T&L Publications

If you have ever wondered about getting a Ham license, I must say it was easier than I thought. After putting it off for forty or so years I finally decided to do it. Hooked up with the local Amateur Radio Club and took a free class. Studied using an App on my smartphone and passed my Technician and General on the same day. My advice: If you think you might be interested, take a class and study a bit, and I bet you will do well. A lot of the questions are on ohms law figuring power consumption, reading schematics, things like that. Plus the rules and such, of course. I guess I gotta put up a big tower now!
Tom
KJ7EKD

Congrats!

Guess I need to dig out my dear departed Uncle's old Hallicrafters and see what I can hear.

Good for you Tom!

Now you can work on getting that Kenwood Transceiver fully functional, and start squawking to others.


Signed: Janitor Tzap

Thanks Gents! That's the plan. I did get it powered up and could hear static, then kind of set it aside for what was supposed to be two weeks.... and then life got in the way!

Best

Tom

I used to own the call WA2RBA, but US Air Force came along, and never got back to it. Spent many a sleepless night on 20 meters looking for that long distance DX contact! Italy was the longest contact. Maybe get back to it someday! It's a terrific community, especially for do-it-yourselfers!

What is amazing is that I see quite a few amateur radio license plates in my little neck of the woods, SE Pennsylvania. I also think I see them playing fox and the hound quite often too.

I have yet to catch a local hamfest or meet. Next local one is July 13. Hope to get closer to re-entering the listening part of the "hobby".

What surprised me is the number of Hams in the US. I believe it's almost a million. More Hams now than ever before. I gotta think getting rid of the code requirement made it a lot more attractive to a lot of people. Jwax, funny how military service can kind of disrupt your plans!
Thanks for that!
Tom

Hey jwax, missed the part about the USAF. Thank you for your service.

To all who have been in the Armed Forces, a huge thank you for your service.

Do either of you, or anyone else, know what's required for QRP / flea power? It's been years since I've read about it and quite frankly, can't remember where the issue of popular electroncs is stored.

Appreciate the thanks all! Was my pleasure to serve.
Story- Was temporarily assigned to Anderson AB in Guam. Out on "Patti's Point", alone after fixing a radio problem on a plane, I got bored waiting for a ride back to the shop. After hour number 2, I climbed back in the 8-engine airplane, and yelled out a "CQ" on the HF radio just to see how far away I could contact somebody from this dot in the Pacific Ocean. I still had my license, so it was a legal call, except that the radio was not exactly "mine".
I get a very loud (read- close by) reply with a, "I know all the hams on the island- you must be new! Where are you?"
Rout-row! Busted! I didn't respond and shut things down quickly lest I be located. Military frowns on civilian use of their stuff!

As far as QRP (reduced power contacts)- a licensed ham can use whatever low power he wants, up to a max. Used to be 1,000 watts, not sure whats legal these days.

I was helped getting my ham license by how they had recently opened up the technician license category when I took an entry exam.