Welcome to AB8MO 
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
and he got me the books and started 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 officially got
licensed 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 ctcss
encoder installed by Ed at 110.9 Hz. The only frequency pairs that that 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 easily passed the general written exam and got the CSCE for
it. I studied code for much of the summer of 2000 and 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 failed the comprehension by
one question but that did not matter because I had passed! Unfortunately I did
not bring my general exam CSCE and 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 who 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
since he was moving to Florida. I was obviously excited and took him up
on his offer. My next hurdle is getting an HF antenna outside.
The mom and dad rules and regulations regarding outside antennas is a bit of a
problem for me. I managed to talk them into letting me put a 2m antenna
up but that took over a year. I have had my general for about 6 months
and hope I don’t have to wait another 6 months at least before I can put
something outside. I guess I will have to just string something up in my
room although that will be an extremely tight squeeze. 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 till I got my new call sign and then I surprised
all the locals with a new call.
Thanks for reading this best 73 to you and God Bless,
Andrew AB8MO
Links
2
Meter Repeater Frequencies in
Geauga County and Surrounding Areas
You Are Visitor
Number
The Time is