Maybe we should get the mods to give us our own section just for Ham like the GPS and other fun in the sun threads.

 

Great idea, 'cause I'm an idiot with this stuff!

 

I am a wannabe Hamster... Can i join your club?

 

I have to say, that is pretty much the way I got into HAM Radio myself. Originally, I new I was going to be making trips up and down the ALCan Highway back and forth to Alaska, so I ended up buying an old Royce CB at a garage sale. I said hello to a few guys here and there, but that was about it. I was in CA. for a time and hooked up with a few guys on the CB, and one of them was an elec. engineer for a living. He looked up my radio and asked me if I would like to "mod" it. I asked..."mod?" he said, I should be able to give you 40 channels above and below your basic 40. Hmmmmm.....not actually knowing what the hell he was talking about, and he said he would be responsible if he smoked my radio, I said sure......go ahead. So there is where it all started. It was just about this time that I was exposed to my first solar cycle. WOW.....I couldn't believe what I was hearing....!!! Still tho, being near the peak of the cycle, I could hardly talk over all the hash and trash coming in from all over the world, so altho really interested, I didn't do much more.........yet.

Fast forward back up to Alaska....I was new here and hadn't met many folks yet. One night I was driving home and heard these guys chatting on the regular 40 channels. I jumped in and said hi. They, thinking I was a tourist, started to razz me until they found out I was a local and lived only a short distance away. Anyway, I ended up going to one of the guy's QTH and saw his gear. He was running a full fledged radio now I tell ya (as far as I knew back then).....with power and a big antenna! Next thing I know he's talking to guys in Australia....!!! Again, I was totally blown away. He ended up selling me one of his radios, and I got a little "kicker" and a nice vertical antenna, and I too was off to the races.

Fast forward again........I'm talking ALL over the world on the bandit freqs. Meeting friends that I talked to almost everyday, joining bandit radio clubs from everywhere, cards, hats, and Tshirts from all over the world were hanging everywhere, and I was just having a blast. So now our local group is getting a bit bigger. Before you know it we all decided to get a bit more "involved" and decided to buy base station radios....(up until now most of us were running modified 10m HAM Radios......(sssshhhh, did I say that?). So most of us ended up with all versions of the old Yaesu 101 boat anchor series all kinds of power and were pretty much balls to the walls....!!! About this time one of the guys started talking about Ham Radio. We were listening but not that interested. Until finally one day, I go to the post office and see this letter from the FCC. Hmmmmmm, what the heck is this...??? Well, it seems that the "good ol' boys" had been listening in on you know who, didn't like what they heard I was running...besides using the illegal freqs. and decided to send me a "cease and desist" order. Now that got my attention! Thankfully they weren't in the area and decided to track me down, take my gear and fine me...(they can do that ya know). Altho I kept dx'ing, I was leery. So I started to want to know more about this HAM radio stuff I was hearing about.

Fast forward......Now we all are HAM Radio ops. The world is wide open and I enjoy it more than I ever did. Over many years I got into the "other part of the hobbie"...buying and selling HAM gear, and am pretty much set up with what I want at this time.
My gear now consists of:
Icom IC-2000 FM 2 meter 75w mobile,
Kenwood TS-950SDX 150w general coverage base,
Heil PR-40 Proline base station mic,
W2IHY 8 band EQ, and noise gate,
Ameritron AL-80 1200w linear amplifier,
Palstar AT1500CV HF tuner,
Autek WM1 Computing SWR/Power meter,
CDE Rotator Controller,
Cushcraft 148-10X 10 element 2m monoband Yagi,
Lightning Bolt 2 element / 5 band Cubical Quad antenna @ 50',
160m Full Wave Skyloop wire antenna fed w/ 450 ohm ladderline.

Now this may sound like a lot, but believe me, it's still quite a modest station. So anyway, that's a bit of history about WL7CMG. I'm still a relatively new "HAMer", as I only got my ticket back in 96'. I'm still learing more and more all the time. One of my favorite things to do, as is many orther HAMS, is building antennas. The sky's the limit, and again I'm still like a kid looking forward to Cycle 24. I'm now in the process of building an approx. 1,500 foot wire loop for the low bands. That should pretty much put a good dent in surrounding my 3 acres. Getting enough vertical supports for the wire will prove to be the biggest problem.

73
Dave / WL7CMG (crazy, moose, guide)

 

I would love to have that setup !!

 

wow...

You sound like me back in the late 80's!!

The combination of the internet era and me being a truck driver pretty much killed the joy of 2-way coms. I may need to blow the dust off the old pirate radio...

 

Thanks.....it took awhile, but I pretty much enjoy the shack how it is now. I did try a few other rigs before settling on the SDX. I went through 2 different TS-870s, an FT-1000 MKVI Field, and a Icom IC-756 Pro. All real nice rigs, but I just love Kenwood audio. The 870 was my main rig, which I really loved, but it didn't have the dual rx like the SDX....gotta have that dual rx!!! The SDX is an older rig now, considering, but still one of the best.
Hope to catch you guys on the air one of these days. Just let me know if any of you want to set up a sked.
73 & Happy Holidays...
Dave / wl7cmg

 

Yup...that was me in the 80s too. Hey you better fire that thing up from time to time. You never know when you may want to go "play" again. They are saying this cycle could be the best in history...!!!
73

 

I know what your saying and I'm with you 100%, I have driven long haul (Landstar) for 15 years, but don't let the ignorance on the childrens band keep you away from the hobby !!

 

I'm warming up the tubes on the 101ZD now !!