I made 20 contacts ("QSO' s" in ham lingo) from this spot. In the next 75 miles I saw 5 cows standing in the road and met only 3 cars. One car had broken down in the middle of the road. I made a call for assistance on 20 meters and two hams answered. They contacted the Utah Highway Patrol and help was dispatched. It was over 50 miles to the nearest telephone and there are no cell phone towers here. This is just one use of ham radio. In the 30 some odd years that I have been a ham, I have made calls to report wrecks, fires, and disabled vehicles.
I was first licensed as WB4UHI in 1970, about three months after I was married. For most of my career as a technician I operated on 6 meter AM and 2 meter FM. I never have been extremely active on 2 meters. When technicians were given 10 meter SSB privileges, I purchased a Radio Shack HTX-100 10 meter transceiver and a Cushcraft TEN-3 10 meter antenna. Later I upgraded to an Icom IC-730 HF transceiver. In June 1991, I passed the 13-wpm code test and upgraded to General class. The next year I upgraded to Advanced class.
Most of my time on the air is spent ragchewing (just talking) with people in other states and countries. Sometimes the contacts (QSO's) are fascinating. I have learned that during World War II, German POW's were given a weekly ration of beer. Once I talked for an hour with a quality control analyst of a newspaper in Denmark. His job was to try to reduce the number misprinted papers. He told me he had read an article in a 1776 edition of his paper that reported on the signing of the Deceleration of Independence.
In addition the ragchewing, I "chase counties". My goal is to contact a station in all of the 3,077 counties in the United States. I have confirmed contacts in 1,600 counties so far. Over 1,000 people have worked all the counties. Many have worked every county more than once. Three people have transmitted from every county in the country. I have transmitted from 523 counties in 39 states. For more information on county hunting, visit the following sites:
Current my station consists of an Icom IC-706 MKII transceiver and a Kenwood HTX-225 2 meter handheld transceiver. An Inverted Vee at 40 feet covers 80 meters. A Vee with a single feed line but different wires covers 40 and 20 meters. This allows me to quickly change bands when I am chasing counties on 14.336MHz and 7.238MHz. This antenna also loads on 15 meters and I have made one contact on 6 meters with it. When we built the house, I installed a 1/4 wavelength MFJ ground plane antenna in the attic. I have made contacts in excess of 100 miles using this antenna and 10 watts on 146.52MHz FM.
For mobile operation I use a 20-meter hamstick mounted to the frame of the car. An MFJ glass mount antenna covers two meters. Glass mount antennas keep you from having to drill holes in your car, but I once had one fall off on an interstate highway in Nebraska.
For more information about amateur radio visit the ARRL' s web site.
