Amateur radio

I have been a licenced ham since April 1999, initially as a Technician. I upgraded to Technician Plus in August 1999, at which time I passed the written tests for General, Advanced, and Amateur Extra. I was diligently working on my morse speed in order to upgrade when the FCC anounced the restructuring, This meant that I could upgrade on April 15, 2000 simply by presenting my CSCE to a VE session. Unfortunately, by the time April rolled round, I had misplaced my CSCE. So, I went to the next local testing session and took the new Part 3 and Part 4. I'm now an Amateur Extra.

Equipment at my QTH includes a Kenwood TM-261 connected to a Kantronics KPC3+ used for APRS, an Elecraft K2 QRP HF rig (with SSB, Noise Blanker, 160M, Antenna Tuner, and RS-232 control options), Kenwood TM-541a 1.2 GHz rig, and a Yaesu FT847. Antennas include a homebrew 2m Jpole for the APRS station, a random-length dipole, a home-brew groundplane for the 1.2 GHz rig, a Cushcraft 3+3 element beam on a TV rotator for 2m and 70cm, and an HF screwdriver (now slated for installation for mobile use).

Mobile equipment includes a Kenwood TM-D700a with Tripmate GPS, a Kenwood TM-D7a HT with a Garmin GPS-III+, and a Tripmate/MFJ data radio/Kantronics KPC3+/ HamHud II. You can locate my truck , my car , and my bicycle .

I have recently become interested in HF digital modes, and I now have a working PSK-31 setup using my PC running Linux and my Elecraft K2.

I also have a DSP-10 2m all-mode rig under construction. It is slow going, because I keep getting annoyed with the surface mount semiconductors. It isn't too bad doing the resistors and capacitors, but the leads on transistors and ICs are really tiny. When this is complete, I intend to use it as an IF rig for microwave work.

If you are interested in Amateur Radio, you might start at the ARRL home page.