workbench. The DSTAR (Internet relay) lets me reach out on low power. I will post some pics when I get it installed.

Dave
 
I just wanted to mention that after hurricane Andrew, one of the only few ways to communicate with anyone in the area was through local ham radio operators who had electricity. If you have a generator at home, you may be poised to perform vital duties someday.
 
I was too 'hamfisted' to send good morse code in the old days when you had to do it.

But I've been going to HAMfests since the 1970's. Built up a nice workshop of lab instruments
including Tektronix oscilloscopes, etc.

My best find was a Hughes FLIR camera needing just a few minor repairs! Thermal vision a 'family
tradition' since 1998! lol

A pal had nasty neighbors playing loud radio at all hours, so I loaned him a RF grid-dip meter
so he could jam that annoying FM rock station! worked like a charm!
 
First licensed in the early 80s as ZS6CBA. Now W6TC. Involved with CERT, ARES and ACS. Only have QRP CW on HF plus the usual FM vhf/uhf. Still deciding on the digital modes.

Funny that my first post here is radio instead of car related
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Welcome! It's a very popular hobby, and there are lots of us here.

My late grandfather as a young man, was a ham in the early days, and, I mean early, like spark gap early. Best I recall, he used the call 5BT, and did not get back on the air after WWI, being strictly a BCL / SWL guy after that.

He considered it important, maybe a rite of passage, that all the male grandkids got a ticket, so we did. He drove myself and a couple of friends down to Little Rock one day, in his Lincoln Continental with suicide rear doors, when the FCC examiner was in town, so we could take the code test and sit for the general exam. In those days, past novice, the FCC gave you the license exam, and the extra class was widely considered to be about as difficult as the First Class radiotelephone license. I got my general, bombed the advanced, but got it later in the 80's, which I still hold.

I rarely transmit; my main interest is building from scratch, both tubes and solid state. I am in my shack right now, waiting on the soldering iron to warm up. When I am on the air, I still like CW, and I mostly prefer the older Hf gear over the newer stuff. My favorite rig is still a KWM-2, with a 51S-1 on the side for dual receive and CW.
 
Originally Posted By: WIN
When I am on the air, I still like CW, and I mostly prefer the older Hf gear over the newer stuff. My favorite rig is still a KWM-2, with a 51S-1 on the side for dual receive and CW.


Vintage tube gear and Screen Modulated AM transmitters are my main interests.

I also do storm spotting for the NWS and the local Emergency Management group through the local club's FM repeaters.
 
Technician class here, my call sign is my user name here on BITOG. I'm not on the air a whole lot, mostly just during severe weather events because I'm a member of Skywarn.
 
Welcome! I got into amateur radio in college, shortly after the no-code technician was introduced. Got up to Advanced after narrowly passing the 10 WPM code. Stayed there until CW was dropped and took the Extra exam. I like CW, although I'm a little slow. I have a few QSLs doing CW by hand. My wife says we can put up an antenna in the back yard, since I'm now free of the HOA that limited my operation to occasionally putting an MFJ box fan antenna on the back porch. Some years ago I sold my Icom IC-740 and bought a Kenwood TS-480SAT.

Glad to see there are a few hams. My farthest contact was someone from the Ukraine coming through loud and clear on the box fan loop over 20 meters SSB. Not too shabby.

N8YQM
 
I've been doing ham radio since 1963....got my wife(N3YL) and two sons ( KS3V & KA3S) into the hobby too.
I got soooooooo much radio " stuff".......and it's everywhere !!!!!!! Great hobby indeed.
Bob N3OO
 
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