Ham Radio- My reunion after 40+ years

I had a novice license in the mid 1960s but was drafted into the army. When I got back out I began a career as a professional musician (lounge organist) so between my full time employment, musical employment and spending time with my horse as a horseman I had little time for ham radio. I am now getting close to my year of retirement and so I decided to renew my interest in the amateur radio hobby of which through the internet I learned is alive, vibrant and well. BTW one big influence that caused me to decide to get back into ham radio is the movie "Contact". That movie is amongst my very favorite movies. I think all ham radio operators should see that movie.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Ham Radio
• Hallicrafters SX-42
• Swan 500cx
• ARRL
• homebrew equipment
• Astatic D104
• ham radio license
• Amateur radio
• Movie contact

[leonardo1480]

your showing your age with that set-up lol

[HD7100]

@leonardo1480 True. On the inside I'm just like a kid but on the outside where it shows I'm old. 64 here but many of the interests and things I like come from generations before my own.

[leonardo1480]

@HD7100 lol thats what I tell people I am just a kid inside but Im 45 and slowly my outer shell is showing its age, lol.... speaking about the Ham radio, how easy is it to learn all the code used when calling someone I mean its not like calling some one on a CB, I have heard the ham being used and they speak is codes and alpha this bravo that and etc, is their a book all that stuff is learned from or something?

[HD7100]

@leonardo1480 The hardest part of morse code is learning to copy it. Learning the code and sending code is easier than listening to it and copying it down. There are excellent code teaching programs availlable for PC and most are free downloads. Code is no longer a requirement for obtaining a ham radio license. I had a novice license in 1965 and the requred send/recieve code speed was 5 WPM. I was up to 10 WPM when I was using code a lot but I had a hard time copying fast code.

[remarkosmoc]

I just came back to radio after 20 years off, everything comes back quick. Did u get the license upgrade?

[HD7100]

@remarkosmoc I upgraded to General and plan to upgrade to Extra this year. Thanks for watching. '73 Gary

[LZ2SM]

Too bad...Happy holidays!

[HD7100]

@LZ2SM I don't anymore. I got the plans from an old QST magazine.

[LZ2SM]

Great video!Do you have the schematics for those handy talkies?

[HD7100]

@ThomasRHaines IKts hard to believe that years ago I actually used those home meda handi-talkies. I would have to try to find batteries for them to see if they still work but the only problem I encountered with them is that there is a slight offset bettween the recieve frequency and the transmit frequency.