Yes, I know it’s a geeky archaic hobby, but I love it!
My truck gets more than it’s share of glances as I have 6 antennas on a Ford Bronco II, and I use them all!
In my mind, Internet chat has nothing over building your own antenna, tuning around until you find the perfect place on the dial, calling and receiving an answer from a ham operator in Lithuania or some other country, then exchanging cards with them for your personal record book. That’s a challenge, not going into a NetMeeting room and clicking on someone’s name.
Check in and tell me if you’re going to be operating this year’s Field Day or not!
I am a lame no-code tech and I don’t even have a rig any more, but I just had my license renewed (and name and address changed…OOPS). The whole “no rig” thing sorta precludes any Field Day activities.
KD4OSU, though. And I’m GOING to upgrade my license one of these days…probably when the kids are old enough that I can HAVE radio equipment again.
My dad used to be a ham, and I wanted to be one too, but teenage life got in the way and dad hasn’t been interested for a while. Does anyone know where I could get more information on what I need to do to become a ham myself ?
LOL some still use crystal controlled sets - but most of the current equipment has VFO tuning both TX and RX. Heck, I can control TX and RX seperately on my Kenwood rig.
And yes, I’ll be working Field Day from my home this year, decided that I deserved a year working the contest in comfort instead of out on a dusty mountaintop somewhere.
Thanks to all who responded! Keep the posts coming!
I’m not a ham, but my dad was just about born with a Morse key in his hand. He’s sucked my mom and sister into it, but I managed to escape. My parents’ basement looks like Radio Shack exploded.
Do any of you folks make up mnemonics for your call letters? <<call signs removed>>
Oh yeah, one more thing on preview – My dad got a letter last fall from a guy who apparently had been over to see my dad’s sister when Dad was a teenager, got a glimpse into my dad’s bedroom/ham shack, and was hooked. My dad got him started in amateur radio all those years ago (Dad’s 63), and this guy tracked him down on the Internet and wrote him a letter. When the letter arrived, my folks were RV-snowbirding near where the guy lives. I forwarded it to them, and they visited at his house for a week and had a great time. Pretty neat.
