CQ CQ CQ - Who's out there?

G’day guys, I finally took the steps to become an Amateur Radio Operator around 18 months ago.

The story is that I first got interested when I was around 16 years old back in the old CB days, and discovered a neighbour who was a Ham. Back in those days there was the morse code requirements to get a licence, and I never had the interest in learning morse, so never got any further than the interest.

A couple of years back I heard that the morse requirement was dropped, which then got me interested enough to go out and get my Foundation licence. Within the next 12 months I upgraded to my Advanced Licence (full call), so now I am VK4BLP.

As you know, I’m down in the South East corner of Queensland, which on a map is just north of the most easterly point of Australia.

Hi all - my call is G6NHK, but I’ve been inactive for at least 10 years because of work pressures etc. When I was active, I was heavily involved with packet radio, and I ran packet nodes on 70cms, 2m and 4m from my home in N Cambridgeshire.

However, I’m back on the air again now, and guess what ? I’ve just discovered APRS, which shows the GPS position of stations, and also allows for the transmission of weather information !

Yes, APRS is a bit of fun, check out aprs.fi and look up my call vk4blp-9 and you can see where I am when I’m driving around.

Still gotta lot of things to play with… currently vk4blp-5 is my weather on APRS.

My call is NA5AA and my QTH is in Granbury Texas. I’m active all most bands except for 160 and 6 meters and enjoy all the various digital modes like JT65, PSK31, RTTY, SSTV, and D-Star.

I have my own ICOM D-Star 440 repeater (W5HCT), as well a DV-Dongle, DVAP, IC-9100, 92AD and ID-31. I also have a Flex 3000 that I use exclusively for JT65, PSK, RTTY, SSTV. My antennas are a GAP Titan-DX vertical and a inverted V wire antenna up about 40 feet.

Hi
i am MM0KTC (IO85KT) based in Scotland.

Keith

Hi

I’m Steve AI9T. I’m fairly active on the radio. I enjoy chasing DX and RTTY contesting. My web site is www.ai9t.com. Take a look at it if you like.

73
Steve AI9T

I was GM3GUC and ZC4BN, active in late 1940s/early 1950s, nothing since then.

La5nna here, from jo38ma , qrv from 160m-23cm… but curently my antennas are down :frowning: to mutch weather at the cost in the winter time.

73
Eivind

I’m a “Boil in the Bag” M6 M6ICY

Inactive, due to the feeling that Ham is a bit dead. Loved my 10w, even getting from SE England to Montenegro! on HF, but sold my gear, my PC/“Toy” room has no outside wall so cabling has always been a problem in this house too :frowning:

Ham radio is far from dead. There are many new hams coming on the air all the time. There are new modes of operation like D-STAR which allows you to talk around the world on a HT or if there are no D-Star repeaters in your area, you can get a DV-Dongle or DVAP which can connect across the internet to other repeaters or Reflectors.

There is a live D-STAR broadcast on the internet right now at http://w5kub.com which is explaining all the different features of D-Star operations.

There are digital modes like JT65, or JT9 which allow you to make contacts around the world with 1 watt or even less depending on band conditions. There are other digital modes like PSK, RTTY, and many others. Computers can also play a big part in ham radio with Software Developed Radios (SDR) which control the actual radio hardware on systems like the Flex radios. Computers can do your logging, DX spotting, and more. The ham radio hobby is alive and growing, the reports of ham radios death are greatly exaggerated.

It’s not dead yet!

It sure isn’t as thriving as it once used to be, but there’s still quite a few of us around.

There’s plenty to choose from, as there’s more than just HF to play with, but VHF/UHF and microwave, and even as just mentioned D-Star.

For a bit of fun, I’ve just set up my own irlp node (6857) just yesterday.

Amateur Radio is and probably always will be very big in the States, probably in Aus too.

But here in the UK, specifically Kent, it really is very quiet. 20m & 40m were quite busy just over on the continent, but 2m and 70cm are as dead as DoDo’s. And those you do hear on 2m seem matey and it feels very Cliquey.

It’s not the fault of Ham or the Operators, more of probably my choices of places to live !

Just my opinion of how things feel here in SE England. Not a statement of fact.

Boil in the bag?

_ . _

It’s a term we use for Train Drivers that come off the street and pass out in about a year, rather than the 7 or so it used to take.
I refer to my Ham Licence as a “boil in the bag” because you pass it so very quickly. Sometimes a few weeks, sometimes in a weekend!
M6 is a Foundation Licence, 10 watts etc.
Loved Radio for years, just a shame it went quiet around here.

Might have another delve another time :slight_smile:

Thanks, I was only familiar with the term relating to kippers :smiley:

Here we have the ham cram, a class/exam combination designed to get anyone, regardless of knowledge, a ham license in one day. It’s based on memorization rather than learning.

De KA0WWT.

I have been licensed since 1986…dang that has been a while. I have been radio-inactive for the past few years as I got burned out on contesting and then life got in the way. All my antennas are now down and I have taken up metal detecting as a hobby. That tends to be somewhat funner to me now. My radio bug has been silenced and may rise again some day. But not in the near future.

Metal detecting is a fun hobby, you find a good deal of trash but you find some cool treasure too!!

Oooh what have you found, always fancied a bit of metal detecting.

Mostly newer coins as my wife (KB0LNA) and I coinshoot primarily. We both have found our share of gold and silver rings and we have made trips to Virginia looking for Civil War relics. I have found a good number of bullets and buttons on those trips but nothing of more significance.

We both would love to detect the U.K. some day. We may as there are folks that sell trips just for detecting.

K5SOI here, got my license back in 1958 when code was sent on a tape machine and the test was hand written, no multi choice and in front of a fcc examiner. Still active on 440 and hf.

Hello,

Call here is K4BS and I have been a Ham since 1992. I chase DX and some casual contests. Lately, I have been working DSTAR and HF portable.

73,

Kevin