My Ham radio hobby(new thread, old one is buried)

[kfarm]

Still on the air since '72, advanced class. 73's WB5VOF.

[ozarkhillbilly49]

no popper the k3 ain't collins thank god!! it is a modern rig made by elecraft out in California. i have never been impressed with collins gear. but that is just me. i do have a hallicrafters sr-2000 hurricane i am working on tho.the k3 has the best receiver in it i have ever worked with. i am a firm believer that the receiver is the heart of a station . 73's to all. aa5ez

[woodbutcher]

Great thread guys and gals.Brings back a lot of memories.One gentleman who used to let me sit and listen in on the doins,used the cw a lot.And Sweet Jesus,when he cranked up the key it sounded like a machine gun.He was a retired Navy radio man.He has since gone to that great ham fest in the sky.God bless his soul.He found a bunch of declassified WW2 Navy code books in a real Army-Navy surplus store.Sent some to a bunch of his retired buddies.
Boy did they have fun with their nightly yak fests.Hehehe.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[MaryB]

I love the old stuff but my back says n to lifting it anymore! Some of those transmitters were 75+ pounds... last one I restored was a Johnson Ranger... I need to get my hands on an HW-101 or something like it that is light enough I can lift. Be good backup to the solid state rigs.

It was a life long hobby for dad.Unfortunately when he passed the house was sold and most of his ham "stuff" was disposed of.Lots of it went to the city dump because we could not find any one that wanted any of it.He was old school and eveyone we tried to give the stuff to didn't want to mess with the old type radio equipment. I threw away several thousand vacuum tubes new in the box because no one used them any more and E-bay was not worth the trouble.

[AZ-JIM]

Congrats on the moon bounce, its one of the things I want to do eventually. Too much working and not enough time for radio right now. I run an Icom 706 MKIIG with a ground mounted vertical or a loop that runs around the perimiter of my property. The loop works well, my first contact on it was in Italy. Truthfully the whole thing works really well for as small as the investment is. I could only imagine what it would be like to have a tower with a beam and a fully adjustable tx/rx. I do like the dipole for camping trips too.
Good luck and good dx, 73

az-jim

[Detroitdanm]

Some great pics in this thread, thank God, because I've seldom understood less that was typed in clear english. You hams have a lingo all your own.
Not to sidetrack the thread, but could anyone point me to where I could learn a bit more about this fascinating hobby, but at a beginner level?

[smoked turkey]

I was first licensed in 1961 as WN0ATU, and now am WA0ATU (Always Tune Up) and Extra class now. Unfortunately a huge ice storm broke my Mosley CL-33's boom. At that point I lost interest and took down the 100 ' Rhon 25 tower and need to sell my remaining Collins KWM-2A, 30L1, and accessories. It is a wonderful hobby and I never thought in a hundred years that I would be an inactive ham radio operator. I loved 20 meter CW as well as SSB. I also like to work the long ones on the other side of the pond (DX we call it). My XYL (wife) has a general class and is KA0MOY. My two boys were also licensed. So we were a ham family. Great memories. I knew TCfan's dad very well. He was a great guy. Terry I know you miss him, but as was said you have so many good memories and wow what a nice picture of him in his shack. Good thread. Thanks Mary for getting it going. 73 to all.
Stan...aka smoked turkey & WA0ATU.

[Minerat]

.....
Not to sidetrack the thread, but could anyone point me to where I could learn a bit more about this fascinating hobby, but at a beginner level?

Try the ARRL web site (American Radio Relay League) http://www.arrl.org/home they are a good place to start. You can probably find local radio club from their list and just call the contact for the club. They can set you up with an Elmer (mentor). Don't be afraid to call for help Hams tend to like helping a novice and show off their shack.

I just pulled my mobile out of the old pickup and haven't looked into installing in the new one yet. My Elmer went SK in March (KI0LA - SK) and I'm kind in a holding pattern. Think I'll start studying for my General in his memory.

