From QRT to On-the-Air

Being in the hobby means getting equipment. Those acquisitions started in late September 2015.

As a tech, I could get on VHF quickly, easily, and cheaply. I read and read and watched lots of YouTubes. I bought a Baofeng BF-F8+ and an enhanced antenna. I learned all I could about 2 meters and 70cm and about repeaters and nets.

Anticipating the administrative upgrade to general, I started researching HF rigs. Portability was a high priority, since I knew my operating restrictions would be heavy on campus, plus I have access to a standing site on the eastern shore of Maryland and I enjoy traveling westward into the Appalachians to hike. Everyone counsels against QRP. So I settled on either an IC-706 or a Yeasu FT-857, and started lurking on several sites with classified ads.

I finally pounced on an IC-706MKIIg. The price was reasonable, and I volunteered to drive up to his QTH outside Baltimore to pick it up, hoping that would give me a little room to negotiate an already very reasonable price. I went up on a Saturday in early October (before my upgrade), met the very helpful ham, saw the rig in action, and happily paid for it. He generously tossed in a couple capacitors and an inductor for a tuner as well as a couple mobile antenna parts.

Also in early October, I bought a Powerwerx power supply and a Bencher Iambic, also from online classifieds. At a ham store a little south of DC I purchased some RG-8X and a portable tuner, the LDG Z100+.

The first two antennas I used it with were doublets: one on campus inside my study; the other, hung between two trees on the eastern shore.

Two more antennas would come quickly on the scene: a portable ground mounted vertical with twelve radials that tunes easily on 40 meters and up, and the short version of the W4JOH cobra-style doublet (for 80 meters and up) to replace the shorter doublet in eastern Maryland.

The ground mounted vertical I could set up easily both on campus and in eastern Maryland, giving me a chance to compare, among other things, vertical and horizontal polarization.

November Four Foxtrot Sierra India was QRT no more!