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Author Topic: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!  (Read 1509 times)

Offline atrainradio

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After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!
« on: December 04, 2020, 1757 UTC »
KD2VEG, got my tech class license today. I barely passed the test but hey I passed so who cares! Math is my worst subject but when you really want something, you stick to it.

Catch me 10m when the damn sun cooperates.
QTH, New Jersey, America's landfill
Tecsun PL-990 W/ Extendable Whip Antenna

Offline ThaDood

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Re: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2020, 2008 UTC »
CONGRAT's!!!!!!!! Well, the Winter Sporadic "E" season will be jammin' in a couple of weeks, albeit 10M maybe open up anytime in December. Also, if you have a decent scanner that can do 29MHz, punch in 29.600MHz FM Simplex, and the 10M repeater FREQ's, 29.620MHz, 29.640MHz, 29.660MHz, and 29.680MHz. Then, you might find local USB 10M chit-chatters around 28.400MHz. Tis the season.
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Offline N9QIW

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Re: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2020, 0659 UTC »
Congrats on passing the Tech exam.    Before I upgraded to General class,  I had lots of fun running the FT8 mode in the 10 meter band,  even though we were at the bottom  of the sunspot cycle at the time.   According to this link, you might get some additional HF privileges as well: https://swling.com/blog/2020/07/new-technician-hf-privileges-defined-arrl-board-accepts-final-recommendations-of-the-band-planning-committee/


Alex
N9QIW
Winfield, IN

Offline atrainradio

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Re: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2020, 1851 UTC »
Thank you all! Just got the baofeng hooked up to the 10m telescopic on my roof. Used to use it for CB'ing but got bored of it after so many years, sold off the rig for 100 bucks over the summer.
QTH, New Jersey, America's landfill
Tecsun PL-990 W/ Extendable Whip Antenna

Offline Rizla

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Re: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2020, 2037 UTC »
Congratulations! I got my Tech and General a few years ago after 35+ years of SWL'ing and DX-ing!

It turns out that SWL/DX listening is very useful for amateur radio. Some of my best catches have been just going by ear, hearing some guy from Spain or Japan under tons of noise. If you check 14.205 on a good day, W2NQ/7 will be going on about this, about "learning to listen". His rants are usually very similar but always entertaining.

As for 10m, it's not been terrible lately. There seem to be openings most weeks, sometimes a few a week.
« Last Edit: December 08, 2020, 2059 UTC by Rizla »
QTH: Sonoran Desert, AZ. Kenwood TS-820S, FT-891, Tecsun 880, neophyte in a forest of antenna wire.