Blog
Posts about my HAM journey, life, and other randomness
Frustration sets in
My wife bought us tickets for the Atlanta Braves. That was going to put me pretty close to the Ham Radio Outlet in Atlanta, so we left early enough to go by before the game. I wanted to discuss my antenna issue with them (you can read about my antenna issues in a...
First Technical Glitch
Since making my first contact, I've been experimenting with my 2 mobile radios, a QTY 980 Plus, and a Yaesu FT2500. For my very first contact ever, just 6 days ago, I had the Yaesu hooked up to a Tram 1480. The antenna was leaning in the corner of my basement, and I...
First Contact…. or QSO!
I made my first QSO this afternoon, pretty much by accident. All of the peripherals that I needed to get on the air came in the mail yesterday. I've been playing with the radios that my son gave me all afternoon. He also loaned me his SWR meter, so I was seeing how...
New Radios
I have some new radios! I've been researching, and pricing, and looking, and... well... its hard to know what direction to go as a new ham. But, my son, who is a ham already, offered up some radios he's not using anymore, so now I have something to start with. Nothing...
CB Radios
I'm sure most folks who get into ham radio have had some sort of interaction with a CB radio at some point. If you're like me, they were probably always around. Whether it spent most of the time sitting in a box in the basement, or if it was actually mounted in your...
I’m making contacts now!!
In my last post, I explained how I was frustrated with my lack of success making HF phone contacts and moved to digital. I thought that digital would be easy to hook up to make sure my equipment worked, and I was wrong. It took me a while, but I finally figured out...
First week in HF… all digital!
After waiting 15 days, my new G90 finally delivered. I've been using it for a week, and what an interesting week it has been. I have a lot to write about. I've had lots of successes, and a few failures, and I've learned a lot in just a week. I'll have to break it down...