Tim's Radio Shack – N9BRV

Well I am writing this kind of late or (early) in the morning… Last night was a great club meeting with the local Hams! The HCARC met for their January 2013 meeting and discussed a few new things we will be doing and trying out. I won’t explain them all here as most of the time it can be found out from our club website at: http://www.w9ob.org We had a special presentation this last evening given by Sean Ash, a Meteorologist from Channel 13 concerning how severe weather is forecast. It was pretty in depth and I was really impressed with the level of technology that we have today to predict the weather. We had three out of the four new Amateur Radio Operators there at the meeting (that number includes myself) and that a great encouragement to me! We need to keep Amateur Radio alive in Henry County!!! I also want to mention that another new Ham Radio Operator visited out meeting from Middletown (still in the county). His name is Greg and he was with me and met me at Anderson when I took my Extra Class exam. Greg passed his first exam, the Technician Exam which is a very good place to start if you are going to get into Ham Radio. All in all, it was a very good evening well spent! I learned a lot and had fun and fellowship with the club members that were present! If you would like to know more of how to become an Amateur Radio Operator, give me a holler, don’t be shy 🙂
73’s – KC9WZF – Tim

Well, the fun never ends with Amateur Radio!!!  Who-da-thunk-it?  This last week I listened in for about three days to a Sled Dog Race that was out in Oregon. The official name of the race is the Eagle Cap eXtreme and you can find more information out about it here: http://www.eaglecapextreme.com/ Now, since I was listening to it from an Amateur radio point of view, I was not actually listening to the race but listening in on all the Ham radio operators that were set up for communications and emergency management. It was very interesting listening in as you could hear first hand how amateur radio should work in emergency situations! I learned a lot from this and it was lots of fun not only listening but watching from a tracker map on the internet. I listened in with a program called Echolink which is exclusive Ham Radio operating software.

So, of course I didn’t listen in for 24 hours a day, yes I did go and get some sleep but I was pretty glued to the event for the three days that it ran. Echolink is some pretty awesome software that will run on a computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and other types of phones. The only thing is, you have to be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator to use it. The video you see above, is just an example of how it works and in this video, I have it running on my iPod. It worked rather well! I’ve also been able to talk with people in England and Australia and have heard people talking on it clear from Russia! It is a pretty nice piece of software especially if you are a new Ham Radio Operator and don’t have much by way of High Frequency (HF) privileges or equipment. So if you are a “New Ham” or even an old experienced Ham Radio Operator, it is worth checking in to this great little piece of software! Go check it out here: http://www.echolink.org/ Well, I’ve been windy enough in this post so I’ll turn off the radio for a bit 😉
73’s, KC9WZF – Tim

Well, it has been some time now and much has been done and accomplished since the last time I wrote!  I’m just bouncing back from a website crash due to a nasty little program app that did not want to run properly..  had to redo this whole site as you can tell by my prior posts from backup.  Anyway, since I was on here last posting, I believe I had just passed my Amateur Radio “General Class” exam..  not sure but just to let you know, I passed it, well actually aced it just like the previous Amateur Radio “Technician Class” exam.  Well, so after those two tests I took a break around Christmas day but hit it hard again studying for my Amateur Radio “Amateur Extra Class” exam.  Now the Amateur Extra exam is just a bit harder as there are around 750 questions or somewhere in that range..  that have to be memorized and of course you wouldn’t do too well on the test if you did not memorize the correct answer as well..  so that is what I did!  On the 16th of January, 2013 I traveled to Anderson, Indiana where the fine fella’s of the Anderson Repeater Club were giving the exams.  So with much confidence I took the test, well, I didn’t ace it this time but pretty close!  I missed one question out of 50!!!  I think I’ll take that!  So now at the time of this writing I am just waiting on the FCC to post the results to their database so I will be officially an Amateur Extra Class operator.  I’m pretty happy that I decided to get all this under my belt because now I can really start learning the tricks of the trade, believe me there are more tricks than I may ever learn in a lifetime!  So never the less, the fun begins and I’ve already started having a blast!

Over the last few days, I have been fixing up a makeshift “Ham Shack” in an old bathroom  that does not work anymore and was just used for storage.  So I’ve cleaned the place out and set up camp in it..  now of course this is just a temporary spot until I can figure out where I really want to put a “Ham Shack” but this will be it for now.  I’m using things I have around the house to furnish the shack for now such as the old desk you see in the picture.  This old desk has went through many years of pretty tough abuse but it still works so there ya go!  It will do just fine until I can find a permanent “Ham Shack” home.

Also pictured is my little 2 meter, 70 cm band Hand Held Ham Radio, and an iPod.  I use both of these for my daily Ham Radio contacts!  I use the 2 meter, 70 cm for local contacts on the local repeaters around here and also for the Simplex frequency.  The iPod, I use on EchoLink which is really an awesome technology for Ham Radio users who can’t get on the HF Bands yet because of either license issues or lack of HF equipment..  the later is my problem right now!  So as you see, the old desk looks a bit lonely setting there but it won’t be that way for long..  I PROMISE!!!  That’s all for this post… until next time, 73’s to you all and TTYL,  Tim – KC9WZF