Happy Farter's Day

I spotted this sign as I passed through Jacksboro, TX on the way to Hamcom. The D-STAR group had their first National Meeting at the show. Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC, really impressed everyone with his work of exposing the basic elements of the D-STAR protocol. He also demonstrated a home-brew D-STAR radio. I think there were more than a few guys present that wanted to build a D-STAR radio to use on the 220 MHz band.

First Contact Award

The award says "First Two-way Communications by Amateur Radio." I'll clarify that this was my first HF contact that I made with my recently upgraded license.

First Contact: W1AW

After ten years as a Technician class amateur radio operator, this morning I passed the exam to upgrade my license to General class. The FCC dropped the Morse code as a requirement to receive an HF radio license, so I expected a lot of people at the exam session, but only 4 were there to upgrade from Tech to General. Terry Bajuk, KE5BL, upgraded from Advanced to Extra which is pretty cool.

After the exams, I went to the radio club's clubhouse and contacted W1AW on 14.290 MHz at 21:00 UTC. I spoke first with Harold, WJ1B, and then to Mary, K1MMH. They work at the ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, and they were very welcoming and congratulated me on my license upgrade. I applied to receive a "First Contact" certificate from them. I'll let you know when I receive it.

W1AW/WJ1B/K1MMH 24 February 2007 21:00 14.290 MHz 5/9 USB

WJ1B & K1MMH photo from ARRL blog

(They might be talking with me!)