A person could ask what do I find attractive about Amateur radio. To answer that we will have to delve into the past. When I was a kid I used to sneak a transistor radio into my bed at night and listen to AM radio stations, including WBZ out of Boston. The very idea of hearing stations from across the country was mystical. I found back in 1998, that ham radio had the same sort of magic but now I could reply to and interact with the disembodied voices. When I first started I was impressed with the friendly people who were very helpful to a newby. Some of them are gone now but will always remain in my memory.

These days I use CW on the HF bands and occasionally SSB when there is a special event station I want to work. I belong to a couple of CW clubs on the air : FISTS which is the Morse Code Preservation Society and SKCC which is the Straight Key Century Club which promotes the use of manual telegraphy. I have delved into some of the digital modes from time to time and plan on getting more into them. In 1998 I was introduced to Packet Radio which had past its peak but was still used. You could connect from node to node and communicate keyboard to keyboard across the country. I was lent an old IBM luggable computer to run packet and it was perfectly adequate to the task even though it was an antique at this point. Sometimes the harddrive would stick when it was booted and you had to give it a whack with something like a screwdriver handle to jog it into action. After a few years packet pretty much faded into obscurity, replaced by modes suck as PSK31, and now FT4 and FT8.

So on my commute to work I mostly use 146.520 MHz which is a frequency known for non-repeater use. I have had many conversations with hams both local and travelling through. I do get on repeaters now and then, in particular the TARA repeater on 147.045 + ctcss 146.2 Hz and the W3ND repeater 444.550 + ctcss 123.0 both of which cover Perry County very well. If you hear me on a repeater or on simplex, give me a call. On roadtrips I usually program my radio with a list of repeaters along the route One trick I learned is to make every 10th memory slot 146.520 so you can switch easily to simplex. This makes it very handy along long routes as some repeaters do not get a lot of activity.

So there is my latest entry. More to come.