I keep praising all the nice benefits of the amateur radio hobby and now I have one more chance to be happy and proud of what I do. You can take the hobby with you when you travel.
My wife and I have been spending the three Winter months of January, February, and March in the panhandle of Florida since we both retired three years ago. This year, because of my abdominal surgery November 10, we extended our stay to include the month of December thus giving me an ideal location for recuperation.
I would not want to be without any ham radio activity for four months but we rent a nice condo on the beach and this limits what can be done. I purchased an Elecraft KX1(described in an earlier post under Low Power), which is a QRP (low power, 5 watts or less) rig with 20,30,40, and 80 meter HF ham bands installed. While single sideband voice is available on another model, this one, naturally, is only CW. My antennas are simple hamsticks clamped to my balcony railing with the railing being the ground. QRP is challenging but fun and last Winter I was able to contact over thirty states and some foreign countries, all in Morse code.
I also have Echolink and CQ100 on my laptop and maintain daily voice contact with the guys in my home club in Ohio, through the computer and the club repeater. Life is hard.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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About Me
- Jack Stahl
- One of the wonderful aspects of using Morse code as a communications mode is that it is very indifferent as to the operator’s age. A good fist (one who sends well) can be ten years old or one hundred. I say this is wonderful because I am happily enjoying my sixty ninth year. I am new to the hobby of amateur radio, however, since I passed my technician test in September of 2006 and was awarded the license and call sign of KD8EJY by the FCC. I then passed my General exam in November and was granted my vanity call sign request of K8ASA by the FCC Although I am new to the amateur radio hobby, I am not new to Morse code. The ASA in my call sign refers to the Army Security Agency who sent me to a special school in 1956 to become efficient in Morse code. I was sent to Ethiopia for two years to give the army the benefit of my new skill. While back in those days my knowledge of Morse code was beneficial to our national security, 51 years later it now brings me pure pleasure. There has been a hiatus of fifty years between my army discharge and my becoming a ham and I do truly regret the fact that I missed out on all those years of enjoyment with the amateur radio hobby.
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