First contact since getting my general ticket

[KC1BUD]

I got my General ticket back in June of this year. I actually made contact last night on 3970 on the 75 meter band. On the country cousins net Al KB8AMW, south west of Dayton, was the moderator. :headphones: :radio:

I have an Icom 746 pro, I was at about 75 watts ran it through an LDG auto 100 tuner to a simple dipole antenna about 4 ft above my head in the room with me. I got him full quieting he reported a good signal from me as well. The band was booming!! :bigmic:

[wa8yxm]

Congratulations on getting you General, now you need to upgrade to EXTRA HI.

There is a reglar net, pre=net stars abut six pm Eastern (or to be more exact 2200 UTC, since we change hours soon)

3.973MHZ Net control is usuall in southern lower Mich or northern Ohio

[KC1BUD]

Congratulations on getting you General, now you need to upgrade to EXTRA HI.

There is a reglar net, pre=net stars abut six pm Eastern (or to be more exact 2200 UTC, since we change hours soon)

3.973MHZ Net control is usuall in southern lower Mich or northern Ohio

Working on the Extra, will try as soon as my eyes stop glazing over. And I have an extensive electronics background About the equalvelent of a Batchlor's with field experience, just haven't done anything in the field for near 20 years. I did only miss 2 on the General though.

Is that net everyday or only certain days or day?

[KC1BUD]

Congratulations on getting you General, now you need to upgrade to EXTRA HI.

There is a reglar net, pre=net stars abut six pm Eastern (or to be more exact 2200 UTC, since we change hours soon)

3.973MHZ Net control is usuall in southern lower Mich or northern Ohio

Is that net everyday or only certain days or day? :confused:

[One Country Boy]

Congratulations Dan ! Listen out also in the mornings @ 0800 CDT on 3950. They call the roll in alpha order (suffix). At the end of the net, they call for out-of-state. It's possible you could still get in that time of the day. I hear stations in Texas and Oklahoma about that time.

John, I listen to you guys some mornings on 3973. Usually waiting for my net to kick off and answering e-mails. Most of the stations up in your area are readable. I've not heard your call sign though. Mind ya, I have several things going at once. Some times I'm also listening to some 2 meter conversations from Tallahassee to Pensacola.

Dan, how long is your diapole antenna ? Can you put an antenna up outside or, are you in a restricted area ? I've got a friend near here that used to be in the Country Cousins, he's not very active anymore. The Cousins are a fun group to listen in on. Respectable group.

My son was out putting on a presentation to one of the volenteer fire departments tonight. Attempting to promote amateur radio. He's put on about 5 or 6 now and has a tech class set up and VE's coming later for testing. We need more amateurs in our area.

Hope to hear you on soon Dan.

[wa8yxm]

Well, this is not quite as impressive as a First contact with a new license but I did a couple of things recently in the 1st category

1: First HF RTTY contact, and 2 of 'em in fact, France and Luxemburg (As best I can speil it)

2: First trans-oceanic SSB contact,,, Scotland,
2b: First "Pile up" contact.. (Same contact) 1st try too!!!!!!

All this with 100 feet of wire tied to the screw on top of a KAT-1 Auto Tuner... WOW.

(Did some VHF Rtty back in the day with a Klinschmidt TT4/C but have never done any HF before, or any with the computer)

A good week.. Which reminds me eQSL.CC time

[KF5BET]

I'm jealous....Still trying to get my antenna worked out..The R5 vertical seems to be high on SWR on most bands. Afraid to tx and damage the radio. I am looking into dipoles and a tuner (really want to get up into 40 and 80 bands).

Been listening quite bit though...my radio fund is growing VERY slowly right now :(

Glad to hear about your first!!!

[KC1BUD]

I'm jealous....Still trying to get my antenna worked out..The R5 vertical seems to be high on SWR on most bands. Afraid to tx and damage the radio. I am looking into dipoles and a tuner (really want to get up into 40 and 80 bands).

Been listening quite bit though...my radio fund is growing VERY slowly right now :(

Glad to hear about your first!!!

