Sunday, November 15, 2009

My Introduction to Amateur Radio

After our grandparents and Nathanael [Nate] got there license I thought it was so cool, especially during the snowy weather at my grandparents! I studied and waited for 3 grueling months until I finally got to a test session. I passed with 100% in a breeze, didn't try the general. Nathanael [Like he said] tried for the general at the same time but didn't pass. So it became a race to get general class. I bought 2 vhf uhf radios, Ft-60 5-watt and a FT-7800 50-watt, latter on a good friend, Cameron WA6VVC gave me 2 mx300 and a FT-1000 that he programed for me, as well as a 6-meter rig which is Fm and cant seem to get it to work. During the '09 CQP contest I worked DX as well as local from my friends station, N6HK and worked 40m on 100watts as well as 20m on 1kw. That even more pushed me to my general class, then on September 11 '09 I went to a session and passed, but failed the extra by just a few. I was given a TS-440S with a tuner external tuner and power supply by a man that lived next door to my aunt in Oakland. I am going to pick it up on the 20-22 November 09. I pulled some strings with my friend and got a TS-530S for Nate as a surprise for passing [Not much of a surprise anymore], that way he could get on the air ASAP and maybe even beet me onto HF. I have recently bought the components to build a computer controlled interface to the rig. Soon you might hear me as well as KI6STK on the air via SSB and/or various digital modes including cw.

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