Passed my technician level amateur radio test

[44Blam]

Passed my Technician test today. Pretty excited.

[Minerat]

Congratulations, welcome to amature radio and now the fun begins. I'm sure other ham members will chime in. Not as active as I once was since my Elmer passed and still have a Tech license. Been meaning to take the General now that code is not required. I just didn't have time to learn it and figured once I retired I'd take the time and get tested. Besides I still like my call sign (good excuse?)

73's

[tommag]

Welcome to a new hobby! It can get expensive, but it's a lot of fun.
KI7SYG

[Roy Acuffff]

Welcome to ham radio, I hope that you enjoy this new hobby as I have for the last 60+ years.
I started ham radio as I entered high school and have stayed with it for all these years. Started
ham radio in 1959, then reloading in 1964. Still doing both. If you need help with ham radio
send me a private message, we can exchange phone #'s and I will assist you anyway I can.

73 de Roy - K5WSC

[farmerjim]

Congratulations, I can still remember passing my novice test back in the early 70's. Then the first QSO with a 75 watt homemade CW transmitter.

WB5SZT

[bakerjw]

N9YVD here.
Great hobby although HF is mostly dead with no sunspots.

[marlin39a]

KJ7GTZ here. Had my license for just over 2 yrs. I listen more than I talk. Join your local club. Lots of great people there that can help you out.

[myg30]

Congrats on passing the test. While everything is fresh in your memory keep going at least to general. If you wait to long it will be a learning curve again.
2 meters kinda quiet here. Repeaters are not as busy as they use to be. Either way enjoy it and have fun.
I’m retired now and just moved so when the dust settles before fall, I’ll get my antennas up and become active again.

Mike WA2DLN

You might mention what state your in, you might have a local ham chime in here.

[bakerjw]

When I went to take my 5WPM code test, my VE was a good friend of mine. N9BBV. He said, aw heck, you're going to try 13 first. I was decent at 5, but 13??? Low and behold after a practice run, 13 wasn't horrible. I managed to follow the conversation and got 8 of 10 questions right. I then took the general written and passed it. The rule at home was that everybody had to call be General for the day. I kept the N9YVD and had to add a /AG to it. A month later and before the general license arrived in the mail, I passed the advanced written test so I had to use /AA.
I LOVE HF but haven't done it in years.

[Ural Driver]

Congratulations, enjoy !

[MaryB]

When I went to take my 5WPM code test, my VE was a good friend of mine. N9BBV. He said, aw heck, you're going to try 13 first. I was decent at 5, but 13??? Low and behold after a practice run, 13 wasn't horrible. I managed to follow the conversation and got 8 of 10 questions right. I then took the general written and passed it. The rule at home was that everybody had to call be General for the day. I kept the N9YVD and had to add a /AG to it. A month later and before the general license arrived in the mail, I passed the advanced written test so I had to use /AA.
I LOVE HF but haven't done it in years.

Lot of antenna options now for space/hoa challenged locations so get back on the air!

[MaryB]

Congrats on passing the test! Don't limit yourself to a handheld radio and just the local repeater. Get a mobile rig to use in the house, or a Yaesu all band all mode rig so you are setup for HF thru 70 cm(Minus 222, not a band with a lot of use in most places). Put a decent antenna on the roof with low loss feed line and you will have a LOT more 2 meter range. I use one of the generic Tram 17' tall 2m/70cm verticals https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-013232 if you use one make sure you waterproof the joints, they are the weak spot of this antenna. A 4 inch piece of adhesive lined heat shrink over each joint is all it needed.

[Three44s]

Congrats to the OP!

I wish I had taken ham radio up. I know it’s not too late, I am just 64 but I just am always running between farming and ranching and serving on four boards Ag related.

I live in a very good vantage point so that is not an excuse.

I notice that the air waves are pretty open according to posts here. Too much internet and too little radio. That should make a buyers market for good quality used equipment though!

Three44s

[Bull-Moose]

Congratulations!

[44Blam]

Thanks! I helped a buddy put up a tower...
284776
284777
284778
284779

[Daveco]

Congrats 44Blam!

