First licensed in 1968 as WNØWKM would have been WAØWKM if I'd stayed with it. In 1984 got interested again and have had KAØSCR ever since, have General Class Radiotelephone license, had to have that for my last job before I retired. Just bought a new ICOM 718 but haven't had time to get my antenna's back up and get it on the air. Also have a Swan 100MX and a Kenwood TS820. Lots of other vintage receivers in my collection.

WB6RLC here. I received my ticket in 1966, I think. Have not been too active lately though. At a recent Ham club auction I pick up a Swan 300. I am looking forward to getting it on the air durning my pending retirement. There is also some 2M gear kicking around. I used to enjoy DXing on 6M. I worked from So Cal to Conn with 50W on AM (Gonset G50) and U of Tokyo on 40M on a Johnson somethingorother with a Tri-bander Beam. Oh the good old days. Looking forward to them again.
Glenn

W4MBG here. greetings from Williamsburg, VA! have a vhf/uhf rig in my honda insight, and a qrp hf rig in my grand wagoneer. got about 48 countries on that one, all mobile!

btw, great callsign K0FSJ ;)

;) Good to see another GW owner on here :)

Michael

Greetings from N9QPE .... HF / uhf / vhf & QRP

yeah, just can't afford to drive it! :(

N2LCJ here, haven't been on the airwaves since the early 90s when I used to be a MARS relay for Our Boys in the Gulf.

With the addition of Kamakiri, that makes a total of 22 licensed hams who've checked in on this "net". Update: the power supply for my transceiver shipped today, and an operator's manual w/schematic is en route as well, so I'll be able to give it a checkout soon. Also was able to score FT-243 crystals on 3885 and 7290kHz...two of the frequencies set aside by gentleman's agreement for AM operation. The T-60 hitting the air won't be far behind!

I did not see a VK on here after reading all the posts,so thought I had better add my call sign too.Licensed in 1976 as VK7NCW and still have the same call.
HF rig is Kenwood TS2000s.Two metre /70 CM rig is is ICOM IC208H.
I listen every day still' but very seldom transmit.
Waiting for the next Sunspot Cycle in around 2010.
The code was also cancelled as a requirement here in Aus about two or three years ago,but I still love it.
I also enjoy SSTV on 20 metres and have loads of nature pics from my island which I send to other stations.
I joined AudioKarma to read about my Infinity RS 4.5's which I recently found in a 2nd hand shop for AU$1,250.They are still in pretty good condition' having been refurbished during the past 2 to 3 years.

KB9WAH

Sold most of my gear a while ago so I'm not very active. I do like to listen in on weather nets though.

Dx
 

JerryR WW0E from Iowa.

DX'er - QRV on all 8 HF bands.

i just listen i need to go to a club and take the test maby one day i will be a ham radio operator

i like to listen too.i use to listen in on the ham band more so than i did shortwave.i use to spend countless nights up around 3898 kc and listening to the antics of the hams that hung around there and other frequencies.

hello folks

went to what used to be a big 3 day gathering at a hamfest in this area but i found the turnout to be very dissapointing to say the least .


wonder if anyone has gone to any hamfests this summer as well maybe things such as ebay have hurt the attendence at such events . its too bad because the one on one contact at such hamfests was good getting to know others with the same interest and i dont know just making eye contact looking things over in person has advantages .

ebays fine cuts corners no dought and its makes selling easier but still miss the old fashion walking from table to table at the fests .

oh well maybe im just a stick in the mud old fashion

g6120

I went to one a few years ago and thought it was a real good time. Haven't been since just cuz I am never sure when they are (I guess I need to get on a mailing list). I agree it is good to be able to go table to table and talk to guys who are into the same thing (I'm normally used to a glazed look when I talk about any hobby at all)

Well Sandy, we all KNOW that's totally false :smoke:

I went to one ham fest in my town. My town is very small so it was not well attended. They had more tables than vendors which leads me to believe that they expected more. It was my first time attending this one. I did go to the Iola car show this summer. It's one of the big ones. Attendance was down again this year. As was sales. The car coral with cars for sale had at least 50% more cars this year. Which leads me to think that people are starting to hurt. They had high prices on them though. I am sure that many dropped prices after the show. I know of a 60 olds 4 door from out west that was really nice that was going for around 7,000. They put it in the auction and had no takers. After some guy offered 2000 and drove off with a hell of a deal. If I would have know they would have let it go so cheap I would have bought it. It had that cool vista view rear window.
I have noticed a very high number of boats and recreation vehicles for sale lately. Bad time for selling.

Well, Walker, NOT a "Ham" in the Amateur Radio sense, anyways... As I've said before, I've been to hamfests around here, they are typically full of computer geeks & 144 mHz guys...You tell them about your R-390As, SX-73s, SP-600s, EK-07s, NC-183Ds, & all that, & they just kinda look at you cross-eyed, unless they are at least 50-55 or so...Nobody gives a shit about HF or AM much anymore, & really, I can't say as I blame them...Who wants to deal with something that may or may not work, sounds terrible, is subject to interference of every sort, & is basically obsolete ?

