You've stumbled onto Jim's website, where I highlight two of my hobbies --- Ham Radio and showdogs. This page is about my radio stuff, telling how I got into all this, left the hobby for many years, and returned. The Barney page and Agility page are about my showdog Barney. The Kiro page is about our great friend who is now gone. The D-Star Menu page is about my favorite Digital Voice mode, and HamNotes by Jim is my sometimes blog.
Back to Ham Radio, or Click here to skip past the technical stuff.
I'm an Amateur Radio Operator, licensed by the Federal
Communications Commission. In 2006, after quite a lot of study about
electronics, radio, propagation, as well as various rules and regulations, I was
able to pass the test to earn the highest level of Amateur Radio license --
Extra Class. But in 1959, I got started by passing the test for Novice
class,
and got on the air with a Collins 75A-2
receiver and WRL Globe Chief Deluxe CW transmitter.
KN0ZXU - early 1960
I upgraded to a General class license in
1960, adding a screen modulator and VFO
for AM phone. I then traded for a
Collins 75A-4 and got a Central
Electronics 100V transmitter, using a
Mosley TA-33 Jr beam and a 40 meter
folded dipole.
I was an active Ham through the 1960s,
but my career in computers took over and
unfortunately in 1970 I let my license
expire. Finally, in mid 2003, I
re-tested for General and got back on
the air. I've put together a new
station -- at home it's a Kenwood
TS-2000, sometimes with an Ameritron
ALS-600 amp. I enjoy both SSB and PSK31.
In 2010 I got into DV -- digital voice, starting with D-STAR. I marketed and supported a GMSK hotspot modem between 2011 and 2016. Currently I have 4 hotspots in the shack, and even though two of them can handle multiple modes, each is dedicated to a single mode:
I've done some low power/QRP with a Yaesu FT-817, focused
on SSB and PSK31 (using the NUE-PSK
digital modem). I particularly like QRP
in the field, and for that I use the
Pacific Antenna PAC-12 portable
ground-mounted vertical. The entire
station with battery fits in a small case.
I now have 4 functioning HF stations in
the shack:
Boatanchors today:
75A-4 rcvr, D-104 mike, 100V trsmtr,
600L linear, Globe Chief Dlx trsmtr,
755A VFO, 75A-2 rcvr
I am not a
contester, but I enjoy a little HF DX
when I hear it and am able to work it.
I am also re-learning my CW skills. I've
done a little satellite work and would
like to learn more. When I get more
time, I'd also like to get into ATV.
Non-Technical Stuff
My other hobby is
showing my dog (Hungarian Puli
sheepdog). I find there's almost no
cross-over of interest among people in
each of these hobbies, which maybe is
good!
Elmers
New Hams have often been
lucky to have been helped by older Hams
who encourage and teach them about
amateur radio. We call this person an
Elmer. But I've had an unusual Elmer
-- a friend my age I've known since
elementary school. Now, I did have a
natural interest in electronics. I
built a crystal radio from a kit, and I
still have an inspirational article
about short wave radio from a Boys Life
magazine in 1953 when I was nine. But
in what we called Junior High School
(middle school), my friend told me about
the new Citizens Band service on 11
meters. We both got Heathkit CB-1s and
built them. Tom showed me how to
"homebrew" a quarter wave vertical out
of conduit pipe, aluminum wire for the 4
radials, and plywood for the base. CB
hadn't been discovered by the public
yet, so the channels were quiet. We
convinced a non-technical friend to
build a CB-1 (he didn't enjoy that much)
and the three of us used CB as a kind of
intercom while we did our homework on
school nights. This was during one of
the great sunspot cycles of the last 100
years, and that winter I would
hear and talk to stations 1,500 to 2,000
miles away, using 2.5 watts of AM
phone. So I developed some early QRP
experiences without really thinking
about it.
Tom moved on to ham radio, studying for
the FCC tests to get his
Novice, followed by his General class
Amateur Radio license, and he encouraged
me to do likewise. So I thank KT0M,
which is now his call, for Elmering me
back in those days in north central
Iowa.
I sometimes talked to Tom from our club
station during the college years, but
when I got out of school, my interest in
Ham Radio was supplanted by work. I did
see my friend at High School reunions
every 5 years. We had both retired by
2003 when I had lunch with him on a
visit back to Iowa. As we left the
restaurant, Tom gave me a demo of the
mobile Ham rig in his car. He had
remained active all those years. It was
during that lunch, but especially
looking at his mobile rig, that I
silently told myself it was time to get
back to Ham Radio. Two months later, I
had a General license again.
So my Elmer helped me get into amateur
radio, and he helped me get back to it
so many years later. Thanks,
Tom.
I've also been helped by others, most
notably K0TMU. I didn't really know
Warren back in the early days, even
though he lived in my home town. I have
an old logbook that shows I talked to
him at least once. Since meeting
him in 2003, I got to know him and talked to him
regularly about Ham Radio and about life.
Warren was in his 80s, but continued to
learn new technologies and try new
things. He is my model of how I want to
live as I get older. Warren is a
Silent Key now, and like a lot of Hams
who knew him, I miss him.
Finally, my father deserves special
mention. He ran a successful
construction company, building
commercial buildings, schools and
churches. His hobbies were his family,
politics, economics and reading in
general, but not electronics. Yet he
supported my interest in radio, and
somehow I convinced him to study for the
Novice test when I did. He was smart,
but it is not easy to learn CW morse
code when you aren't interested. Yet he
did, and I remember the two of us taking
the test together in 1959. His call
was KN0ZXT. He didn't want to get on
the air, given his weak code skills, but
I convinced him to get on the air once
or twice. I remember his first QSO, and like all of us
during our first morse code contact, it was
difficult and tense. But he did it, and
I was so proud of him to have done all
that to show support for his son's
hobby.
Vanity Calls
The new vanity call system is wonderful,
and I've made use of it 3 times. But I
don't think I've abused it. In 2003,
after re-testing for Tech and General, I
was assigned the call KG6RTG. I
immediately researched if there was a
way to get back my old call. The old
callbooks showed it had never been
assigned to anyone else, and the vanity
system allows anyone to request an
available call for which they are
eligible, so in 2003 I again became
K0ZXU. After I upgraded to Extra
Class in 2006, I searched for a shorter
call and found K6XZ. I liked it
since it retained two of the more
unusual letters from my old call.
But I really hoped to find a call that
had the initials of my first and last
name, and in 2009 I was lucky enough to
find that K6JM was available. My
thanks to Mike Carroll N4MC for all the
educational info about vanity call
procedures.
I
was off the air for over 33 years, but
I'm back and very happy to be having fun
again with this great hobby.
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