Pa$$ed my Ham Technician License Exam

[hotrats]

So I took the Ham Technician level exam the other week and parseed. Got my paper from the FCC last Friday and hooked into Echolink since I have no rig at the moment. Having lots of fun with it and attempting to 'connect' to some friends the next town over via Echolink repeaters (Echolink to RF). Unfortunately we are on the hunt since repeaters in this neck of the woods are plentiful but not with Echolink capability. I'm not sure if anyone here has a license but if you do give a shout out sometime for KB1TTG. Sal, I was looking through the Echolink repeater directory and see one in Harlingen, TX. That's down where you are isn't it?

I pulled the trigger on the licensing because I have always thought it would be cool to explore radio and the hospital got a rig via Homeland Security (our tax dollars at work) and the hospital was looking for people to test out for emergency usage. I figured now was a good time to go the whole way and take the test. Radios are not cheap so for now I delve into the Echolink capabilities and see how far I can stretch it.

David

[Weave]

That's cool!

I used to run a MARS station via the US Army using an old WWII AN-GRC 106 AM SSB radio set. I remember very little of it, though. Those were cool. They had things called RATT Rigs - you hook up a teletype to the radio for long range messaging. Really cool stuff.

[digiSal]

that is cool!  my dad used to be all into CD radios and ive been wanting a CB radio in the truck lol

and yep, i am in Harlingen. Talk to the guy. Maybe i know him lol its not small a town. but you never knnow.

[hotrats]

Tim, that must have been so freaking cool. Vintage stuff is allright in my book. I looked up AN-GRC 106 AM SSB. That was some serious hunk of electronics. Now everything can fit in your lunch box. One of the things I never realized is that RF can burn. My friend the next town over will jack the power on the transmission and when he keys up the mic all the motion lights on the outside of the house turn on. I was just reading about MARS at Wikipedia. Never knew about that service. Very cool. If you ever run across any good internet references to the RATT Rigs parse them on please.

Sal, one of these days I will hop on the repeater down there and give a CQ, see what comes back. Like you said you never know.

David

[Weave]

Check this setup:

http://www.qrz.com/db/w9evt

[digiSal]

wow. i hope he has battery backups

[Bev]

I will support any "hobby" David chooses to persue.  But our house will NEVER look like that.  Not even close.  We already have a server in the cellar! 

Bev

[Weave]

Only one server in the basement? <jk>

Yes - I know that you have been a good sport. Geeks - gotta love em!

[Weave]

Slashdot has a really great thread running about the increasing popularity of Hamming:

slashdot - Ham Radio still growing in the iStuff Age

Although my setup is just a SW radio, I like to listen. I must say that it makes it kinda hard to get excited about listening when you can usually get the feed off the internet. Kinda reminds me of the story of everyone crashing the computer at MIT for the challenge. The finally just implemented a "kill" command, made it mundane, and everyone stopped crashing the system.