But that's the BEAUTY of it, Sandy!!! QRM, QRN, finicky tuning, antenna difficulties...hammin' wouldn't REALLY be fun without a few challenges!

KC2BVJ here. Very, very inactive. But I have the gear.

ive got to agree with electronjohn without question good point :thmbsp:


its a hobby something to work for , setting standards for yourself maybe working with your kids and others with goals and making an accomplishment at what you have started .

i remember cutting and making my very first antenna and getting on the air that was magic - you got to learn and earn your ticket to appreciate it .

anyway thats kinda the way i look at it

kf2do
g6120

Update #2: Recent posts bring the number of licensed hams checking in on this thread to 26. Power supply for the transceiver arrived safely...waiting for a chance to bring it up slowly & take some voltage measurements. I'm continuing to scratch my head over what type of antenna to erect...looks like my lot dimensions and the way my house is situated on it may not allow a G5RV...so I'm thinking some sort of off-center fed dipole could be a temporary solution. I know it would be far from optimum... just need something up in the air before winter!

just recieved a p.m. from sammyb


he being a new member and a Ham radio operator
here which i believe makes him # 27

anyone else lurking around

g6120

W9TR checking in here. Mostly hang out in the McIntosh Audio forum, but I have restored and enjoy a few antique pieces: Philco model 84, Grebe Synchrophase, and a Grunow 4B.

Tech, KC7EGI.
Will upgrade someday when I move out of this SoCal HOA and can put up a real antenna. The canyon I live in makes it a little difficult to get out there without being able to put up a tower.

Use mostly 2M when on road trips. Am I #28??

Good day, sir. Jeff, WB8NHV here. I live in a first-floor apartment (the apartment building is only two stories high) in northeastern Ohio, 35 miles east of Cleveland. I also must use indoor antennas because of lease restrictions (no structures of any kind mounted outside the building); currently have a Barker and Williamson AP-10A portable antenna and an Icom IC-725 9-band 100-watt rig, and an Icom IC-T22A handheld. The latter gets out well to access a local repeater a couple miles from here. I am a member of the Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association, and have been licensed since I was 16 years old in 1972 (I'm now 52). License progression: Novice 1972-74, off air eleven months between June '74-May '75, Technician May '75-June '85, General June '85 to present.

Even with indoor antennas, however, I manage to get on the air with my club's 2-meter and ten-meter nets, so my equipment isn't just sitting around gathering dust. I was very active on 80-10 meters, mostly CW, from my former QTH (location) in suburban Cleveland until 1999, when I moved and had to give up my 70-foot all-band dipole, 30-foot-high Cush Craft Ringo Ranger for 2m, and my packet radio installation (the apartment I live in now is too small for all that gear except the Icom HF transceiver). I also enjoyed DXing on 30-meter CW from my former QTH; don't know how well I'd do with an indoor antenna on that band, although one of these days I'm going to give it a whirl again from here. Living only a mile or so from the southern shore of Lake Erie, I should be able to work into Canada (southwestern Ontario, VE3) and southeastern Michigan (Detroit area) without too much trouble. Thirty meters being the QRP (low power) DX band it is, I should also be able to work all over the country with my 100-watt Icom rig and indoor antenna (I worked stations like gangbusters on 30 from my old QTH, so I know high power isn't a strict requirement for DXing there or on 17/12 meters either).

I wouldn't write off HF just yet. There are ways to get on the so-called "d.c. bands", 80-10 meters, with indoor antennas, as I have done. The B&W AP-10A (I'm sure they have an updated version, AP-10B or C, by now; it, or a similar version put out by MFJ of Starkville, MS is available at, among others, Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee) is good for apartments and other settings (motel rooms, etc.) where large outdoor antennas are prohibited or impractical.

Good luck, and again, don't give up on trying to get on HF, even from an apartment. Where there is a will, there's a way.


73,

Checking in
 

K5OG, Fred, here.
Extra class since 1977.
Mostly collect and restore Signal Ones but have other boat anchors as well.
http://www.k5og.com/

de KI5SL.. I've kept the license current, well, as current as a grandfathered Advanced can be...but very rarely get on the air...usually only to check into the Collins Collectors net on Sundays....

Worked a lot of stations via satellite in years past when AO-10 and AO-13 were hot...made contact with the Space Shuttle twice, once via voice and once via packet...

Got into Ham radio in the eighties when I started worrying about all the power I was using on Chicken Band and fearing a visit by Uncle Charlie...also wanted to explore the digital modes like FAX, RTTY, PACKET, etc...remember, this was before the Internet explosion...but, we did set up a TCP/IP network here back before there was ANY html at all, using Kantronics D4-10 radios, Ottawa Packet Interface cards in our computers, and the NOS program...had my own dotted IP, I guess it's still mine...we had a gateway to the Internet at the old Datapoint Corp., here in town...we used the net back then to set up skeds with Hams all over the world, well, wherever there was a DARPANET/Internet gateway to Packet radio, I guess, everything was at command line, even the chats...no Windows, even pre Linux...ahh, the good old days!!!

