This past Saturday I tested for my general level amatuer radio license. I passed with only two missed (woo!). Rob tested for his technician and general and passed, and Havard tested for his general, also passing. Congratulations everyone!

I’ve been looking at some accessories for my current radio: Yaesu VX-170. I’ve also been looking at a mobile 2M/70CM rig, and some base stations for the house. I’d really like to hop on HF, but the upfront cost is the biggest limited factor right now. Apart from the transceiver, i’ll also need the antenna(s) to successfully transmit/receive for the bands. I’ve also been interested in packet radio, APRS, and AMSAT.

I’ve also got an ICOM IC-25A mobile that was manufactured in 1989 and doesn’t seem to operate properly. It won’t accept saves in the memory, and honestly i’m not even sure if it will receive at this point. On my projects/to do list is to build a copper J-Pole antenna, so once that’s up i’ll see what this old radio can do. Even still, it doesn’t support repeater tones (I think?), so I won’t be able to hop on the local repeaters anyway. Nonetheless it’s something fun to play with.

Last night I attended the Lamar Amatuer Radio Club (LARC). There were 14 in attendance (including myself), and it was interesting. The meeting started off with business and minutes from last months meeting, a treasures report, upcoming events, announcements, etc. Afterwards an educational piece on corrosion was displayed. The president and presenter, Randall, is a corossion engineer and went over corossion cells, what corossion really means, how to prevent it, types of materials, dissimilar metals/soils, and annodes and cathodes. It was really fascinating and I learned quite a bit. I’m looking forwards to next months meeting and the learning aspect of it.