I’m interested in things we can’t see that markedly affect our lives. I sail because the invisible wind is a living force that fascinates me. I watch weather, where clouds are symptoms of deeper causes. And I am enjoying radio, with unseen radio waves passing over, around, and through me.
There was nothing really spectacular in my past that stimulated my interested in amateur radio. But when I think back, I remember listening in fascination to the radio exchanges between ground control and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Maybe it started as an adjunct to the magic of those years.
In my teenage years, I remember my scoutmaster carrying a small transceiver, which he used to try to connect with friends using Morse code sent from Cascade and Olympic mountain tops.
When we moved overseas, we bought a shortwave radio to stay in touch with world events. This was in the days when there was an internet, but it was not available to the general public. In the remote area we lived, staying in touch with the world meant writing letters and listening to the Voice of America and the BBC on shortwave. I strung various lengths of wire here and there trying to improve reception, without really knowing what I was doing.
Later, living in a small rural town in Washington State, we listened to the scanner, because that was one of the few ways to get local news. I was an Emergency Medical Technician, and would radio to dispatch certain information about patients, so using a two-way radio wasn’t completely foreign to me.
Radio definitely touched our lives several times, but no single event stands out. Why, then, did I suddenly go for my amateur radio Technician license, and a month later, pass my General Class exam?
During a tour of the Washington State Emergency Operations Center, I listened while a telecommunications expert outlined the dozens of ways the EOC could communicate with others in an emergency. Many of those ways involved radio, and amateur radio was prominently featured.
I’ve been looking for a way to tap my emergency services background and my more recent training in incident command systems, something I could do as a citizen to give back to my community. I knew I did not want to be an EMT again: been there, done that. Amateur radio, however, suddenly looked more appealing to me after visiting the EOC.
I did a little research and discovered ARES and RACES, two amateur radio-based organizations that provide assistance in times of need.
The license exam would only cost $15, so I picked up the training manual and started reading. I read that manual about three times, then started taking sample exams online. When I got to the point I was missing only a couple of questions out of the 35 asked in the exam, I figured it was time to spend the $15 on the exam…and I passed. The moment the examiner handed me my certificate, I was a ham!
But I was a ham without a call sign, and not yet recognized by the FCC. Impatiently I kept checking the FCC website to see if my new call sign was posted. A week went by. Then another day. Then another day, and there it was: my new call sign was KF7DGF.
Since then, I’ve become involved with our local RACES organization, and am looking into our local ARES group, too.
The Technician license allows me to use the 70 centimeter, 2 meter, and 6 meter bands. Our local 2 meter and 70 centimeter repeater greatly expands the range of my radio. Other frequencies are not accessible to me until I get the next level of license: the General.
I thought to myself, how hard could it be? I’ll just do what I did to prepare for the Technician license, so I bought the General class manual and started reading. I was chagrined to discover whole areas where I had almost no prior knowledge, some requiring math I hadn’t used in years.
This study cycle has been much more intensive than for the Technician license. After a few weeks of study, my performance on sample exams improved to the point I was missing only missing three to five questions on each test. Ready to spend another $15, I took the General exam…and passed, missing just four questions.
Almost the entire amateur radio frequency spectrum is now available to me. Now I can touch, and be touched by, the invisible, magical, fascinating world of radio.
And there is still one more license to reach for…
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