Hi Wes,

Please don't lose hope in us younger hams. I for one recently got back
into the hobby after about 10 years. I earned my novice back when I was
13 but grew out of it during my college years and KC4GHA finally
expired in '97. I started getting the bug back about a year ago when I
was working a grave shift and listening to a Uniden scanner to keep me
company. One night when a nasty rotating super cell was moving into the
Austin area, I monitored two hams tracking the storm. One of the hams
happened to be a morning weather anchor at a local station and was
relaying radar information back to the other ham in the field. Well
being an life long weather enthusiast, this did it for me! Skywarn
initially attracted me back into the hobby. I went to take my
technician exam primarily to be able to use 2m/70cm phone for Skywarn
activities with the CW portion of it as an after thought. However, when
I got to the testing facility and the VE examining team found out I
held a previous novice licence and knew the code, they weren't about to
let me get out of there without atleast trying to pass the code part of
the exam. So I took it and I passed! I could hardly believe it was
still with enough to bearly make enough characters in a row at 5 wpm!

This was enough for me to save up and try to get back on HF. I shopped
around for a while. I looked at all the new high tech IC-706's and all
the others that do virtually everything for you. I also looked at some
other older radios and with price also being a deciding factor I
finally settled for a used FT-101B with a bunch of accessories for
about $350. I've been using this setup with a Cliff Dweller dipole
through a MFJ tuner and I love it!!! I work almost exclusively CW,
usually on 40M. My station works beautifully. I'm one of those geeks
that actually *enjoys* tuning up the final amplifier! I really like the
nastagia of older equipment with lots of knobs and switches to mess
with in order to change frequencies.

So at the age of 31, I enjoy amatuer radio more than I ever have and I
take pride in every qso I make whether it be a few counties over or a
weak dx contact on the other side of the globe. And you bet I will send
a QSL to EVERY contact I make! I always enjoy getting QSL cards (when
they do come, hi).


73,
Matt

On 22 Jun 2005 08:13:01 -0700, wrote:

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your comments. Of course I was painting with too broad a
brush, but that's Usenet [g].

Welcome back to the fold. I no longer QSL every QSO but I *do* QSL
every one received (as long as they're in the log), even SWL cards and
JA's [g].

Regards,

Wes


Hi Wes,

Please don't lose hope in us younger hams. I for one recently got back
into the hobby after about 10 years. I earned my novice back when I was
13 but grew out of it during my college years and KC4GHA finally
expired in '97. I started getting the bug back about a year ago when I
was working a grave shift and listening to a Uniden scanner to keep me
company. One night when a nasty rotating super cell was moving into the
Austin area, I monitored two hams tracking the storm. One of the hams
happened to be a morning weather anchor at a local station and was
relaying radar information back to the other ham in the field. Well
being an life long weather enthusiast, this did it for me! Skywarn
initially attracted me back into the hobby. I went to take my
technician exam primarily to be able to use 2m/70cm phone for Skywarn
activities with the CW portion of it as an after thought. However, when
I got to the testing facility and the VE examining team found out I
held a previous novice licence and knew the code, they weren't about to
let me get out of there without atleast trying to pass the code part of
the exam. So I took it and I passed! I could hardly believe it was
still with enough to bearly make enough characters in a row at 5 wpm!

This was enough for me to save up and try to get back on HF. I shopped
around for a while. I looked at all the new high tech IC-706's and all
the others that do virtually everything for you. I also looked at some
other older radios and with price also being a deciding factor I
finally settled for a used FT-101B with a bunch of accessories for
about $350. I've been using this setup with a Cliff Dweller dipole
through a MFJ tuner and I love it!!! I work almost exclusively CW,
usually on 40M. My station works beautifully. I'm one of those geeks
that actually *enjoys* tuning up the final amplifier! I really like the
nastagia of older equipment with lots of knobs and switches to mess
with in order to change frequencies.

So at the age of 31, I enjoy amatuer radio more than I ever have and I
take pride in every qso I make whether it be a few counties over or a
weak dx contact on the other side of the globe. And you bet I will send
a QSL to EVERY contact I make! I always enjoy getting QSL cards (when
they do come, hi).


73,
Matt

I forgot to mention I tip the QSL managers both US and DX.

QSL Managers and DXpeditions can use a little more than postage for printing
up cards
And some have a slush fund to place postage on SAE or QSLs they receive with
no or insufficient postage.

Some QSL managers save the QSL cards with no return postage and periodically
dump them into the Bureau, can take a year or two to get back. So include
proper return postage if you don't want to wait for the burro.

I also tip the rare USA states to help with postage and QSL printing costs

What is a rare USA State ?
See URL:
http://www.qrz.com/i/census.html?

Example Wyoming has 1614 total hams -- subtract out the inactive and
non-HFers and u have very few WY on the HF bands.

I also send the DXpeditions a fiver -- they can spend lots of money on their
operations.

Example: 3D2, CONWAY REEF DXpedition ($45,000)
URL:
http://www.papays.com/opdx481.html

Many DXpeditions are much more than that !


--
CL -- I doubt, therefore I might be !

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 12:24:39 -0700, "Caveat Lector"
wrote:

I forgot to mention I tip the QSL managers both US and DX.

Me too.

QSL Managers and DXpeditions can use a little more than postage for printing
up cards
And some have a slush fund to place postage on SAE or QSLs they receive with
no or insufficient postage.

Some QSL managers save the QSL cards with no return postage and periodically
dump them into the Bureau, can take a year or two to get back. So include
proper return postage if you don't want to wait for the burro.

I also tip the rare USA states to help with postage and QSL printing costs

What is a rare USA State ?
See URL:
http://www.qrz.com/i/census.html?

Example Wyoming has 1614 total hams -- subtract out the inactive and
non-HFers and u have very few WY on the HF bands.

Imagine the situation on vhf. Back when I was trying to work W7VEW,
the only guy on meteor scatter on 2M in WY I was sending him equipment
to help him improve his station. Finally got him after months of
trying.