After decades of thinking about it, I finally have an Amateur Radio License. It really took a while for it to soak in! Especially given the fact that only 9 days had past between deciding to finally do it, and getting it done. Now the big question, What's next?

One thing that finally soaked in, that I was very happy about once I realized it, was that I was now permitted to have a mobile police scanner in the state of Indiana. Moving here from Ohio, I was shocked by the fact that Indiana has a law which restricts the use of  mobile scanners. The way I read the law, it doesn't really say you can't have one in your car unless you intend to use it to commit a crime, or avoid getting caught during or after the crime by using the radio. That's a subject for the scanner section I suppose. Either way, Amateur operators are exempt along with a lot of other people, so I just don't have to worry about it anymore.. There are federal laws that give amateurs the right to talk on other "FCC regulated services" (including police) under certain circumstances, so it would be hard to make having a police capable radio a crime for an amateur.

The next thing to do was to watch the FCC database (online) for my license and call sign to show up. There are several other places where you can also watch, but since they just copy the FCC data, they are all a day behind. You no longer have to wait for the actual license to arrive. As soon as you see your name and call sign, you are ready to talk!

Much to my amazement, I was checking on the Tuesday following the Saturday test, and there it was! OK, now I really do have a license. It is really here. I was pleased with the call when I got it. It was easy to remember. I am old enough to remember when the term "KiloCycle" was used, and I knew it would be an "area 9" call. That took care of the KC9 part of my call. The rest just spelled "GEZ". Easy as they get: "Kilo Cycle 9 GEESE". I had two options at this point: Fire up "Echolink" with my call (it was already installed and just waiting to verify my call) and use it to get into repeaters all over the world to talk. I could even get into a local "link" here in town that would put me on the air. My second option was to get a radio. This option would require money and a long drive from Richmond. Oh what the heck! I started grabbing stuff out of my radio room that I figured I wouldn't need for a while and off to the Pawn Shop I went. Now with cash in hand, I headed for the nearest Amateur supply store, unfortunately, about 50 miles away. I paused at my home quickly so I could get on the internet and make a list of repeaters that I would be near on the trip back. There was no way I was going to be able to wait 'till I got home!

I went to R&L in Hamilton, Ohio and bought an Alinco DJ-596 dual band handheld. It turned out to be a great radio. I did the channel Mod. immediately which was no more than clipping a loop of wire that they conveniently put right inside the access door under the battery. It was about 1.5" long so it was easy to cut, and would be easy to put back together. This opened up the transmit and receive to: 136. to 174. MHz and 400. to 512. MHz. That made this radio really many radios in one! It would now serve as a two meter and 70 cm Ham radio, VHF and UHF Business band radio, Marine radio, MURS VHF CB radio, FRS radio, and GMRS radio, not to mention VHF/UHF Public Safety and Government radio and a really nice scanner! It has 100 channels, will scan 3 ways and has a lock out feature. It has an automatic repeater offset as well as the capability to assign any offset you need. It will also transmit and receive on a mixture of VHF/UHF frequencies and will work as a cross band repeater. It supports CTCSS and DCS tones and either can be assigned to transmit only, receive only, or both. It dawned on me that if I had a few of these, I could get rid of about 20 different radios I have around here! Another thing I really like is that it is rated from 6 - 16 Volts DC (The only Alinco rated this way, and the only radio I have seen rated like this.). It has a BNC antenna connector for adding external antennas and amplifiers. It will charge while being used. You can plug it directly to your car battery with no adaptation. You can remove the battery entirely while hooked up to your power supply or vehicle to protect the battery if it doesn't need charging and it helps keep the radio cool since the battery covers the entire rear of the radio.  It even has an alpha-numeric read out, a function that will keep the light on all the time and a signal strength indicator. It puts out a full 5 watts on the supplied battery (unlike many) and on UHF also! Of course it has a DTMF pad for use with Echolink or making phone calls, activating pagers, Etc. It has several selectable "European" tone blasts, a selectable Roger Beep (or they call it an "End Peep"), and even has an experimental Mosquito repelling tone that you can set to run constantly that is sub audible to humans (in case you take it hunting or fishing!). Believe it or not, there is actually more, but I will stop now. I have seen it listed at $209.00 and $219.00. R and L has them on a kind of semi permanent sale at $159.00. I'm hoping to get a couple more to replace all those other radios while the price holds.

