There' a new ham in town

Another Fort Wayne Hamfest came and went and this time I took the plunge and got my technician license. Fortunately for me, I passed and I get to start transmitting as soon as my call letters come in. I wish I had known they let you take as many levels as you want as long as you keep on passing. My goal was to get my technician license and that is what I got which is good but I could have gone further on the same money. The important thing is that I got my foot into the door and I can aim for the other two levels next year.

There was one thing that made me kinda sad though, I could tell that the economy has really been taking its toll. The number of vendors at the hamfest seamed to be really down from the ones I have been to earlier. I do not know what that means for the further of the hamfest but I am hoping it continues or grows as things hopefully get better. At worst, I hope it just means it goes to a smaller venue and continues on. It takes money and attendance to keep any convention going. Money is tight and I am not seeing that change anytime soon unless it is going to tighten up even more. I would absolutely love to be wrong on this. I just hope things like hamfest do not fall in the mean time. I have enjoyed them in the past and now that I got my initial license there, I am always going to be fond of them.

The biggest help in studying that I had was an app for my android phone called ham study. It is portable so it let me study anywhere and the information I got from it was spot on. I will definitely be using it to go for the general and the extra class ticket.

Speaking of where I want to go next with being a ham, I am hoping to go to next year's hamfest and get the next two upgrades to my license. I am also going to trying to get my equipment so I not only know where it is but also set up and ready to go do whatever projects and abilities that I want. It is definitely going to be a year of research, learning and skill obtaining. I have scanners that I will using to listen with to more than just the police bands. I will setting up Echolink and other computers programs to do the digital side of the hobby with. I will also be trying to learn more electrical stuff so I can be more than just an appliance operator. I do not know how much of a home brewer I will be but to know nothing of the equipment I am using is not my style either.

Before getting my license, I was scared of trying to get my license. Now that I have it, I both excited and scared to start exploring what I can do in the realm of ham radio. Hopefully, I can report back here after I learn a few things. It is a big world out there.

Local Clubs

So far I have found two local ham radio clubs. Only down side is that they are in Fort Wayne/Allen County rather than a bit closer to my location. It is not an outrageous distance away and I was able to hear an on air club meeting. That was cool for me. Between hearing the club meetings and some rag chewing, it is giving me a flavor of the local hams. One of the clubs has a website HERE the other one is HERE. I will be taking my time to pick a ham club. I want to make sure the club is a good fit. I do not want to sound like some hard ass but I have been burnt by civic groups before and without putting blame on anyone, it was a bad fit. I will not claim that either I or the group was 100% clean on it going bad. I just want to make any dealings I do good for everyone. Maybe I am just getting some smarts as I get older.

Fort Wayne Ham Fest

I said I was going to try to have or get my ham license by the Fort Wayne Ham Fest. This year it will be on November 19th and 20th. I might get it before that if I am ready and able to get it at a testing site before then but that is the latest I want to go unless all plans get totally nuked. Considering the time line I have given myself, i should have ample time to get it done. Hopefully, I have not given myself too much time and waste it all. I have a hard result with a hard deadline. Let us get on with it.

Ham Operator in the making

This blog has been dead for a while. I think it is time for a resurrection. The reason being that i finally got myself a 2 meter hand held ham radio. The motivation to get my ham license has gone from wishful thinking to time to get this done by November and the Fort Wayne ham fest. I am hoping to use this blog not only to tell of my trip to becoming a ham but the trip of me being a ham. We shall see how the future will unfold.

Random Post

I have not been posting for a while but hey, life gets in the way. I have som enews from these parts on the rf front. First of all, WAWK, the local daytime only AM station has picked up a FM station so they can go 24/7. I am happy about this since they are an excellent station with local flavor. I just hope they do not go corporate. I am not against comercial radio since they have to pay the bills somehow but I do not care for corporate radio that sounds the same no matter where you go. WAWK may not always be the most polished station but they do handle local information and entertainment and the needs of the community much better than any station that follows some corporate formulam into service for success. I will get off my soapbox for now but there it is.


The other piece of news is that my wife and I have been doing some cleaning around the house. I have found some of my old radios I have not used for a while. I think it is time to press them into service. It remains to see what will come of my use of them. Hopefully, this mean si will be getting into the hobby more and maybe, just maybe I will be posting tp this blog more. Time will tell.

WBCQ

This is not the freshest news but WBCQ has been cutting its hours to save on energy costs. I understand that between the economy and energy costs, things have been getting tight. I am not happy that the hours have been cut. I really enjoy WBCQ and the programming they bring to the airwaves. I also agree with their free speech position stance. (for the most part anyway, I don't think there is anyone who i totally agree with). I hope they can get programers to help keep the station open. I also know the economy is not only getting ugly but is already down right mean. I understand that people don't have the money to spend on broadcasting a show. I don't either. I hope the people can and are interesting do s to help keep this station on the air.

Listening in

I am starting to listen to shortwave a bit more again. I actually caught WBCQ's Area 51 for the first time. I must be in the wrong spot or just listening in at the wrong time. I usually depend on the internet feed to hear it. I love the internet feeds but it is not the same as getting ti over the air. Somehow getting the dirty analog signal is more pleasing the clean digital signal. Who knew?


I also picked up Voice of Russia for the first time in many a moon. I am wondering if propagation is improving. It would be nice. I have gotten very lazy about turning the radio dial and just doing the net stream.Internet feeds are great but it is not the dx hobby. There is a lot of good info online so I praise it but it can also a distraction from turning the knobs and listening to the airwaves. I would just use the old excuse of that there is never enough time but it falls hollow but it is also very true. I am very much the slacker about my hobbies and divide my attention too thin.