Hello America, and all the ships at sea...

This is a new area about which I will be writing, but it is not a new hobby. I have been a licensed Ham radio operator since 1991. I got into this hobby right after I got back from Desert Storm and had two pretty smart fellas (Dale Vesper - W8HCI/silent key, and Scott Swink - KB8JOY) help me through all the studies required. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to do the Morse Code part to get my Technician license. The FCC might have had enough foresight back then to see that cell phones would make a major dent in electronic communications, especially among young people. So, if amateur radio was to continue or have a chance at growing and thus keeping the band widths it already had from being gobbled up by cell phone companies, it had to make it easier for newbies like myself to get into the hobby. They were still looking for radio geeks, you just didn't need to be an electrical engineer to get into it.

Since obtaining that first "ticket" I basically continued to operate on what is called 2-Meter communications (144-148 MHz). This is pretty similar to what most people think of when they think of CB radio -- i.e., it is pretty much an open communication line, regulated by the operators themselves, used pretty much for what is called "rag chews" and just general conversation. Operators must be licensed by the FCC and usually operate with hand-held or mobile units. Hams, as they are called, also perform a great deal of public service, to include weather spotting, communication services for community events, emergency communications in the event of natural disasters, and so on.

Well, the next step for me was getting my General operator's license in 2007. This allowed me to move up from the VHF/UHF frequencies to HF. Basically, this meant that I was now able to communicate with the whole country and stations around the world. Here is my "Ham Shack": (l-r) Yaesu VX-6 Tri-band hand held radio (2 meters, 70 cm, and 220 MHz); Power supply; ICOM-735 HF multi-band Transceiver; Z-100 LDG Electronics antenna tuner; and an old B/W TV Pam and I got back in 1980 (soon to be outdated with digital TV reception).


Since I have been on the HF airwaves, I have been able to make contacts in 22 states, an island off the coast of Maine in the Atlantic Ocean, the Virgin Islands and to a guy in Bulgaria (the bands were really open). My goal is to make contacts in all the states in this country and then try for other countries. I probably wouldn't have been able to do this is the FCC hadn't stopped requiring Morse Code for all its licenses.

Although this isn't a cheap hobby, it really is fun. It's kinda like Forrest Gump's thoughts on life being like a box of chocolates and never knowing what you'll get when you open it up.

A good amateur radio contact is as stimulating as rich, black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

Hooah