I was blessed with a gift on Sunday. A local Ham Radio operator passed away and wished that his radio go to a deserving Ham. My elmer VE3GSO was in charge of dealing with the Ham Shack contents and was kind enough to ask me if I would like the radio and power supply, I gladly accepted. Here is a picture of the radio and power supply.
On the advice of my elmer I put the radio on a adjustable power supply and slowly brought the voltage up over the course of an hour. As this is a 30 year old radio a little TLC was required. Everything worked as expected and I put the covers back on.
Monday night I decided to to temporarily connect my new radio to my homemade 40M EFHW antenna. I was just going to scan the band and see what I could hear. I was listening to some conversations and at 02:40 UTC I heard a conversation that was ending and one of the Ham's called CQ, which means he was looking for someone to make a contact with. I decided what did I have to loose, I keyed the mike and responded to his CQ. He answered and we chatted for a couple minutes and exchanged call signs, signal reports and locations.
My first QSO (contact) was with NM4W Wil in southern Georgia in the US. I was quite pleased as my first time on my new to me HF radio I made my first ever HF radio contact. As it was late and I had to work today I called it a night. Well my HF radio journey begins.
73
Posted with STEMGeeks
That is so damn cool man. Sorry to hear about your fellow HAM.
My youngest received his license recently. He has been working on the VHF and UHF bands authorized for Technician class here in the USA. We will be working on getting some antennas up in the near future to increase his range. Not sure when he plans to move to the HF bands, but can't wait as that was my forte in the early days of my military service.
Kewl, so kewl:)
Yes, I email my elmer and his response was:
WooHoo! Excellent! Very happy!
I can now say I am a real Ham Radio operator, now to hone my on air skillz....
I jealous:)
Well it is much easier to get a license these days and you probably have 1 or 2 clubs close by. I joined the local club and took their course and passed with greater than 90% which earned me a Basic + Honors and allows me to get on the air with up tp 100 Watts on any licensed Canadian band. If you are really interested in a license check out local clubs, that is where I met my elmer who keeps pushing me forward.
It is more about finding the time. Single working mom who home-schools her child but it may one day become a homeschooling lesson:)
There is no age limit to who can get a license, you could both get licenses.
Awesome!!!
!BBH
Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you.
. Keep up the fantastic work
Congratulations @mytechtrail! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Your next target is to reach 81000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
It sounds like you are giving it a very good home :) May it help you to gain many new friends :)
Thanks,
It definitely will get a good home and helps me start the journey sooner.
I'm happy for you, and it also honors someone who it sounds like they used it well :)
Yes, it does I am very pleased that my elmer chose me to keep the radio active.