It was always fun to download weather fax from the likes of Bracknell, NOAA, even some of the satellites...and to search out and find FAX and RTTY transmissions from news outlets around the world, sometimes even ships at sea...those are gone, moved to the Internet and to satellite communications, no more "eavesdropping"!...

I have been a SWL since 1963, though, 2 years after my first exposure to Ham Radio with a visit to my Father's best friend in New Jersey...but, as a nine year old kid didn't know anybody that was in to it down here in San Antonio...so, got a cheapo SW receiver for my 11th birthday and been hooked ever since...

I do miss high sunspot activity and the days of the Cold War and all the various propaganda outlets by all the little third-world countries...interesting times...maybe when the spots swing around again I'll get active....HF was always my favorite but there's just nothing that I can hear lately that makes me want to get on the air...

.

New ham here KI6JUV.
Made my first contact Last week on the Battleship Missouri in pearl harbor Thanks to the Missouri A.R.C. KH6BB.
Also got a tour of the radio room TO COOL!!!

Have some photos of the Missouri and the Bowfins radio room.
if you would like to see them let me know.
bill

KT4AE - Mostly Hallicrafters
 

All vintage, mostly all Hallicrafters:

HT-32/SX-101A, HT-44/SX-117, SX-100, Viking Ranger, SX-71, SX-16,
Zenith 1948 AM/FM table model, 1936 Zenith console on loan to my son.

Just discovered this forum by reference in Vintage. Audio-wise, I'm mostly interested in Dynaco.

Harry Vaught, KT4AE
Maryville, Tennessee

Glad to have you around, hvlee!! My 5th grade math sez 32 licensed hams have checked in to this thread so far. Which Halli setup do you prefer...or is it the SX100/Ranger combo that gets the most airtime? John de KD0DQZ

Boy, that's a hard one. To keep it fairly short, I have to say that the HT-44/SX-117 gets more use. Emotionally, I'm more attached to the HT-32/SX-101A but the HT-44/SX-117 is almost like solid state in terms of stability and convenience. The pair can be slaved together for "tranceive" operation. There's not much AM action here and I only have a vertical, so the Ranger/SX-100 mostly sits. I love the SX-100 in spite of its well known faults. It's the one I'll take to the nursing home, just to look at if there's no more AM.

I forgot to mention an S-20R which is a great little radio. It reminds me of (and is the ancestor of) the S-40A that my Dad had which started the whole thing for me.

Actually, when I started I wanted everything but I've trimmed down to the point where I only have the pieces I really want.

If I go first, my wife says she's keeping the Ranger and the SX-16 to remind her of me. She likes the looks.

If she goes first I'm keeping the Marantz 2285B & BIC Venturi Spec 6 Formula II's that we call "Hers" and she abuses with "Oldies".

Harry, KT4AE
Maryville, Tennessee

K0is
 

You bet, K0IS, Larry. Been a ham since 1966...operate mostly CW on HF and mostly SSB on 6 meters. Use my Drake C Line regularly and an ICOM IC 740. Latest project is getting a Butternut vertical set up here for 80/40/30.

73,
Larry

I'm a ham, too, though I don't get on so much anymore, too much QRN on lower HF, too few sunspots for 17m, and 2 meter FM seems to be totally DEAD!

I get on 6m when skip is in, and will probably do so more when lowband analog TV stations (my favorite DX) sign off for good.

Rob (call sign not included for a degree of privacy, please write)

KC2EDH here, I've been a ham since I got my Tech+ when I was 13. Since then I've upgraded to General but haven't been especially active lately. For now I have 2m\400 in my car and a Hallicrafters receiver at home, but thats about it. My father got me into radio, he has been licensed since he was in high school and is into DXing mostly on 20 and 15 meters. He has a great HF station set up, with a collection of Yaesu and some older Kenwood and Drake transcievers.

I've since moved out and gotten my own apartment, but not much room here to set up an HF antenna! Can pull in shortwave broadcast from around the world, but not so much amateur activity.

The hamfest scene has been reduced the last few years around here too, some area ones which were huge when I was little are now quite small. Must be a better market for boatanchors and transcievers online than at the flea markets.

Well, Larry,Rob & KC2EDH...looks like you guys are #s 33, 34 & 35 respectively. Thanks for checking in!

I mostly read the TV forums here, so I missed this topic until now. My ham radio activities have included a bit of almost everything over the past 17 years, from packet to kit-building, from HF contesting to repeater coordination. My favorite mode is... ATV :)

No real antique amateur equipment in my shack, though. The nearest would be Heathkit HW-101 and Drake TR7 HF rigs from the 70's. I also have a couple of 40's TV sets made by National and Hallicrafters that would fit well with their ham gear of the same era.

-73-

Wonder if any hams have set up any digital ATV. "AHDTV"? We'd need an MPEG-2 encoder feeding an ATSC digital TV modulator, and output it onto the ATV frequency up around 432 or so MHz in our band up there.

DTV repeaters would be interesting. Just demodulate the ATSC RF carrier to the digital MPEG bitstream, then remodulate it to another ATSC carrier. Or just heterodyne the received RF to move it to the new channel without demodulating it. Oh, I'd have a demodulator at the repeater site to use to sense the presense of a signal, to control the transmitter.