Amateur Radio thoughts 2015

W5EHS Amateur Radio Station

W5EHS amateur radio station operator position

Local ham radio friends have been stirring the embers of previously low fire ham radio interests. I am still active running a digital mode called PSK31 on the short wave bands but otherwise not as extremely active as I once have been. It’s mostly because of my many other interests.

There wasn’t time for all my interests when I was working 12 hour work days. I did enjoy a night’s sleep when I could work it in… Now I have more time in the daylight hours.

I have already started doing more wood working which suffered from the same time limitations. I can also be more active in my radio interests.

I am pondering or is it contemplating where my interests really lie within amateur radio these days. It’s not all just operating a purchased radio appliance. There is a very technical side to amateur radio that we as Hams are encourage to experiment with and explore.

All my interests in life have fallen or at least leaned to the technical side. That’s what makes me more of an engineer than an operator.

I have the basic station equipment and can run any standard and digital mode from 160 meters through 6 meters. I also can operate FM on 2 meters and 60 cm. What’s next?

The above is just a scratch on the surface of radio wave communication. Like I said, operation is not the whole enchilada. I live in Texas so I can say that. I do need to get dust webs blown off my station call W5EHS (Easily Heard Signals).

A few years ago I took a serious look at microwave communications. I bought a 10 meter transceiver for base unit for up/down converting to microwave frequencies. I like the thought of experimenting with the hardware design of feed horns, wave guides and dish antennas. There is a microwave club in the Dallas area, North Texas Microwave Society (NTMS) but I didn’t approach them at the time. My thought is there does need to be some partners involved as almost all operation is planned. I have seen contests where CQ (general) operation is possible but microwave isn’t a sit down a night and turn on the rig situation.

No road map in my mind yet. Just casting about to see what bites. No doubt I will be playing with hardware and software of some type. I have time to do some reading and dreaming. I’ll dig out the microwave stuff again and have another look. Though the new hot interest just published in QST (magazine) this month is the super LOW frequencies. Another whole new area to explore in radio.

It’s nice to have options…