I've been an Amateur Radio operator for three distinct periods of my life, and though I've gotten out of the hobby for periods of time, I've found myself re-attracted to it. I guess it's part of my larger desire to find ways to meet, understand and communicate with people from all over. The same impetus that makes me want to travel the world, also turned me on to shortwave listening to learn about other lands, and eventually to Ham Radio to find a way to communicate directly with people elsewhere. Though today I do much of that via the internet, and do most of my hamming locally on VHF/UHF, I still have a "soft spot" for HF work. Now if only my apartment had the space for a good Stealth Antenna...
Callsign History:
- KB1GIH - my General Class call when I got relicensed in early 2001, after over a decade away. Quickly decided to go for a Vanity Call using my initials. Mainly cause I kept bobbling the call and saying things like "KBG" - must have read too many Cold War spy novels! Just didn't roll off my lips very well, so got K1MCM.
- KC2ZI - this was my (unfortunately lapsed) Advanced Class callsign in the late 1980's/early 1990's when I was living in New York City. More often I worked from Columbia University's great club station, W2AEE. Some of my best QSOs were from there. Due to the great location on the top of the Engineering building in Morningside Heights, W2AEE could get out all over. I did a fair amount of RTTY there, along with HF Sideband, some 2M FM, and a bit of satellite.
- WA2KBE - my General Class call in the late 80's.
- WN2KBE - my Novice call when I got relicensed in the late 1980's. Very quickly upgraded.
- WN1??? - I can't remember my first Novice call as a junior high school student in the Boston area. I only did a few QSOs on a homebrew "1-bottle" 40m CW rig. (My mom wouldn't let me get an antenna up in the yard - story of my life except now it's the Condo board!)
Where to find me:
- The 2m Repeater at 145.23 of the Boston Amateur Radio Club of which I'm a member. I try to check into the Monday night members net when not working or out. Occasionally their 70cm repeater too.
- The 2m Repeater at 145.64 of the Waltham Amateur Radio Association.
- Occassionally the repeaters of the MinuteMan Repeater Association of eastern Massachusetts. I try to check into their "Technical and Other Stuff" net Tuesdays at 8pm local.
- Thinking about getting into PSK31 and similar modes that will work well at QRP - getting a Rigblaster hooked up.
- One of my HTs is an Icom T81, which is a quad-band 6m, 2m, 70cm, 23cm. I occasionally pop onto 6m repeaters, usually when drivinging down to NYC, or up to Maine for skiing. I did a bit of 1200Mhz repeater work in Portland, Oregon while traveling by train down the West Coast in 2001, but I've never found a 23cm repeater working around Boston despite the listings in the repeater directories.