Amateur Radio

How I Became Interested

I clearly remember two separate things that got me interested in radio.  The first was my grandfather.  He helped me build a simple crystal radio when I was very young.  It always amazed me that I could hear AM broadcast stations on a radio that didn't even need any batteries. Of course it didn't hurt that there was a very powerful station only a few miles from my house.Later on my grandfather gave me a portable radio that could receive AM and FM broadcasts, VHF, and shortwave.  The shortwave was what fascinated me the most.  I used to spend a lot of time listening to all the foreign stations.  The second thing that got me interested was a large console radio at my neighbor's house.  I remember the push buttons on the front labelled with the names of foreign cities.

In junior high school I joined the radio club. I learned about ham radio and was working on getting my license.  Unfortunately the club organizer decided to quit being a ham and the club fell apart.  I tried to continue studying for my license, but when I saw the price of equipment I quickly determined that the hobby was cost prohibitive for me at the time.  I slowly turned to other hobbies, but my interest never completely died.

During the late 1980's/early 1990's I worked with Mary Garret, a blind computer programmer.  In conversations with her I learned she was a ham radio operator.  When I told her I had once studied for my license she gave me a copy of the recent study guide so that I could renew my efforts to become licensed.  That got me thinking about ham radio again, and I did start studying, but still didn't get my license.

Finally, in 2001 I became determined to get my license.  I studied the theory and regulations, and practiced the Morse code, which was a requirement for getting a license.  I did pass all the tests, and received my call sign, KB3HHA, from the FCC.  And it only took me 30 years.

My Current Station

My station consists of the following commercial hardware:

• ICOM IC-7300 100W HF-6M transceiver
• Alinco DM330 30 amp power supply
• MFJ 993B Automatic antenna tuner
• ICOM IC-2100 2 meter transceiver
• AEA DSP232 TNC
• SDRPlay RSP1A SDR Receiver
• MFJ 1708B-SDR Antenna switch
• MyAntennas OCFD-8010 antenna
• Yaesu FT-50R Dual band VHF/UHF handheld transceiver
• Baofeng Dual band VHF/UHF handheld transceiver
• Several Radio Shack scanners

Along with a number of kits and homebrew projects.

In addition, I use the following software:

• HamRadioDeluxe
• WSJT-X
• JTAlertX
• APRSViewer
• SDRUno

On The Air Activity

Here are the most recent contacts from my log: