A ham is born

[krvw]

Hey folks,

 

In addition to my GMRS license (WRFC318), I passed my ham technician exam yesterday, so I'm now a ham (but waiting on my official call sign).

 

My journey is only at is very beginning, but I'm looking forward to it.

 

GMRS remains a higher priority for me for family comms, as I'm likely to be the only one willing to go ham, but for sure I'll use ham for hobby and emergency comms. There are many ham repeaters within range here, and where I vacation often (OBX and Kaua`i).

 

Oh, and I got my Ed Fong GMRS j-pole over the weekend, so I'm looking forward to some experiments with that in hopes I can get simplex mode between me and my wife at her office, 2.1 miles away.

 

Fun challenges to work on.

 

Just thought I'd share. I've really appreciated all the advice here from those of you with far (!) more experience than I.

 

Cheers,

 

Ken van Wyk

WRFC318

 

 

[marcspaz]

Congratulations! I think you're going to enjoy it. I held a Tech license for 17 years before I upgraded... there is a ton of stuff to enjoy under your new privileges.

 

I found that being an amateur radio operator doesn't detract from GMRS. I use GMRS weekly. It is a very useful platform.

[axorlov]

Congratulations!

Thanks for sharing. You may find ham is more interesting than GMRS with it's many faucets, like HF, satellite, microwave, meteor and aircraft scattering, SOTA, fox hunting, etc... Or you may not.

Btw, Fong's antenna did not really work for me. There is a thread here somewhere.