Well, Here I am, the month of my birth and 79 years later. That
was of no help in writing this blog except it gave me an excuse for the
muddled thoughts I sometimes write. These months seem to fly by.
Didn’t I just post the September blog??
I know that each ham has different interests and priorities. I like
operating in the HF (High Frequency) bands. I like to think the
stations I reach are interesting new acquaintances and I learn
something about them, their station and their QTH (home location). It
is like being invited to someone’s house for coffee and a chat. For the
extraordinary contact I will send a QSL card and in most cases I will
receive one in return. Yesterday I received a card from W1AW which
is the ARRL’s station at their headquarters in Connecticut. My signal
went from my Icom IC-746Pro up the coax to a folded dipole antenna
30 feet high, which is partially obscured by the roof of the garage,
across the continent to their sophisticated station! Wow!
Of course I have had contacts much farther away but this one was
special as they have been a large part of American ham activities since
the very early days of amateur radio. I am glad to have the QSL card
to confirm our QSO. I don’t have a good open space in my shack to
display my cards so I scan them and use the file containing those cards
to create my computer screen’s wallpaper. It changes from card to
card constantly every 20 seconds.
Another pursuit many Hams have is being a volunteer. I’m
guessing we have members of LCARC who have volunteered for
committees, community positions, church positions, activities to help
others such as food banks and lets not forget ACS. When the need
was there for help, other than communication duties, Jenny Maris has
found hams stepping up to assist. Then of course the communication
duties are always the most interesting to help with.
Those studying for their license often mention such quotes as;
“When all else fails …” Which tells us that they view ham radio as a
resource in times of need or catastrophic events. It’s true, hams can
continue to communicate when other means are no longer
functioning. Cell phones are great but they depend on towers and the
tower depends on a source of electricity which may have backup to
the power grid but when the fuel runs out or the batteries discharge the
system fails. Also, the cell phone operator needs to know the phone
number to call for help and assistance and 911 is not always the
number to call.
Such activities as the “Noon time Net” on the Cape Foulweather
145.370 Mhz repeater are great training. “Training” you ask? Yes, for
those who help out and fill in when W7ALX is not able to run the net
that experience is invaluable. During an emergency or event, a Net
Control may not be available. Someone needs to step in and get the
communication started. If you have done it before in an informal
situation, you will be more at ease and do a better job in an
emergency. But, just picking up that microphone and pushing the PTT
(Push To Talk) button is a major step for some hams. Across the
nation clubs offer courses with titles like “I got my license, now
what?”
People in general, and new hams in particular, are reticent to
make themselves look foolish or inept. We all started somewhere and
have made mistakes everywhere. We have been tongue-tied or lost
our train of thought while talking on the radio. As central to our ham
identity as our call sign is many of us have “forgotten” it or misstated
it, particularly if it is not a series of letters that flow together such as
KF7WZV which was my old call sign. (I found that using phonetic
letters helped both myself and the stations I was communicating with.
Kilo, Foxtrot, Seven, Whiskey, Zulu, Victor resonated with the other
operator much better than KF7WZV.)
Some of us are by nature quiet whether it be having coffee with
friends, at a meeting, or on a radio net. Others seem to talk easily and
sometimes endlessly. The well thought out expression is often appreciated and more easily taken to heart by the listeners. I knew a ham who used multiple “scripts” for his QSOs. He preferred to use CW or Digital operations as it allowed him to communicate without having to talk. As I learned, he had slight speech impediment as a child and it has always made him self-conscious when speaking, even though he had lost any impediment.
These are some of the things that make our hobby so adaptable.
No matter what our abilities or interests we can find a niche in
amateur radio. I just read a blog from the Eugene radio club and a
woman who is by no means a “techie” has become fascinated with
moon bounce. Her husband is a ham and she got a license because of
him. But poetry rather than radios and antennas were her interest.
Then somehow sending a signal a quarter million miles into space,
hitting the moon’s surface, and reflecting it back to earth became a
fascination!
We all need to find interests within our hobby to keep it relevant
to us. We may not even see it coming. It may sneak up on us and all
of a sudden – Wow! 73 Chuck Gerttula W7CRG