I also purchased just a straight cigarette lighter plug for 10 bucks because I knew the NIMH battery would be dead and I wouldn't be able to play on the way home. After we were on the road again, I stopped at a local fast food restaurant and got some goodies to eat in the car while I tried to figure out how to use the new radio and get some frequencies in it. I managed to get most of the area two meter and 440 repeaters programmed in but I didn't hear much. I even spouted off with my call several times but found no one to talk to. Bummer!

I already had a "home brew" 5/8 wave ground plane on the roof at home set up for MURS VHF CB channels in the 151. MHz range. I know most everyone is saying "What is this MURS CB he keeps talking about?" I will have a page on it some day, but for now, you can click on the shortcut to learn a little about it. Don't forget to come back! So, a quick check with the meters revealed that the Standing Wave or SWR was within acceptable limits and not bad at all on the upper end of the Two Meter band. Since all of the nearby repeaters are in the 147. MHz range, this would work. A check on UHF frequencies definitely was NOT acceptable. I have to switch back to the "rubber duck" if using the 440 band for now. I also have a  home brew fiberglass antenna that I came across. Turns out, it was made by Firestik for the old 46/49 MHz cordless phones. The good folks in the technical Dept. at Firestik told me where I could cut the antenna and make it work, not only as a 6 meter antenna, but also as a 2 meter and 440 antenna as well. After following their instructions, I ended up with an antenna that really blows smoke! It is as good as any 2 meter mobile antenna I've ever seen. I compared it to the 1/2 wave I was using, and it beat it hands down, transmit and receive. On 440, this thing really pulls them in on receive and talks great. My thanks to the guys at Firestik! Besides my 10 meter capable radios (talked about in the CB Radio section), that covers my entire amateur radio equipment at this point. I'm sure there will be more.

It would seem that the next most logical step would be to stake out a spot here at home for my "shack". In my case, this was already done. I had taken over an old laundry area between the kitchen and living area. It measured exactly 5 feet by 7 feet. I was able to find an old "Science Class" school table that usually had two students, or sometimes a group of 4 students assigned to it. It measured exactly 60" (5 feet) by 3 feet, so with a bit of squeezing around a door trim, it fit like it was made for it. Then I added a shelf on the wall and a 12 volt fluorescent light fixture under the shelf plus another on the ceiling above. Add to this a nice leather, high backed, totally adjustable office chair and a super sized map of the world and viola! You have a "shack".

One thing that immediately stands out about my "shack" is the fact that it is 100% battery powered. I have always wondered why radio enthusiasts spend all kinds of money on power supplies when they could spend a whole lot less and use a vehicle battery and charger. Not only does it cost less, but it will supply a nearly unlimited amount of power as opposed to the 30 to 60 amps supplied by the better power supplies. A battery will give you somewhere closer to 600 amps of power and in some cases, a whole bunch more! Plus, if the power goes out, your still on the air for quite some time. The only complaint I have ever heard about running a battery (besides the objections that some have about a battery in the house) is that a supply tends to run the 13.8 volts that most 12 volt equipment is set up for. On a battery, the display tends to look a bit dim and the power is usually not up to peak. The battery still works better on AM equipment that pulls quite a bit on modulation because the entire battery is a huge capacitor of reserve power ready to jump in and fill any deficit of power on modulation, etc. Just as a matter of trivia, a lead - acid battery is sometimes also called an "accumulator".