I need to dust my gear off and get it fired back up.
73's de KV4VE

[Echo]

E-W5HZM here - Hollyhocks, Zinnias, and Marigolds! Plus Whisky Five! Built my own boots for my Hammarlund HX-50, pair of 811's in parallel, grounded-grid, 2,000 volts on plates from TV power xfmr in voltage-doubler setup, needed bias, so put a 2D21 wired up as a diode in center-tap of filament xfmr, worked like 4.5 volt regulator, just right. That, and a Drake 2-B Rx, and I was set. But gave it all up when I retired & moved to Az. No time for hamming then, going to school, teaching CommColl part-time, &cetera. Was an FCC Second-Class radio/Phone Engineer.
Started off with an ART-13 transmitter and a BC342 Rx going into a vertical antenna tuned by a coil on the bottom...
So Good On Ya, guy! Hamming is fun!

[Krag 1901]

In 1968 I went to work as an apprentice in Electronics under a Hire a Vet program the Air Force was running at McCellen AFB. We worked in the electronic shops in the mornings and took classes at the community college in the pms. My Radio teacher said if we passed the Second Class FCC test we would get a "B" in the class, we got him to give us an "A" for a FIrst Class license. He laughed but agreed.

I took my slide rule (Pre-calculator days) to San Francisco and pass the First Class and Radar endorsement and the teacher fell out of his chair!

I spent 30 years in Microwave Electronics in the Silicon Valley and worked my way off the bench to Director of Development for a QAM digital radio and spent years consulting on Microwave propagation all over the world. 16 countries and over 250,000 air miles traveled.

Now I'm old and can't remember the basic formulas, but Hey it was a good life!

[KCSO]

armature I have built a couple of radios and where does this part go?

[WebMonkey]

hangs off the side and holds something else.

;)

[johnfl]

Congratulations for earning your ticket. My wife and I have been licensed for almost 10 years now. Finding an "Elmer" through a local Ham club would likely be very rewarding. I'm not a technical person at all. I had an injury that forced early retirement. I had always wanted to travel and took good health for granted... never even looked into applying for a passport. I decided I could still travel the World by radio and my wife agreed to be a study buddy to help me do that.

Our local radio club was very supportive and several "Elmers" helped us design a very nice Ham station. Jayne and I tested for tech and general at the same time. After making friends locally Jayne declared that this is fun and we can pass the Extra exam. She passed it on the first try and I didn't. After a year of being made sport of I managed to upgrade to Extra.

Some areas have very active repeaters with a bunch of other Hams a Tech license will allow you to get to know.... our area repeaters are not getting much traffic currently.

EchoLink is free and a method that would allow you to make contacts around the World if you are interested

https://secure.echolink.org/

There is a glut of good quality used equipment on the market. If you can find a local Elmer willing to help you could get the equipment needed to operate on HF bands Probably doable for less than 500.00. The General exam is harder than Technician but if your local repeaters are not as active as you'd like the General is a very reachable goal.

Enjoy the hobby

73

John & Jayne
KK4FZI & KK4FZH

[44Blam]

armature I have built a couple of radios and where does this part go?

The armature came from the combination of the auto co-wreck feature combined with my general inability to spell...

[Bulldogger]

Congratulations! Keep going!
KO4GMY

[RudyN]

That is great! I earned my Novice License in 1989 and Extra Class in 1990. Keep up the good work.

KK6U

[bluebird66]

KC4VAJ here, been licensed for thirty years. Had to pass the 30wpm for my Extra.

[lksmith]

Passed my Technician test today. Pretty excited.

Congrats, I did the same about 2years ago! Unfortunately the popular bands for Techs (2m and 70cm) are pretty dead so I haven't done much with it

[derek45]

Congratulations

:drinks:

Start studying for the General test, HF radio is where the fun's at.





N9YVD here.
Great hobby although HF is mostly dead with no sunspots.

It's getting better every day.

I just talked to England driving home from the grocery store tonight.

https://i.imgur.com/eDNqP4j.jpg

[KenH]

Congrats 44Bam - Do you plan to work the 13 colonies event this week? Any other folks working it? I normally work it each year - lots of fun. http://www.13colonies.us/

73 de Ken H> K9FV

[bakerjw]

I described the 13 colony event to my wife and explained that amateur radio had come up as a topic on the same board that got me interested in beekeeping. She laughed and then said NO... I have enough on my plate as it is...

I'll have to see if I can score some tower sections now... ;)

ETA.... And YES... You are all in trouble now... ;)

[lksmith]

She laughed and then said NO... I have enough on my plate as it is...

Sounds like my wife!