KR4CYF

Pushed by a few friends joy with electronics and tales of portable radio fun in parks for POTA, and with Hurricane Helene's aftermath a reminder of its role in disaster communication, I decided a new hobby was just what I needed.

I began studying for the license exam on HamStudy along with a few library books. The immediate (and ongoing) reaction was nostalgia. As a kid I had dabbled with small electronics projects and remember browsing the library stacks into Amateur Radio books, at the time the math of frequencies and antennas, the intimidating Morse Code requirement, and the expense of equipment led to other computer interests. But memories of listening in to shortwave broadcasts and the now-familiar simple circuitry and physics questions of the exam reconfirmed all that early interest.

On the advice of ham friends I studied for both the Technician and General licenses at the same time, as getting on HF bands is my main interest. Waiting to decide on equipment I started with an RTL-SDR USB receiver and soon strung up a dipole antenna in the backyard – two lengths of fence wire at clothesline height and alligator clips to the receiver's coax, and the gleeful immediate reward of hearing contacts across the East coast. A positive confirmation of the basic fundamentals and unintermediated possibilities for communication in an era of my increasing disatisfaction with the internet.

I tentatively attended our local small Amateur Radio Club's monthly meeting in February, which pushed me to get my callsign as soon as I felt reasonably solid in my practice tests. I opted for a virtual testing session with a very helpful set of volunteers, and in early April 2025 I became a General-licensed ham operator. Now I would need to get serious about what antenna and transceiver would actually get me on the air.