I solved the low power problem of running a battery by combining a 6 volt battery with an 8 volt battery for a total of 14 volts of power. I ran across an 8 volt vehicle battery one day at our local "Tractor Supply" store. It was billed as being used to "perk up" old, tired 6 volt systems in older tractors and cars. It would bring lights up to factory standards and make starters turn faster, Etc. Since then, I have also found them advertised as part of 24 volt systems in trucks where 3 are used to equal 24 rather than two 12 volt batteries. You can get 8 volt batteries in an 8 volt marine style, or 8 volt tractor style. As most know, you can charge a battery with nearly any amount of voltage (that doesn't harm it) and it will charge faster or slower depending, but the battery will stay at its designed voltage regardless. This means that it is OK to charge with a 12 volt charger. The voltage will still remain at 14 volts. If you wanted to wait forever, you could charge it with 6 volts, or 16 would speed things up. If the charger is powerful enough to put out more than the battery does, it might be possible to drag voltage down or up while charging, but it will return to its rated power as soon as charging is complete. Anyway, none of this is a problem with my standard little 6 amp, 12 volt charger. Actually it charges just fine when left on the 2 amp setting and voltage usually checks right at 13.8 volts! I guess you could say that I have the best of both. I have the voltage of a power supply with the nearly unlimited amount of available power of a vehicle battery. In fact, 6 volt and 8 volt batteries can be found in huge sizes and capacities that when combined have some really impressive numbers in both reserve capacity and available power.

I guess I should mention that the batteries are stored in "battery boxes" available at the same Tractor Supply store or other farm supply or RV / Marine retailer. They are black plastic and come with lids that have special places for wires to run in and out. They are not sealed and allow any "fumes" (which are usually only present if overcharging) to escape. I always have enough fans running around in the shack to keep any such fumes from "pooling" to hazardous levels. I have been using this method for over 20 years and never give it a thought. They are under the desk along the back wall and are wired together with #4 cable. Then the main feed wire is a #8 running to a central location and everything hooks up from there. The charger is on my shelf and hooked in along with everything else. This way I can keep my eye on the charging status indicator. When we lived in the country, I charged exclusively with wind and sun power. Since we don't own this house, we decided to just go with the charger.

The next thing that makes the "shack" unique is that I have two fluorescent light fixtures that I purchased for an RV I no longer have. Both are also 12 volt. I put one under my shelf and shielded it from my eyes, the other is up near the ceiling and lights up my world map and baths everything else in a nice even light. If the power went out, I would likely not notice. (The "Battery Boxes" link above is also a good place to find 12 volt fluorescent fixtures and other 12 volt "goodies".)  I have two 12 volt dual speed fans that keep me and the equipment cool. On the left rear corner of the desk is a 12 volt color TV. It is a TV / VCR combo with full remote and 10" screen. Since I have a cable line running to the shack for the broad band internet service, I also ran one to the TV. I have an antenna switch so I can switch to the roof antenna in case the cable goes out, or I am in the mood for some TV DXing late at night.

The next thing you see, and probably the biggest reason(s) why the shack existed in the first place is my Eagle Tomahawk CB Radio. It covers over 450 frequencies starting near 25. MHz and running through the 10 meter band. It operates AM / FM / LSB / USB and is computer based. Next, no shack would be complete without a Pro 2006 Scanner. Right next to this I have a Pro 2022 that has a story behind it.

Pro 2006 Scanner  Still one of the best ever made.

Over 10 years ago, this guy goes to a Radio Shack store and notices that they are having a "Closeout" sale on the 200 channel Pro 2022 scanner. So, what the heck, he goes ahead a picks one up. He takes it home and leaves it lying around in the original box. After awhile, his wife gets tired of seeing it and stashes it in the attic. He doesn't miss it 'cause he didn't really want it to start with. Over 10 years later, he comes across this thing in the attic and decides to put it on E-Bay. Apparently he still doesn't want it. The scanner is still sealed in it's original plastic bag and although over 10 years old, it is brand new. I just had to have this radio! I got into a bidding war with another guy and with only seconds to go, I managed to submit the winning bid of $300.00! This is more than the original list price and way more than he paid for it on closeout! Oh well, how often do you get a chance to have something this old and discontinued that is brand new. It is my pride and joy and proudly displayed in the center of my shack.

