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Callsign: KB9VOS Class: General
Effective: 12 Dec 2000 Expires: 15 Dec 2009
County: Hancock County
Grid: EM79
I enjoy HF CW and, when mobile, phone on 10 meters. I send, and try to collect, a QSL card for every contact I make. I finally got a 10-10 number [ 72058 ].
Currently a wannabe homebrewer, I enjoy kit building and electronics in general. A few of my homebrew undertakings actually work!
Other facets of amateur radio I am interested in learning more about are satellite, packet (I was a BBS SysOp from 300 baud - 28.8], digital modes, and 6 meter DX.
I haven't been very active from home because of a temporary antenna situation, but I have been getting on more frequently.
My first DX contacts, which happened to be on 10M phone in the novice band, were Slovenia and Sweden, then Barbados not much later. I completed the Elecraft K1 and have even made my first QRP contacts! I worked WA from MO on 15m with 1 watt to a low hanging, shabbily assembled, G5RV Jr. dipole!
I got interested in amateur radio after my grandpa bought me an old Hallicrafter SX-110 one day for shortwave listening, which I found out later was really a ham receiver. We drove to Butler, Missouri to a store which I think might have been famous (after reading an article in QST about a store there that looked like my memory). They were closed, much to our dismay, so we went to another store in Carthage. I remember seeing the Kenwood radios that were so impressive and the mobile radios that had the neat keypads on the mike. The old guy took us to a room in the back that had shelves lines with old radios, and after a half-hour or so of looking them over my grandpa picked out the Hallicrafter for me. "This is a good one.", he said. After driving the hour-plus drive home we cleaned the radio up and checked/replaced some tubes. [I have since acquired an SX-122 as well.] We strung a wire up and I spent many nights out in the building tuning in anything I could with that fancy variable crystal and antenna trimmer. To this day I am stil entranced by the radio's smell, feel of the knobs, glow of the tubes, and the sounds it makes! Hearing morse code, and intriguing callsign/signal report exchanges made me ask grandpa about it, and he told me a little bit about ham radio and a few things I would need to know for a test. The biggest thing that kept me from trying back then was code intimidation. I didn't even TRY! My grandfather never had a license but I vowed someday I would get mine and make him proud.
Years later, after several Hams took the time to nurture my need for information and encouragement, I did it! Special thanks to N9HQO, N9MOX, N9OXO, W9XOX, WB9USX, and KB9VQQ!
I was finally able to set up my rig at my grandfathers home and let him listen in on several QSO's... A moment I had daydreamed about all these years finally became a reality... thanks to the many hams who influenced me and made me realize I could do it.
This "hobby" has been more than I ever imagined, and there are so many frontiers I have yet to explore. I savor every QSO and the time it takes to log it, and write out the QSL card. There's nothing else that makes me feel like amateur radio does, and I thank everyone for being a part of it.
73,
Chris
KB9VOS
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An early picture of me and my station.
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Roger calls CQ using the Rainbow Kits keyer/paddles just like daddy!
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Here's my grandpa that got me interested in radios and electronics. The Hallicrafter is there with a modern scanner.
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