New to SWL .....Again!

[NW7US]

Oh - you do show where you are located. My bad. Well, it is great to see your loggings from Iowa. Are you located in a rural area? I'm in a mountain valley, when I am at home. That means that I have three sides where mountains cut off the low-arriving signals. Folks in Seattle, Washington, hear things that I cannot hear. That is frustrating.

However, I have had some cool catches. As an amateur radio operator, I have, in this valley, talked with a station in Antarcitica. That was exciting!

I can't wait until my surgery wounds heal, and the heat ends, so I can get out and repair my antenna wires, and then get back to hearing stations again.

Right now, I have limited "ears" because of some damage from weather during the winter months. But, I'll get that fixed up soon.

[AmericanDXer]

I'm located in rural Iowa, small town of about 2,700 people. I live on the 2nd story of my building (top story) I have my Dipole un on the roof.

[NW7US]

You found a way to get a dipole up on the roof??

That's cool.

I'm exploring what I might do to remedy my situation, here... but first, I have to recover from this surgery. At least I have some wire up and can hear a bit. It is just much more noisy than other possible antenna choices.

Happy DXing!

[AmericanDXer]

Yeah, I have a balcony that I can access the roof from, its really easy to get up there. I have it in a half inverted vee, I couldnt do as good as I want to because of the space limitations, but nonetheless its a vast improvement over where it was before.

I wish you luck with the recovery part of the surgery!

[K5TEN]

Welcome back!!

Depending on what licence you had back then (you didn't say) it's like riding a bike...it will come back pretty quickly.

On the other hand...there's been a boatload of technology that has changed since your last QSO during the Ford Administration. There are a TON of new digital (computer) modes now. Some, like PSK, allow QSO's between stations where the signals are so low that even CW couldn't get through!

Since the Novice bands are toast---most of the HF bands have been refarmed and just about everyone got more SSB space (sometimes at the expense of CW space.

No more code requirement...although most new hams are buttering up the old hams to teach them CW because that's where the juciest DX is.

Sadly, due to the same technology, some SW stations have left the airwaves to only broadcast on the internet.

PLEASE feel free to ask folks on THIS board especially (there are some other boards in the internet where some of the folks can be outright nasty--THIS is a very friendly board) who will be more than happy to help you work towards getting your ham ticket again. There is "vanity call sign" program where you can pick a new call sign from old and unused calls. Who knows, you might be able to get your old call sign back if it's still available!

Good Luck, and 73



Bruce
K5TEN