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N5PNZ here. Only have 10 meter and 2 meter hooked up. My HF (ICOM 720) broke down and haven't been able to repair it. Bad IC chips again. My 2 meter rig is an old KLM Multi-2700 that has seen it's best days. Haven't been very active.

JALLEN wrote:W6OGC here, first licensed as KN5VET in 1959. I've built antennas, worked DX, edited a book, "DX IS!" with my brother, been an EC, Secretary/Trustee for a 1000 member repeater club, T-hunter, handled phone patches to VN in the '60's, met Barry Goldwater, been a VC of the ARRL, of which I am a life member.

I am antenna-less at the moment due to the hopefully impending sale of the house so I can come home. One vexing issue in buying our new home there is the pervasiveness of antenna restrictions.

That's an impressive Ham resume! Where are you going to live when back home?

Our neighborhood has antenna restrictions, but not an absolute ban. Antennas cannot extend more than 10 feet above the peak of the main structure. That said, there are no antennas that I can see anywhere. I'm going to put up a dual band vertical, a 2 meter homebrew beam by G0KSC and a multi-band vertical for HF.

Martha isn't happy so all of these are going to be pretty elaborate because they have to virtually disappear. The ground-mounted HF vertical will be easy because I'm going to hide it behind a tree. Long, buried coax isn't a line loss problem at HF frequencies. The dual band vertical and the 2 meter beam will be located in a secluded part of our back yard (hidden by trees) on a specially designed mast that will raise and lower electrically. (Thanks Jim.)

I hadn't even thought about getting active again until someone here on the Forum mentioned one of the new Chinese dual band HT. I researched it (Wouxun) and in the process, got interested again. It's ironic that my interest in ham radio was rekindled on a gun board.

Chas.

General since 2010.
KF5EPA
beginning to get active with Grand Prairie RACES and Tarrant County RACES.

And nothing beats $60 for a Chinese Baofeng dual band with extended battery, charging base, and earpiece.

The Annoyed Man wrote:My wife says I'm a ham, but I was born with it and didn't need to study or get a license.

That's funny....my wife calls me a pig. Guess that's close.

Seriously, I have been thinking about it. Just don't know if I'll pull the trigger.

Thanks for the reminder! I need to renew my license this year. This will be my second renewal so going on 20 years now. I have not been active in several years now but maintained my license just in case. Need to find a cheap 2m/.70cm rig again. Sold my radios a while back and regret it.

dpleban wrote:I hope to take my test when i get back from afghanistan.

Check with the comm guys or the MARS station wherever you are -there are supposed to be VE exams in country occasionally.

N5WD here. Extra class license... Got started in high school as WN5WDB in 68, then took he general (conditional) license while at Phan Rang AB in S Vietnam -got WA5WDB, then. Upgraded to KF5ZC when I ventured to the FCC office in Dallas to take the Advanced ( with 15 wpm code send & receive) in 1980, then upgraded to Extra ( still with the 20wpm morse test) shortly after they started the VEC program. With the Extra, I got a virgin call sign N5WD which happens to be my initials, so I imagine I'll hang on to this call for the rest of my life. My wife is Pam, W5PHD, and we both have Belize calls V31WD and V31UA. Active in digital and 6 meters. I sponsor the ham club at the high school where I teach and am in the process of putting together a UHF repeater for the school's club. I also have an IRLP node running in a simplex node in northwest Fort Worth.

Charles L. Cotton wrote: Martha isn't happy so all of these are going to be pretty elaborate because they have to virtually disappear. The ground-mounted HF vertical will be easy because I'm going to hide it behind a tree. Long, buried coax isn't a line loss problem at HF frequencies. The dual band vertical and the 2 meter beam will be located in a secluded part of our back yard (hidden by trees) on a specially designed mast that will raise and lower electrically. (Thanks Jim.)

There are some VHF/UHF antennas that can be raised into a tree, hung by a rope inside the tree so that they're completely hidden when the tree is in bloom. Might be a wife-approved modification to your plans.

