Wow has it been 25 years?

Last month marked my 25th year as a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. To me it is amazing looking back at what I accomplished in this great hobby. Over the years I have worked moon bounce, talked to astronauts, chased high altitude balloons and worked my fair share of DX.

The best part by far is meeting people and new friends. Even after all these years, I find it exciting to talk with other hams all over the world.

Today I worked France, Azores, Argentina. Least that's all I can remember for now! Will post an article on my new mic setup soon.

Yesterday was a great day. Picked up an old stash of radios from a neighbor. Hallicrafters nt-40 and an old Hammerlund receiver.

Back To The Basics.......

I have spent a number of recent months studying, reflecting and making decisions. It is hard to decide which step to make getting back into our great hobby. My funds are limited so any choices have to be made wisely.
My initial return is going to be into HF. Those who know me will remember that my main interests have been in the Sats and VHF+. However I also feel that any station worth its salt needs to have a working HF station at it's core. Right now I am looking at either the time proven Kenwood TS-520 or an Icom IC-706.
Antenna is going to be one of my favorites, the G5RV dipole. Couple of weeks ago we had a large tree cut down in our backyard and that really opened up antenna possibilities for me. Considering the neighbor has given me permission to run a wire through his yard!
I have two computers setup and ready. One will be for general logging, clusters, etc. The other is a server that can be used for IRLP, Winlink or other totally Ham Radio geek stuff.
The contest season is coming soon and I hope to make my first entries later this fall. Our business is starting to slow a bit for the fall and I may finally have some free time to play around once again.......

9 Months Later.......

I started this blog to record my adventure back into this awesome hobby. My last and first post stated that I have a HW-104 radio. While I have made a couple of contacts with it, I really want something a bit newer.
I strongly feel that the basis of any Amateur Radio shack should be an emergency ready HF station. I have finally gotten around to looking for such a radio. Right now I am looking at a Kenwood TS-440SAT, or an older Kenwood or Icom radio. Antenna is going to be a time tested G5RV up 40 feetish.
My goal is to finish my Worked All States award and get back into dxing.......

I'm back........

For quite awhile I was going back and forth wither or not I wanted to have a blog about my amateur radio station or even if I would be a part of the hobby anymore. Amateur radio has been a part of my life for 23 years, I can't just forget about it now. I have had so much fun, met some really cool people and done things most humans would never think of.
After much thought of how do I return to the hobby, I decided to go back to the basics. Back to basic hf, basic antenna's and start again from where it all began. My station today consists of a vintage Heathkit HW-104 HF radio, half-wave 40m dipole and a few gadgets.
So if you are bored, stay tuned! You just might learn something......
chad/kg0mw......
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