What I have done is to buy a device that normally a cable from the radio to the antenna tuner would go. This device allows your radio to tune at a low power, without damage to the radio finals, without the actual tuner cable. I bought it on ebay.:headphones:

[KC1BUD]

Congratulations Dan ! Listen out also in the mornings @ 0800 CDT on 3950. They call the roll in alpha order (suffix). At the end of the net, they call for out-of-state. It's possible you could still get in that time of the day. I hear stations in Texas and Oklahoma about that time.



Dan, how long is your diapole antenna ? Can you put an antenna up outside or, are you in a restricted area ? I've got a friend near here that used to be in the Country Cousins, he's not very active anymore. The Cousins are a fun group to listen in on. Respectable group.

My son was out putting on a presentation to one of the volenteer fire departments tonight. Attempting to promote amateur radio. He's put on about 5 or 6 now and has a tech class set up and VE's coming later for testing. We need more amateurs in our area.

Hope to hear you on soon Dan.
Jim,

I think I have said it before I have 2 brothers Jim, and 2 sisters Connie. :jitter: (real and Step) In fact one of my brother's Jim was married to a sister Connie. :whistle:

The dipole I am using now Is someone's homebrew that he intended for shortwave listening it will handle the 100 watt max that my radio can put out. I live out in the boonies on 10 acres no homeowners association, however the township was looking at some restrictions to commercial antennas that might have curbed my ability to put up any size tower I wanted to but it got tabled indefinitely.

I have a G5RV to put up outside, but I still need a couple of sections of tower to get to 40 feet. Trying to save as much money I can and get it up right. My sister gave me a TV tower now I need a base and one more section.
Hopefully by this time next year. :radio:

how old is your son? Wish I could either of my son's interested. :poke:

[KF5BET]

Dan:

What is that lovely device called that you bought off ebay??? I did a quick search tonight and did not know what to call it (found some pretty neat tuners though....)

[One Country Boy]

Jim,

how old is your son? Wish I could either of my son's interested. :poke:

My son is N4XCI, he's 32 now Dan. He got his ticket when he was 14 or 15. He decided to study one summer and take the test. He kept his Tech ticket for less than a year before moving to his General. Funny thing, my nephew was staying with us several weeks that summer. He decided he would get his tech also. He read over the Q&A book a couple of times, took the test with my son and passed as well. My nephew never had an interest in Ham Radio. He since then let his license expire even with our urging him to keep it updated. Their original calls were KD4RZP and KD4RZQ. Oh yes, my nephew is a year younger than my son. Both are good young men and now have careers in law enforcement.

[KC1BUD]

Dan:

What is that lovely device called that you bought off ebay??? I did a quick search tonight and did not know what to call it (found some pretty neat tuners though....)

I don't know what transeiver you have but here is one like the one I bought for my radio.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ICOM-TUNER-CONTROL-706-718-746-756-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ110440841109QQcmdZViewItemQQptZL H_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item19b6c97f95&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I hope this helps.
73s Dan

[KF5BET]

Had High hopes, but I have an old IC-740. Don't think that this will work. Thanks anyway.

[KC1BUD]

Had High hopes, but I have an old IC-740. Don't think that this will work. Thanks anyway.

Sorry that didn't help. Maybe turning down power and tuning the tuner might work.

[KF5BET]

hey Dan:
Yeah, I have just been using the SWR Setting on the radio, but I don't have a high trust value in it yet...
I really want to throw a g5rv up into the trees in the backyard, but need a tuner for that. I bought the wire today and am waiting to order some ladder line from Universal Radio (that's the cheapest I found so far!).
I figure by the time I get the antenna built, I should be able to get a tuner (more of an excuse anyway;).

[TXiceman]

I had a manual tuner that I sold recently and now have two LDG tuners. I keep the AT897 tuner in the trailer to use with the FT857 when on the road and the AT200 Pro for use at home on the FT 897D. Both work very well.

If you plan on working and experimenting with antennas, you need to look inot a MFJ Antenna Analysizer.

Hope to hear you on the air.

Ken