Quote:
Originally Posted by loopstick
By now you've been to the hamfest and back. I always wanted to get into it then one day a guy a church needed money and sold me a trunk full of old gear for $10. Not wanting to waste money I learned the 5 WPM and got on 80 meters and drank coffee into the wee hours and went to work in the morning while the initial adrenaline rush lasted.
This was my rig, the EICO 720 (not my pic):
Later on I got modern and fast with a Ten-Tec Omni V on the international 20 WPM DX bands but nothing beats that first rush you get when you first get on the air. Because you're into antique radios you might enjoy finding an old tube rig and using it. |
I will never forget my first contact. It was the first week of November 1972, three months and seven days after getting my license, and I had just set up my Novice station (Heathkit DX-40 crystal controlled on 3.75 MHz, Hallicrafters SX-101A, and a 25-foot loaded vertical). I must have called CQ a half-dozen times; then, I got a response. It was a fellow in South Bend, Indiana. After I gave him my name, location and RST report, I couldn't think of a doggone thing to say afterward!
Even after 43 years, the memory of that first QSO is still as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday. I am still amazed that anyone answered my CQ, since I was transmitting right at the top end of what was then the 80-meter Novice band. A few months later, a member of my high school's ham radio club gave me three crystals, all of which were well within the circa-1970s 80- and 40-meter Novice bands; things really picked up for me after that, but since I was in high school at the time I didn't get much time on the air--in fact, I nearly had my gear impounded by my dad when my school grades dropped to an unacceptable level in 1973.
The rest, as they say, is history. I upgraded to Technician in 1975, and to General ten years later, the latter being the class of license I hold today. I am a member of a local radio club and use their repeater occasionally (their on-air roundtable is at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, and sometimes I get involved in something else or just plain forget it). I used to go to their meetings more or less regularly, but transportation has become a problem since I don't drive, and the local bus line doesn't operate late at night so I'd have problems getting home from the meetings.
I cannot use outdoor HF antennas in my apartment, so I am on 2m FM with my Icom IC-T22a HT...when I can remember the club roundtable, that is. The local repeater is about ten miles from my apartment, so my HT's 1.5-watt signal reaches it just fine if I use a 3/8-wave telescoping antenna; I wouldn't dream of using the stock rubber duck, knowing how much power gets lost in those things--the SWR must be horrible. I bet 60-70 percent of an HT's output power is lost in a rubber duckie, and the SWR is probably just short of eight or nine to one--or worse.
For HF, I am on Echolink. I realize VoIP is no substitute for real over-the-air ham radio (even though Echolink uses traditional amateur stations and repeaters as links), but given the situation I'm in at this time (and will be in indefinitely since I have no intentions of moving), I don't have a choice in the matter.
73,