73 Wayne N5WD

N5QNS checking in for the count.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

JALLEN wrote:W6OGC here, first licensed as KN5VET in 1959. I've built antennas, worked DX, edited a book, "DX IS!" with my brother, been an EC, Secretary/Trustee for a 1000 member repeater club, T-hunter, handled phone patches to VN in the '60's, met Barry Goldwater, been a VC of the ARRL, of which I am a life member.

I am antenna-less at the moment due to the hopefully impending sale of the house so I can come home. One vexing issue in buying our new home there is the pervasiveness of antenna restrictions.

That's an impressive Ham resume! Where are you going to live when back home?

In the hill country northwest of I-35 between San Antonio and Austin somewhere, hopefully not as far out as Kerrville/Fredricksburg. I need to be within an hour of the UT Medical Center, ideally Comal County or environs.

Our neighborhood has antenna restrictions, but not an absolute ban. Antennas cannot extend more than 10 feet above the peak of the main structure. That said, there are no antennas that I can see anywhere. I'm going to put up a dual band vertical, a 2 meter homebrew beam by G0KSC and a multi-band vertical for HF.

I have a SteppIR vertical for 80-6. Even that might be agin the rules at ~33 or so feet tall. Because of the lung issues, I require a one story house, which are probably something like 18' high. I put up a loop here that tuned 160-6 around the eaves of the house but it was fairly pathetic, and lots of noise. I'm too old and decrepit to go the tower and yagi/quad bit, though. In my previous existence I put up a 60' tower and monster 4/4/5 el quad, with the Drake "C" twins and L-4B, and could talk just about anywhere I wanted. Isn't it great to be young and foolish and healthy?

I'm hoping to be able to find a house on 1-3 acres with no restrictions.

The 6BTV has been around for a long long time and is fairly highly thought of. Get yourself a copy of "HF Vertical Performance Test Methods and Results" by Silver and Morris. You can find it online I'm sure. Installation techniques are far more important, yay, critical, than the particular store bought vertical. DX Engineering has it down pretty well.

Martha isn't happy so all of these are going to be pretty elaborate because they have to virtually disappear. The ground-mounted HF vertical will be easy because I'm going to hide it behind a tree. Long, buried coax isn't a line loss problem at HF frequencies. The dual band vertical and the 2 meter beam will be located in a secluded part of our back yard (hidden by trees) on a specially designed mast that will raise and lower electrically. (Thanks Jim.)

I'm really lucky here. My wife LOVES hams. Her first husband was a ham, too. I figure she has a thing for us guys who Seek You! My first wife acted like those radios had blond hair or something.

I hadn't even thought about getting active again until someone here on the Forum mentioned one of the new Chinese dual band HT. I researched it (Wouxun) and in the process, got interested again. It's ironic that my interest in ham radio was rekindled on a gun board.

Chas.

It isn't as much a hobby as it is a disease, and once you have it, there is almost no cure. Symptoms abate periodically, but then you relapse. Somehow the idea of sitting there in the Texas hill country with a DX-40, an old receiver and a wire talking to folks all over the place, even to California, where Ricky Nelson and Annette Funicello lived, and even Hawaii and beyond, was irresistible, at least for me.

73 Jim Allen

I would be interested in geting my HAM radio licenses. Not sure where to start. I guess as an IEEE member and Computer and Communication Engineer, I should know best.Silly me, I am bit lazy.

N5KAC, Have not been active in a long time. Obtained Tech + in 1995 which I upgraded in 2002 to General when the code was dropped. Looks like I will have a reason to pick it back up again.

KE5HLZ - Tech

Got mine so I can help with the MS150. Have a IC2750 mount on my motorcycle and carry an IC32W HT.

There are 2 people who do a 1 day HAM class for folks with the MS150. It gets you through the tech and then you can learn everything later.

Had my tech for a long while, back when you had to copy five(5) wpm code to get it. Currently have a couple Chinese HT's (2m/70cm) for goofing off with, but not much of a participant.

Without going into details, let me just say I am VERY active in the amateur radio community in and around Bell county...

If you need an amateur radio test PM me and I can have you set up within a couple of days...