Pro 2022 Scanner
Over 10 years old, but brand new!

As your eyes continue to scan across the shack, you will see two sets of meters. One set works for 27 MHz CB, the other set works well on the 150 MHz VHF and 450 MHz UHF bands. There are several sets of speakers to make the radios and scanners sound good. One set is to the computer. I am running a home built computer with an AMD processor that runs 1300 MHz (or 1.3 Gig) speed, 256 Meg memory. 40 Meg 3D Video card, full duplex sound card, 17" monitor and two hard drives that total about 60 Gig. I also have two CD ROM Burners and I keep an old 5 1/2" floppy drive where I store "sensitive" information. If stolen, I doubt anyone could find a system to read them! This is the one place that I cheat a bit on the 12 volt theme. I used to run it from a 1500 watt inverter. The computer itself uses next to nothing in the way of power, but the monitor would put a strain on the system after an hour or so. I also have a lap top that does run entirely on 12 volt where important systems are copied and could be used during any outage. I used to run it all the time. I had a little shelf under the desk where I stuck the thing and then hooked it to a regular keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Problem was, it was slow. So I keep it to use if there is an outage so that I can continue to stay on EchoLink and keep in touch with the weather service radar, Etc.

I have a Johnson VHF radio that is tuned to the business channels we are licensed for. I also have an 80 watt, 80 channel Midland VHF radio that I would like to get programmed for nearby repeaters someday. Right now it is running all of the local public safety channels and inter system channels as well as the MURS channels. I use it for a scanner pretty much at present since it exceeds the two watt MURS limit by just a bit. Toss in a nice sprinkle of blank CD / R - RW's, speakers for the computer as well as a nice Mic for EchoLink and one real nice Galaxy (Re-named Palomar) 10 - 12 meter RF Amplifier that is patiently awaiting it's turn to be used, and you have a "shack". All I had to do was build a little stand to hold the new Alinco Ham radio in a semi - upright position so I could view the screen well, plug in an external speaker, Mic., and antenna, then plug up the power to the big batteries and there I am. It is now an official "Ham shack".

My shack would be great for emergencies. Too bad all my inquiries about joining the various aspects of Amateur emergency functions like "SkyWarn" or any of the other "RACES", Etc., have gone totally, 100% ignored. I was jumping around various "Ham" related sites one day and came across one that listed Skywarn and the various other "emergency" organizations as the most prejudiced, clique laden source of tension in Amateur radio. Looking back at how my many inquiries into these various organizations have gone, not largely, but 100% ignored, I have to say that I agree. If you have to be part of the "clique" to volunteer your time, training, knowledge and concern in helping others, God help us all, because that means that, there are a whole bunch of people out there with skills to offer that will never get a chance to make a difference.

Well, I've decided that I'm not going to let things like this get me down. All I have to do now is just listen, and when I hear a conversation that I know something about, I will just jump in, make myself known, and we will be on our way in the big world of amateur radio!

Here in the Richmond area, there are a total of five 2 meter repeaters and a 2 meter link to a 220 machine that can all be accessed with a five watt HT. In addition, there are two 440 repeaters and the 220 repeater mentioned above. There are actually more that you can hit with an outdoor / external antenna. In addition, there are more repeaters in other bands, but since I only have the equipment to access 2 meter / 70 cm repeaters, we won't count the rest right now. As soon as I purchased my dual band radio, I programmed each repeater within reach, and with much excitement, I went about listening to them 24 hours a day including while sleeping. With all of the repeaters being scanned at once, I expected to hear at least some conversation nearly all the time. What I heard, for the most part, was nothing. Nothing at all. It's going to be a bit tough to get my call out there and establish myself if I can't find anyone talking to start with! Another interesting thing that I took note of was: Excluding the couple of repeaters that are owned by "clubs", when I did hear a conversation, one party to it was usually the repeater "owner". Someone calling the owner, the owner calling someone. Perhaps this explains why there are so many repeaters and so few users? Maybe they couldn't find a clique either, so they decided to make their own. I know I have already had the same urge. If I own the repeater, I am the clique! I don't have to worry about talking outside my group, not on my repeater! Then, by george, I can talk to anyone who happens to be so bold as to use it. Takes care of that problem. I bet I could get my foot in the door on all those "emergency" cliques too.

