Getting licensed -
Back in 2001, I was reading Gordo's books for Tech, General, and Extra as "light bedtime reading" over the course of a couple months. (I'd been interested in setting up data links in college, and had some ideas I wanted to play with, and in 2001 doing much with data required something past a tech ticket).
Then, faced with the prospect of a long boring drive from Portland down to San Francisco, I bought one of the MFJ code trainers, as morse was still a requirement at the time for the higher licenses. By the time I finished the drive after N straight hours of drilling, brain was goo but I had some passing proficiency with morse code.
Couple months later, I showed up at a test session the night after a "spirited" birthday party, but wanted to take a stab at it, in hopes that I could return better rested another day and get my ticket.
Long story short, I passed all 4 elements in one shot. Surprised me, surprised the VEs (the test proctors - VE stands for Volunteer Examiner).
I was so excited I dashed straight to Ham Radio Outlet and bought an FT-817. Powered it up, started listening to a local repeater...and realized I couldn't transmit because I didn't even have an "acting" call to operate under. My first call, AD6YT arrived a couple weeks later, but by that time the radio was on a shelf.
Time passes -
I renew the ticket online to keep it from expiring.
More time passes -
2015. I find myself an hour outside of cell coverage in the desert around midnight, having had my satellite modem run out of power while playing Ingress. Occurs to me that perhaps having a radio in the car for emergency use might have been a wise precaution. Car starts ok, and I make it back into town, but a seed was planted.
Back in 2001, I was reading Gordo's books for Tech, General, and Extra as "light bedtime reading" over the course of a couple months. (I'd been interested in setting up data links in college, and had some ideas I wanted to play with, and in 2001 doing much with data required something past a tech ticket).
Then, faced with the prospect of a long boring drive from Portland down to San Francisco, I bought one of the MFJ code trainers, as morse was still a requirement at the time for the higher licenses. By the time I finished the drive after N straight hours of drilling, brain was goo but I had some passing proficiency with morse code.
Couple months later, I showed up at a test session the night after a "spirited" birthday party, but wanted to take a stab at it, in hopes that I could return better rested another day and get my ticket.
Long story short, I passed all 4 elements in one shot. Surprised me, surprised the VEs (the test proctors - VE stands for Volunteer Examiner).
I was so excited I dashed straight to Ham Radio Outlet and bought an FT-817. Powered it up, started listening to a local repeater...and realized I couldn't transmit because I didn't even have an "acting" call to operate under. My first call, AD6YT arrived a couple weeks later, but by that time the radio was on a shelf.
Time passes -
I renew the ticket online to keep it from expiring.
More time passes -
2015. I find myself an hour outside of cell coverage in the desert around midnight, having had my satellite modem run out of power while playing Ingress. Occurs to me that perhaps having a radio in the car for emergency use might have been a wise precaution. Car starts ok, and I make it back into town, but a seed was planted.
