Lately I've been into ham radio

[Mattymatt]

Since I've been recovering from surgery, I dusted off my Amateur Radio licence and I'm back on the air. In addition, I decided to upgrade from General to Amateur Extra and buy a decent HF radio so that I can work the digital modes over long distance. Of particular interest are PSK31 and FT8 which are text chats over HF radio. Anyone else a ham? My call sign is KF7SVX but I requested a vanity call sign N9AAK. I believe they call it a 1x3 which is eligible only to US Extras. Getting that upgrade was tough. It took me three weeks to get to the point where I was scoring consistent minimums of 94%. Finally, on May 24th I met my goal of becoming an Extra. I was a General since December of 2011. I first got licensed in November of 2011. My first HF radio will be an Icom IC-718

 

[FreeDiver]

I got my license back in 1990 but only used it for about 3 months because I was using a borrowed radio and I couldn't afford to buy my own at the time. I was only on the local 2 meter repeaters and that's was it. About 20 years later. I came into a bunch of used VHF and UHF 2-way mobile radios that were taken out of service by a taxi cab company. I hack and reprogrammed them to work on the 2m and 70cm bands and got back into it for a little while. I ended up quitting because of all the social blunder and because other hammers were checking my license on QRZ site and noting that it had been expired for over 10 years. I just never felt welcome on the air at all. Even on the old CB bands.

 

[Mattymatt]

I got my license back in 1990 but only used it for about 3 months because I was using a borrowed radio and I couldn't afford to buy my own at the time. I was only on the local 2 meter repeaters and that's was it. About 20 years later. I came into a bunch of used VHF and UHF 2-way mobile radios that were taken out of service by a taxi cab company. I hack and reprogrammed them to work on the 2m and 70cm bands and got back into it for a little while. I ended up quitting because of all the social blunder and because other hammers were checking my license on QRZ site and noting that it had been expired for over 10 years. I just never felt welcome on the air at all. Even on the old CB bands.

I honestly never felt that welcome on the air either. The old timer ham operators can be very provincial. I took my Extra exam so I can do the digital modes and stay away from 70cm, 1.25m, and 2m bands. I would much rather do digital modes because they attract a more progressive and inclusive crowd. Plus, I am much better at communicating via writing than verbally.

 

[auslan434]

I like ham radio too. I got my license in 2018. It's an interesting hobby.
I mostly operate CW on 40m. I'm at the Standard class in VK.