My
name is Ken Sprouse and I currently live in Oakmont Pennsylvania just
outside of Pittsburgh about fifteen miles from the point along the
Allegheny River. Great little town. Visit my web log if
you would like to hear more about it.Around The Town In Oakmont PA
I started listening to short wave at the age of eight or nine and have been involved with amateur radio off and on since my first license, which was a novice class that I received in June of 1966. At that time novices were limited to 75 watts maximum transmitter power and the transmitter had to be crystal controlled. You were not permitted to use a VFO to select your transmit frequency. This made life in the novice bands interesting to say the least. Even so I spent many enjoyable hours in the shack making contacts on 80, 40 and 15 meter CW.
After being away from the hobby and inactive for several years I began to work on land mobile radio systems part time to earn a few extra dollars for the family income. An old friend showed up at my house one day with a Standard SR-146A which I learned was on the two meter band which was becoming quite active at that time. This brought me back into the fold and between radios and computers I have managed to keep involved in one way or another since then. I currently work only VHF/UHF FM and SSB when mobile on 10 meters. I hope to have antennas up and be active on some of the other HF bands by the fall of this year. (2004)
Update: (8-16-2004) I now have a G5RV Jr. up in a tree in my back yard configured as an inverted V and have been working HF for about two weeks now. Since it is only the middle of August I am ahead of schedule for a change. At least according to my lovely wife who tells people that I am putting off procrastinating.
With an LDG Z100 auto tuner I am able to get the G5 to work on 80, 40, 20, 15, 17 and 10 meters. I not sure how well it radiates on 80 but I was able to have a good rag chew contact on CW there. The CW skills are REAL rusty but I am going to work on that.
I belong to three local amateur radio clubs, The North Hills Amateur Radio Club and the Skyview Radio Society of New Kensington. Both are great groups and active clubs. In addition I have joined the South Western Pennsylvania Packet Group and hope to become much more active on packet radio in the future. I am also a member of the American Radio Relay League and try to promote active membership in the organization. I feel the ARRL offers a united voice for the amateur with the FCC and other federal agencies and support their work.
Due to my interest in land mobile radio and volunteer work with emergency services I have been a long time scanner listener. I have been listening to public safety radio with old converted tube gear before consumer grade scanners were available to the public. A few years ago I started doing a net on Sunday evenings on a local repeater to talk about scanners and scanning. The scanner net has lead to a group called the Three Rivers Area Montioring Association. See the link on the main page for more information about the group.
If you are in the Pittsburgh area and are interested in the scanning aspect of the radio hobby please join us on Sunday nights at 21:00 hours local time on the 147.090 repeater for the Pittsburgh Area Scanner Net. We meet each week on the air to discuss the hobby of scanning and related subjects. Those that check into or listen to the net also gather at a local restaurant on a semi regular basis for the same type of conversation face to face. If you are interested drop me a note in email and I will get the details on dates and times to you. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the North Hills Amateur Radio Club for the use of the machine. Visit their web page http://nharc.pgh.pa.us for additional information on the club. If you are a scanner listener and would like to join the ranks of amateur radio operators contact me via email at the address here on QRZ or visit the Skyview Radio Society or the North Hills club web sites for information on FREE classes to get licensed.
I also active in my church Redeemer Lutheran Church and School interested in computers, music and reading novels of fiction about technology and non fiction about American history. I am a big fan of Tom Clancy and David McCullough. I have taken in interest in trains and railroading over the last year or so and digital photography is also becoming another hobby.
The computer in my shack is using the Linux operating system. At this point I am about ankle deep in Linux and would like to be at least knee deep if not further. Linux has put a lot of the “fun” back into computers for me and I am always look for anyone that wants to discuss Linux in relation to ham radio. I am currently using SuSe version 9.1 Professional and Fedore Core 4 in the shack.
You can find me on the 147.090 repeater when in Pittsburgh if you like to rag chew about any of the above subjects. I also try to check into ECARS at least once a week on 7.2550 sometime between 07:00 and 09:00 Eastern time.
Update:
As of 11-July-2005 I am off the air on the HF bands. Due to a near by lightning strike I now have a better chance of hearing anything below six meters with two cans and a string than I do with my Icom IC-735. Hope to have it repaired or replaced by winter.