I always had a passing interest in radio. While I certainly missed the golden eras of radio, as a kid growing up in the 80s, I still messed with a CB to talk to my friends nearly every night, and kept a shortwave radio receiver in my bedroom to try to tune in foreign stations from time to time; to me it was a form of “travelling around the world” from my bed. Keep in mind this before the internet became a thing.
Although I was aware of amateur radio, the thought of having to learn “morse code” scared me enough that I just knew I’d never be able to get a license. I often struggled “purposely” learning new things as a kid, something I’ve gotten much better at in adulthood *snicker*.
In the mid-1990s I was introduced to “hamfests”, or basically flea markets often run by ham radio clubs to buy/sell/trade used radio gear, but almost any other kind of electronics as well. I was hooked and have been attending as many local hamfest as I reasonably could since then. Despite this, I still never bothered to learn radio or get a license.
Fast foward to late 2015, and in my quest to find neat vintage computing gear, I bought a “mystery” box that was definitely some kind of vintage computer with keyboard, but unusual. It turned out to be a morse-code (cw) decoder. Once I figured it out I got it hooked up to a TV and got a blank screen with a cursor. Huh…ok where to get some morse code…AH Youtube! Did some quick searching in Youtube, and found someone typing up some audible morse code, and my jaw dropped when I saw the message instantly start typing out on the screen, all based on audio. How did that work?! I gotta try REAL CW!
I ran to my parents house and grabbed my old shortwave receiver, and it was tough but I fiddled around and found a station broadcasting CW, and again, saw the message typing out on the screen. In doing some research to find a station, I found some ham radio articles and got hooked. A couple months later in early 2016, I took my test and got licensed as a Technician, then a month later, took a second test to upgrade to General. Practically 20 years since I started attending hamfests, I’m finally on the air myself! Kinda.
Due to the size and location of my property, I’m very limited on antenna space, and so far mostly have used “temporary” antennas for what little HF I’ve done. Most of my radio time has been using the 2m/70cm repeaters on my long drive to and from work, which have all but come to a halt in March 2020 with the Covid-19 outbreak. Now I check in via Echolink, as well as use an Arrow tri-band J-pole antenna on a temporary tripod in the back yard.
Hoping to set up some sort of more-permanent “waterproof” setup in the near future so I can play with “real” ham radio, aka HF! 😉
Latest Ham Radio Blog Posts…
- Diving into the Dovetron MPC-1000R Mark II RTTY Terminal Unit
- Added a “Radio” page to Junknet.net
- Franklin Institute W3TKQ Station – 1990s to 2002
- Franklin Institute W3TKQ Amateur Radio Station Updated in 1962 (With Sound!!)
- WebSDR.org – Listen to radio, anywhere (on anything!)
- Making Ham…..Radio: Amateur Radio Kits. Projects, and Ideas
- Listening to the International Space Station (ISS)
- Learning about Teletypes – Down the Rabbit Holes We Go!
- Hamfest Weekend and Teletype acquired!
- Ham Radio Field Day this Weekend (June 21-23 2019)