MaryB - Nice picture too.
73's KC0GPT

[MaryB]

My old FT-897d with the lines in the display is in my truck. I need to find an external display for it because I am not putting $300 worth of parts into that radio! Mostly run 20m mobile and I use the Maritime mobile net as a marker to tell me where I am lol I also have a 40 meter whip for the truck for winter use. Working DX while rolling down the road is fun!

[aspangler]

First ticket was in my hand on june 3-1970. WN4RAV loved cw and still do. CW will pucnh through when nothing else will. I have an FT101ex with external VFO and a phone patch. I only work 15meters with it though. Not enough time to get another antenna up right now. Also have 3 vhf ht's and two dual band mobiles. Pretty active on the local repeaters late at night. I upgraded my class to Advanced years ago but never changed the call. Great pics and great memories in this thread.
73 de WB4RAV in TN.

[mac60]

no popper the k3 ain't collins thank god!! it is a modern rig made by elecraft out in California. i have never been impressed with collins gear. but that is just me. i do have a hallicrafters sr-2000 hurricane i am working on tho.the k3 has the best receiver in it i have ever worked with. i am a firm believer that the receiver is the heart of a station . 73's to all. aa5ez

I was stationed at USCG commsta San Francisco/NMC. As I understood it, the receiver site was designed by Collins. All the receive equipment was Collins. Each of the operator consoles had 4 Collins receivers (if I remember right they were model 651). That was in a different life though. Everything was state of the art for it's time (late 70's - early 80's). ZUT.

[MaryB]

Lots of indoor antenna choices these days to get on HF. Need to operate low power but it can be done! I need to work on my CW this winter, I am really rusty and it is still used quite a bit on weak signal VHF.

Still looking over ideas for a 160m antenna, highest I can get anything is 27 feet so looking over options...

[ozarkhillbilly49]

mary think about shunt feeding that moonbounce tower. with that yagi array on top it makes fer darn good tophat!! bet that little tower shunt fed would amaze you on the top band. i got a few big variables if you need one.

[gilgsn]

I got all my licenses in September of 2012 and made my first contact in CW using a K1 I built from a kit. I later built a dozen other kits including a K2. Briefly owned a KX3. Now I am back to France after losing everything in a boating mishap (svdagny.com) including my radios. I did manage since then to get a Weber MTR and RT-320. I have a KX2 on order... You guys find me on the reverse beacon network when I'm using CW: F4WBY. My US call sign is AK4YH.

Gil

[Hooker53]

You learn something new everyday on this forum. I had no idea so many shooters was also hams. I'm kC4CTU. I'm an Extra. Worked and confirmed about 235 countries. The first 100, (DX Cent)was on a HW-101 I built with an inverted Vee. Loved that rig. My HF rig now is a Kenwood 930 into an Exp 14 9.8 DB gain beam up 90 feet on a tower. I'm not very active now but have all my rigs in a 6 foot roll top just waiting till I retire. Again. Ha. IV been toying with the idea of a Icom 706 MKIIG set up in my Suburban with a screwdriver. 73's Dit Dit.

[Just Duke]

Nice setup Mary.
I have couple Yaesu FT 2000's on my ebay watch list.

[Just Duke]

FT 897D for mobile and vehicles

[TXGunNut]

Fascinating hobby. Built a Radio Shack crystal radio kit almost 50 yrs ago and actually obtained a CB license (KAKS8150?) before they became unnecessary. A childhood neighbor was a ham, fascinating stuff but never pursued it.

[TXGunNut]

I was never a Ham but my dad was a long time ham radio operator.Got his first license in the late 1930,s.His call letters was W0FNN and then when he got his extra class he changed it to K0AW.It would be interesting to me if any one ever worked him. He was good about sending QSl cards.He passed away in 2014 at the age of 98 years and 7 months.
Here is a photo taken in better days..........

Awesome old school shack. I can see the pride on his face.

[MaryB]

No can do with a super sensitive preamp at the power divider on the cross boom!

mary think about shunt feeding that moonbounce tower. with that yagi array on top it makes fer darn good tophat!! bet that little tower shunt fed would amaze you on the top band. i got a few big variables if you need one.