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Welcome to the QSL Website |
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I was originally licensed as a Novice, KB6OEW, back in the early 1980's. I managed a lot of receiving, but never could get my boat anchor of a transmitter to work, and never got the courage (with no Elmer) to get on the air. My license expired at the end of the normal 10-year term.
In
early 2000, I bought a BC245XLT scanner, and unexpectedly found interest
hearing local repeater activity in my area. I decided I needed to get back
into the hobby I had found so interesting so many years ago and, with newfound
interest (and a better income than a college student) I passed my 5 wpm code
exam (again) and a Technician exam in June. My thanks to the VEC's at the Tri-County
Amateur Radio Association for holding an exam on Field Day!
This
time I made sure to get myself a good Elmer in Barry, AD6HR.
Barry pushed me to make CW contacts and is a real QRP buff, so I've found that
interesting, as well. Barry also lent me my first CW/QRP rig, an old Heathkit
HW-8 that he received as a gift from one of his first contacts when he
was just starting out.
Also instrumental in getting me comfortable on the air was W1WBZ, Dave. While Barry got me going on CW, Dave lent me his 10m rig and pushed me to make phone contacts with it. Both rigs, in my original shack, are pictured at right. Barry and Dave have also lent me an SWR meter, power supply, and antenna tuner and, with K6WHP, threw a little party at my QTH to put up the 40m inverted V that Dave built for me; so you can see I've really had no way out of making contacts! This, in my opinion, is a prime example of the hallmark of ham radio: generosity and helpfulness.
Operating Today
Since getting started, I'v
e
actually bought my own HF and VHF (mobile) rigs. My HF work, I'm proud to say,
is now all done on my Yaesu
FT-101ZD, which I bought from local ham Al Watters, KL7GD.
Al told me about his experience with this fine old rig, which he used to use
while on station in Shemya, Alaska. Shemya is probably closer to mainland
Russia/Siberia than it is to Alaska. Being a ham there meant y
ou
could create pileups with Russian hams, but he would rarely respond to their
CQ's because he would then have to report the contact(s) to the U.S.
government!
He and another ham on that station used to also use a 1/4-mile long wire to transmit with on this rig and another. I imagine there was plenty of room to put up an antenna like this; but how do you find two trees to hang it from??!
The Yaesu was relatively inexpensive, but I bought it also because I wanted to really understand how these rigs work, and learn to appreciate the differences between these old tube rigs and today's transistorized models. I got my wish, as it still takes me several minutes to tune up the rig and the antenna any time I switch bands! With a tube HF rig, you have to tune the finals or you could wind up damaging the tubes irreparably. Of course, I DIDN'T KNOW THIS! Yikes.
I'm currently a member, and incoming Vice President, of DBARS,
the Diamond Bar Amateur Radio Society. There are over 200 licensed hams in
the city of 
Diamond Bar,
and I aim to track many of them down this coming year! DBARS, in our capacity
as a public service, operates the city's mobile Emergency
Operations Center. The EOC gets out to many city functions during the
year, and serves as the main station in the area for Field Day. It is fully
equipped with HF and VHF rigs, multiple vertical antennas, and onboard
propane- or solar-charged batteries, making it a totally self-sufficient
communications point in the event of a disaster or landline communications
blackout.
Ano
ther
part of our emergency services is the city-sponsored
repeater. DBARS member Barry, W7BF,
is the trustee for the open repeater, which can be found at 146.640 Mhz, -600
kHz offset, and PL tone of 167.9. The machine has excellent coverage, and
several nets are run on it weekly. DBARS
runs our net on Tuesday evenings at 8pm (0400Z). Tri-County
runs theirs on Sunday evenings at 7pm, and the L.A. Sheriffs Department runs
their DCS net on Monday nights at 7pm.
Ragchews are welcome, and new repeater users are advised that regular users
like me are likely to start a QSO just to say hello and welcome!
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A proud member of DBARS | |
 My email |
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