Original video this one is the followup to: • Getting into ham radio... Build a loop on ground receive antenna: kk5jy.net/LoG/ Friend me on Facebook: / therealtimkreitz
The same thing happened to me, I was licensed as a technician in 2013 and was too busy to actually get into it. My license came up for renewal this year and since, I have upgraded to Extra, I'm working on learning CW, started doing POTA and all kinds of things. Just like you it has taken over my life and at 1000 MPH. :) 73!
Hello Tim, I have always enjoyed your motorcycle videos..Didn’t realize you were a ham operator too. My first HF radio was a Kenwood TS 2000. Great radio for many years. It finally had an issue and Cal repaired it for me. About a year later it has become intermittent and I replaced it with a Yaesu FT-710. 73. KC4BC
So you’re a traveling Brother. Cool! I’m a PM in Virginia. We’re doing an EA tonight, as a matter of fact. I got my license during the pandemic but only played on 2M handhelds. Then got tired of that. Just recently put up a vertical antenna and it’s working great! A Gap Challenger. I’ve also got a wire antenna up but it’s not hooked up yet. I’m not a motorcycle guy but I just happened to stumble upon your other ham vid. I like how your brain analyzes things and you explain it well. 73 KO4CPD
Much appreciated and greetings from Texas. I'm PM of Acacia Lodge #1414 and sitting Chaplain at Midland Lodge #623. I'm glad you're enjoying amateur radio and progressing as an operator. Ham is similar to freemasonry in that the learning never stops. Cheers.
Thanks for a nice video and all your gear! I got my tech license a year and half ago, at 67 years old, been thinking about it since college! I finally did it. I am getting ready to test and upgrade to generaI. I was given a bunch of ham gear from the wife of a guy in a nursing home and soon to be moved to hospice. I knew him from work but he retired many years before me. I wish he could have been my Elmer. The radios I got from him are all old, most from the 70's. They had been stored in a very damp location and none if them work. I am on the air with a cheap dual band with an old power supply. And, on top of that, the wife and I are currently building a home. My shack is a little folding table in the work shop I'm still finishing up. I am looking forward to having radios repaired or replaced and a for real ham shack in the future! KK7GXQ
Thanks very much. And yes, everybody seems to agree that there has definitely been a noticeable uptick in ham radio involvement and interest since the pandemic.
Geez Tim got enough radios haha I got a cb in the truck about it…I was always into cbs just oblivious to the ham. Good to see your videos lately glad to see your still romping around
The ideal number of radios is n+1, where n is the number you currently own. I bought another one this weekend just gone, paid £20 for an FDK-700e 2m FM set, just because my first set was an FDK 750e which I still have, and wanted to add it to my FDK collection. Best thing is, it works, and puts out 25W!
ridiculously upgraded 😂 It's pretty much all over my head but I totally appreciate and understand how you could get so into this stuff. Kind of reminds me of having a nice seperates sound system. I used to have half decent separates, CD player, Amplifier and nice speakers. An old workmate was well into his music and sound systems. He had a set up that was into the tens of thousands. Even had three Amp's the main one and the two pre speaker ones. Tell ya what though it did sound amazing. I thought I'd heard good systems till I heard that. Each and every sound / tune / note that came out the speakers seemed to be separate from all other sounds coming out at the same time. Cheers Tim!
Love Kenwoods. I still have the vintage 520 like yours on top and also the TS-990S for specialty modulation and long distance. My mobile D710 for UHF/VHF is great and my D74 is my favorite handheld.
a very nice and tidy setup - particularly like the silent key hardware getting some really good use, it looks probably sounds splendid. Your atntenna switch setup looks really good. Thank you for sharing your setup with us, lets hope it inspires other users with stored equipment to get back onto the air.
Well that seems familiar.. I tested and achieved General back in 2009. Mostly ran on 2m and 70cm as I was a field tech for a living and only did a bit of HF as I couldn't really have a good antenna (HOA CC&R's). Fast forward a few years, living in a different home, and my HF rig just sitting in boxes... I broke it out during Covid, and set it up. 3 months later and a new 100w rig, and I was running 1000mph. 2 years later, better antennas, and a 500w amp as well.... Amazing how a single event changed things for many of us. I should have kept some of my older radios. I dearly miss my Kenwood TS-450s, even though my Yaesu FTdx3000 is lightyears better.
Soooo true. The pandemic was transformative and transmogrifying in untold ways. We'll be feeling those effects for years to come. It killed one of my businesses, but I'm glad it got me back into radio.
Congrats on your tech. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with that license. Enjoy it, and nice to hear from you. I hope all is well in your world.
@@TimKreitzAdventures I don't get on the air much, but it's fun to mess around with. Things are pretty good. Family is growing and working hard lol I hope life has been good to you as well
Show us the hole in the wall with a pvc pipe and flex seal, and all the coax,wires running through it. That's how I did mine. Btw if the power strip dose not say 20 amps on it its only 14 gauge wire instead of 12 gauge. I only found 2 on amazon that can handle the full 20 amps.
I have a heavy duty power strip in the back of the rack. The one on the wall is only 15A (I think), but draw and duty cycle on that one is usually pretty low. No problems thus far.
Thank you for this video. I am putting up am 80meter delta antenna, hoping for great things. My curiosity is piqued in regard to your 40 and 80 meter dipoles. Are the an inverted “L” design? Sorry, I could not see well enough to discern your configuration. I sure agree with your statement about the hobby being “a hole in the ether” into which a person pours $$$ and radio waves, and never completely fills it up. 73 - KQ4IXD
My pleasure. My 40m and 80m dipoles are both slung as inverted-Vs, but the V isn't perfect on either of them. I'm having to work with the shape of my property and the amount of workable room I have. As a result, both antennas are somewhat asymmetrically directional.
My way to build a station is with a soldering iron. I like to design and build RF gear, and I figure the main point to ham radio is that the FCC has authorized us to build our own stations. From tube gear to SDR transceiver kits and accessories I love to create, build, fix and modify.
My goal is to build a transmitter at some point. I've been honing my bench tech skills by restoring all this old stuff and I've enjoyed building my own antennas. I think some sort of scratch build will definitely happen in the future. 73!
I’m a CB guy myself… love Ham radio also … people like Iowa Hank are why I waited as long as I did to get my license much sooner than I did lol 😂 However I have met some great people on HF as well as the repeaters but I also still talk to some great folks on my CB station as well 🤙🏻🇺🇸🅰️
Well, you can do it cheap, expensive, or somewhere in the middle. I guess I'm in the middle. Being able to work on old stuff and get it operating has definitely been an advantage, but I've spent a few Grand in the process. Cheers.
