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ham radio for dummies

I can often talk as far away as New Jersey, Michigan or Indiana using only 5 watts on the 10 meter band. My antenna is a piece of 12 ga. wire in a tree (1/2 wave dipole). Friends with nice directional antennas & rigs that transmit 100 watts can easily talk to Europe on 10 & 20 meter. CW (Morse code) will transmit further than a voice signal using the same rig so it is often the choice for long distance comm. Novice & Technician level licensees can transmit 200 watts. General licensees and up can transmit 1500 watts on some bands.
 
I'm 70, been a Ham since 1981. General class. Had to pass the Morse Code requirement (it was easy I was a High Speed Morse intercept operator in the Air Force 1970-1992). Worked from Crete, Greece, San Antonio, Texas, Misawa Air Base, Japan and back home in Douglasville, GA.

I'm not on the air as often as I used to be. Too many other things going on plus I have massive hearing loss and can't dig out the buried signals like I used to. But, it's a great hobby, get to meet, on the air, all kinds of interesting people. Plus, I'm not shy and if I see a beam in someones yard when I'm driving around I'm apt to stop and knock on the door and ask for the Ham of the house. I've met a lot of nice folks, and a few a##holes doing that but the good out weigh the bad.

I've done a lot of emergency work overseas using my home set up so no reason to expect that I can't do the same here during times of need.

The test now are very easy, no code and you can study for a few days and get your ticket and be on the air pretty quickly.

73 DE N5GWU
SK (stop keying, not silent key)
 
I have been licensed since 1965 first as a Novice, then a Technician, then a General, then an Advanced and lastly as an Extra Class. I had a code requirement every step of the way first 5 WPM, then 13 WPM and then 20 WPM for the Extra. Most of my operating today is via Morse Code and is my favorite mode of communicating.

You do meet a lot of nice people on the air and make lifetime friendships. I have met some nice people and some bad people on the airways. I had the pleasure to talk with King Hussein of Jordan, Senator Barry Goldwater to name a few. A couple of the bad ones I talked with in the 70's were Idi Amin from Uganda and Jim Jones from Jonestown, Guyana just before the mass suicide there. Back in the 70's I would run phone patches for the people stationed at the South Pole to their relatives here in the States.

I have a lot of memories from Amateur Radio and still cherish the friendships I have made involved in that hobby.

73' DE W4TL dit dit dit dah di dah
 
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