HAM Radio? What is that?
I have been an avid weather watcher my whole life, and became a trained SkyWarn spotter at 6 years old. If there was ever anything resembling a thunderstorm outside the window, there would be no homework being done for at least an hour...
Fast forward 8 years.
I am now 14. Since I am part of SkyWarn, I recieve periodic emails. One of them mentioned something about the Holland Amateur Radio Club, and something called a Ham In A Day class.
Ham Radio? What is that? I don't know, but it sounds neat! Off I go to the local Red Cross building on the date appointed to do...well, I know not what! After several hours of study came a test! (I hate tests! Who doesn't?) 35 questions later the testing session is over, and I am positive that I failed.
Was I ever in for a supprise, when I was informed that I had, in fact, passed!
Back at home, I researched for a good first radio - something which wouldn't break the bank, but yet be servicable for many years. Eventually, I settled on the TDXone Q-8, a 2 meter / 70 cm FM handheld purchased from Radio City.
Fast forward 6 months.
I still am not on the air. I have the frequency for the local repeater programed into my radio, and can receive audio from the repeater, however, no matter what I do, I cannot access the repeater! Frustrated, I put the radio away for a while.
One day while looking at information about the repeater, I found that by transmitting a series of specific DTMF tones to the repeater, one can unlock the PL for a time. Desperate to try anything, I transmitted the tones. Lo and behold the repeater talked to me! Later that evening, I made my first VHF contact. I no longer remember who was my first contact, but I do know that one of the first was Scott, KD8PJP. Thank you Scott for the help you gave to a newcomer to the hobby!
After a few weeks of manually unlocking the repeater, I was informed about an illusive setting in my radio. This setting, called a CTCSS tone could unlock the repeater automatically for me, whenever I keyed the mic! Wait! So you mean that a CTCSS tone is the same thing as a PL tone? What? And I never figured that out on my own?
Fast forward approximately 4 years and many contacts later.
I am now writing this, and thinking about just how far my understanding and learning has come since I first took that test in October of 2013. I am now very active on our local repeaters, and enjoy working 10 meters when it opens up. I also enjoy working and using VHF packet to both send emails over the radio via the WinLink system, as well as simply comunicate with other HAMs, keyboard to keyboard.
I would like to thank all those who have and still continue to teach me new skills.
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