One night, around 3:00 AM, I finally got into a conversation with a gentleman on one of the local repeaters. I can remember thinking "Wow, now this is more like it!" We used good repeater etiquette, leaving long pauses between keying up to give any other users a chance to get in. Three times, we took a break for about 10 minutes to let the radios and repeater cool down, and let anyone else use the repeater that may have been too shy to ask. While we were talking I had taken my HT outside with me and sat on our front step. It was a beautiful night. Perfect temperature, slight breeze. This was a new experience for me. Besides using our HT's at work, I had never been able to go out on foot while talking. Always strapped to the radio inside. I even walked around the block once. There may just be something to this amateur radio stuff after all!

Just as we were about to sign off for the night, the guy I was talking to got a phone call. Turns out it was the repeater owner. Although I have never been given the "word for word" of the conversation, the gist was that we had tied up the repeater long enough and it was time to get off. When he rather timidly relayed this to me over the radio, I had an extreme rush of emotion. In view of the time of day, and the fact that the repeater may have been used a total of 15 minutes out of the last 24 hours, the long pauses, the breaks, Etc., I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I remember feeling a bit pissed, but mostly just disappointed. Was it because it was me, the new guy, not yet in the clique? Or was it because it was the guy I was talking to? Perhaps he was not well liked? I know he had told me that he had trouble sleeping at night and it seemed we would make perfect radio partners for the future. If it were ten people instead of two, would the repeater still be being "used too much". When no one else wants to use it, is there a difference?

I told another Ham about the incident at "field day" and his comment was: "More than likely he was just too nosey to shut his radio off and go to bed while you were talking". "He needed you to sign off so he could get some sleep." Maybe because he was not a party to the conversation? Perhaps the invitation for all hams to use the repeater really meant to use it to talk to him? Whatever it was, it was the final blow that ruined my excitement over the hobby. I could feel the remaining excitement over the hobby just leaving me and being replaced by disappointment. First, finding no one to talk to, then the very first time I actually make use of my radio, I catch (indirect) hell. My first thought (honestly!) was: Boy, if I had a good spot for an antenna, I would put up my own damn repeater! And there you have it.

I'm sorry to say that the initial excitement about getting my amateur radio license is all but gone now. I have discovered that there are very few to talk to and seemingly none that have anything in common with me. The main group tends to be about 20 - 25 years older with a sub - group that is 20 years younger. I'm not a retired factory worker nor do I work at the local plant. I don't have a weather station in the back yard that I use mostly to gain information on how my "Termaters" are going to grow in the garden. I am not a real social person, but I did go to the weakly meeting at the restaurant down the way. Nobody talked to me beyond "Who are you?" I find that I rarely turn the radio on anymore and pretty much never take it with me like I used to. Oh, lets not forget that I do not know CW. For those with a desire to learn, here is a good site to learn Morse Code.

By huge contrast, EchoLink has been the saving grace of the amateur radio world. After I placed the "Up All Night" note on my node, I have a steady stream of contacts between 1 and 3 new contacts a day and then multiple repeat contacts every night from all over the world. I have new friends from all over the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and even South Korea. Places where it is daylight while I am setting here awake all night. With a very rare exception (where some guys son was playing with his node) these have been some of the best people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. If all of amateur radio could be like EchoLink, I wouldn't have the first complaint.

I'm in a "wait and see" mode right now. I'm waiting to see if they are going to drop this dumb code anytime in the near future so that I can get my HF privileges and expand my talking area. Until then, my talking is limited pretty much to Echolink. I'm in the process of setting up a private simplex link so I can use my two way to talk rather than the computer Mic. and speaker. At least it will feel more like Amateur radio then. When I am talking to my friends in the U.K., I can at least pretend that I am on HF!