KDØAMG (my new name)
Well, I got my ham radio license, and I was on the air for the first time on Monday. Larry and I went down to the IBM shack during lunch, and we tried listening on a few frequencies. He listened for continuous-wave (i.e. Morse code) transmissions on the 18-meter band, and I tried listening for any chatter on a couple of local 2-meter band repeaters. I didn't get anything on the repeaters, but Larry heard a guy in Greece (though he couldn't establish contact).
We came back down after work, and tried working the 10-meter band. This wouldn't have been possible a few months ago, but the FCC recently decided to allow Amateur Technicians to use a small slice of the 10-meter band. The whole area I can use is only 200 kHz, out of a 1700 kHz band, but I'm using single-sideband AM, which has a bandwidth under 3 kHz, so it feels like a nice wide space to wander around in. Larry gave me a brief tour of another transceiver, which they use on 10-meters, and then he had me listen on a few frequencies and try calling CQ. After a little while, I got an answer: my first contact, from Massachusetts. We chatted back and forth a bit, and ended the contact after a few minutes. I tried jumping to a few other frequencies, and a while later I caught a guy just east of Syracuse, NY, responding to my CQ. Again, we exchanged callsigns and signal reports, and then we moved on. So, my first night on the air, I contacted Massachusetts and New York.
Tonight, Larry and I stayed late after work, chatted about radio equipment, and then we went down to the shack again. After a more thorough tour of two of the club's transceivers, and a quick quiz on operating them, he left me for my first "solo run," so to speak. I called CQ for a bit, on a few frequencies, not really getting any answer, then I heard a response from Virginia. We had a short chat, and moved on as the signal propagation started to cut out. Just as he left, I got called by another Rochester resident, from his own station about 10 or 15 miles south (down by the airport). He turned out to be an IBMer I'd met at a couple club meetings (though I still can't put a face to his name -- I'll have to check the company directory). We had a nice long ragchew, and talked about radio equipment, and the sporadic E-layer propagation that's starting to become viable now. After a bit, we parted ways to pursue other contacts. I moved to another frequency to start calling CQ again, and I heard a faint, but relatively clear response from South Carolina. Unfortunately, all we managed to do was exchange our call signs and locations before the channel closed up on us (I'll probably want to follow up on that to confirm the contact). After a bit more frequency hopping, I actually ran into the Rochester local again -- he was trying to deal with a pileup of operators in the Carolinas. I could only hear a couple of them, but I couldn't break into the conversation, so I wandered around in some of the lower frequencies. The bottom part of the band was really crowded, and I couldn't really pick out any voice signals, so I moved back up a bit. After a bit of searching around, I ran across a few guys in Georgia just getting out of a 6-meter net. After a bit, I managed to break in, and had a nice chat with the two who were still on the air.
So now I've made seven contacts in six states. Larry says there's a good chance that I'll be able to hit all of the lower 48 before the end of summer.
A note on radio wave propagation:
So far, I've only made one contact (the other Minnesotan) on ground-plane transmissions. The other six were all via skywave propagation. As summer begins, random ionization clouds inexplicably form in the E-layer of the ionosphere. The "sporadic E propagation" is how I've been able to get signals out well past the horizon.
We came back down after work, and tried working the 10-meter band. This wouldn't have been possible a few months ago, but the FCC recently decided to allow Amateur Technicians to use a small slice of the 10-meter band. The whole area I can use is only 200 kHz, out of a 1700 kHz band, but I'm using single-sideband AM, which has a bandwidth under 3 kHz, so it feels like a nice wide space to wander around in. Larry gave me a brief tour of another transceiver, which they use on 10-meters, and then he had me listen on a few frequencies and try calling CQ. After a little while, I got an answer: my first contact, from Massachusetts. We chatted back and forth a bit, and ended the contact after a few minutes. I tried jumping to a few other frequencies, and a while later I caught a guy just east of Syracuse, NY, responding to my CQ. Again, we exchanged callsigns and signal reports, and then we moved on. So, my first night on the air, I contacted Massachusetts and New York.
Tonight, Larry and I stayed late after work, chatted about radio equipment, and then we went down to the shack again. After a more thorough tour of two of the club's transceivers, and a quick quiz on operating them, he left me for my first "solo run," so to speak. I called CQ for a bit, on a few frequencies, not really getting any answer, then I heard a response from Virginia. We had a short chat, and moved on as the signal propagation started to cut out. Just as he left, I got called by another Rochester resident, from his own station about 10 or 15 miles south (down by the airport). He turned out to be an IBMer I'd met at a couple club meetings (though I still can't put a face to his name -- I'll have to check the company directory). We had a nice long ragchew, and talked about radio equipment, and the sporadic E-layer propagation that's starting to become viable now. After a bit, we parted ways to pursue other contacts. I moved to another frequency to start calling CQ again, and I heard a faint, but relatively clear response from South Carolina. Unfortunately, all we managed to do was exchange our call signs and locations before the channel closed up on us (I'll probably want to follow up on that to confirm the contact). After a bit more frequency hopping, I actually ran into the Rochester local again -- he was trying to deal with a pileup of operators in the Carolinas. I could only hear a couple of them, but I couldn't break into the conversation, so I wandered around in some of the lower frequencies. The bottom part of the band was really crowded, and I couldn't really pick out any voice signals, so I moved back up a bit. After a bit of searching around, I ran across a few guys in Georgia just getting out of a 6-meter net. After a bit, I managed to break in, and had a nice chat with the two who were still on the air.
So now I've made seven contacts in six states. Larry says there's a good chance that I'll be able to hit all of the lower 48 before the end of summer.
A note on radio wave propagation:
So far, I've only made one contact (the other Minnesotan) on ground-plane transmissions. The other six were all via skywave propagation. As summer begins, random ionization clouds inexplicably form in the E-layer of the ionosphere. The "sporadic E propagation" is how I've been able to get signals out well past the horizon.