Easter Activity 2023

 Hi everyone, long time no see as usual.

Well, the semester is winding down finally, I've got about 2 or 3 weeks of school left. And boy, do you know what I'm doing once I get out of here... at least for the summer.

Over the Easter weekend, I thought I'd take my FT-891 and Chameleon TD LTE antenna out for some activation. We had Easter at my dad's family's in Bethany, Missouri (if you don't know where that's at, it's east of my QTH off of I-35). My young and curious cousin, Alex, also tagged along. He is into CB radios right now so I figured I'd expose him to ham radio while I was over there.

Alex seemed pretty interested while setting up my antenna and putting together my radio. While setting up, he asked how big the antenna was, and I told him 120 feet. Surprise was an understatement - he couldn't believe that there was an antenna that long! My grandparents had an old windmill about 10 feet high, so I mounted the center near the top using some paracord. It seemed to work fine and I might use it again if needed.

When I turned on the radio, I heard nothing but static - okay, maybe not a good start. But, having a radio with more than three bands on it now, I switched to the 20-meter band, and immediately signals started pouring in. One, in particular, caught both of our attention - the state of Georgia was having a statewide QSO party, so I figured I'd send out my callsign and see if I got in. I had my antenna pointed due south. No sooner than letting off the PTT, N4G came back to me with a 59 signal report - on just 20 watts!!! I had finally reached the South.

Alex was more surprised than I was, and after a while, he wanted me to make more contacts. At the end of the day, he told me he wanted a radio just like mine and wanted to get his ham license. He's only 6 and already wants his ham license!

This summer I want to take the FT-891 over to Alex's house. I also want to get back into the CB radio world since it was what first introduced me to ham radio. I have three CBs that are just sitting and collecting dust. In fact, in listening to CB on my Bearcat scanner, more CB operators (save Super Bowl) are saying CQ DX - kind of surprising to me, but perhaps not to others. I think it's a definite change since I was on 4 or 5 years ago.

Hopefully, I've inspired Alex to check out ham radio. I probably also inspired my uncle who got him started with CB radio in the first place. He's talked about getting an IC-7300 if he becomes licensed - not a bad radio at all! Their place has plenty of space for a simple wire antenna or even a Chameleon like I have. 

So definitely a Happy Easter to me! As I previously mentioned, the semester is winding down and I'm looking forward to making some more QSOs. I've got some nice spots picked out around Maryville, and you bet I'll be taking my Chameleon antenna out for operations. The portable battery box has worked out just fine for me, and at the end of the day, we were at 12.5V, down from 12.8V to begin with.

Hope you had a blessed Easter season! I look forward to hearing you on the air soon...