Hi, I'm Andrew Juchnowski AB8MO; my old call
sign was KC8MZH. I got interested in ham radio when my friend, Andre'
Bernier N8WJW
let me talk briefly to a couple of hams on the air when I was about 14.
I did
not think much about it until about a year later when I was 15, and
then I got
in touch with him showing interest in ham radio. He
got me the books and started I to study for
the technician examination. Of course, this was when there were two
tests, the
Novice and Technician written exams. I took my test in early August at
Amateur
Electronic Supply in Cleveland, Ohio. I
passed the first
time; that was a relief and I officially got licensed on August
29, 1999 at the
ripe age of
16. I did not get on the air until October, when a friend from the
Geauga
Amateur Radio Association by the name of Ed W8OKE had a spare radio and
antenna
to loan me so, I could get on the air. I was thrilled to have my first
rig,
which was a Regency HR-212. It had a sub-audible tone encoder installed
by Ed
at 110.9 Hz. The only frequency pairs that the radio had were
147.615/015,
146.34/94 and 147.000/000 (simplex).
Even though I only had three frequency pairs on the entire
two-meter
band; I was thrilled to get on the air.
When I
found out that the licensing of
ham radio was going to change; I went after my general. I studied for
the 5wpm
code and the general written exam. I took both tests at the Lake County
Amateur
Radio Association ham fest in Madison, OH. I
failed the code
but, I easily passed the general written exam and got the CSCE for it.
I
studied code for much of the summer of 2000.
And I went to take the code test at the Portage Amateur Radio
Club ham
fest in late July. I passed by getting one minute of solid copy without
error
but, I failed the comprehension by one question. That
did not matter because I had passed!
Unfortunately, I did not bring my general exam CSCE.
I had to go the Warren Amateur Radio
Association ham fest to officially upgrade to general class. I got the
upgrade
ticket on August
29, 2000. I had HF now but nothing for HF. Fortunately,
I had another friend at the Geauga Amateur Radio Association by the
name of
Dick WA8TPP. He loaned me his 10m mobile
rig and antenna to get me started on HF. In September, another
ham
friend from the club Casey KC8GM had an old Yaesu FT-101E E, that he
had not
used in a while and he wanted me to have it.
He was moving to Florida and
did not want to
take the rig with him. Obviously, I was
thrilled and I took him up on his offer. I’ve recently completed
construction of a G5RV antenna. Currently,
I do not have it very high in the air but, I hope that I can change
that
soon. The mom and dad rules and
regulations regarding outside antennas was a bit of a problem for me
for years.
I managed to talk them into letting me put a 2m antenna up but
that took
over a year. After everyone got tired of
me frying the television when I was on HF, I was allowed to put an HF
antenna
outside. Praise the Lord!!
I
upgraded to extra class on February
2, 2002 at the
VE session sponsored by the Lake County
Amateur Radio Association. The test was at Amateur Electronic
Supply (the
same place I got my technician ticket over 2 years earlier). I
managed
to keep a secret for the most part until I got my new call sign. And then I surprised all the locals with my
new call sign. That was sure a lot of fun. Thanks for reading and I hope to catch you on
the radio soon!