DeLorean Ham Radio Operators

[nkemp]

Any DeLorean owners or enthusiasts that are licensed ham radio operators? If so, sign in here and post your license & details so that we have a list in one place.

For starters, I'm:
N1KMP
- Own a HT
- Likely to buy a Elecraft KX3
- Interested in portable operation including using while touring
- Would like to learn Morse if I can get this old brain to learn a new language
- Latitude: 45.1667 Longitude: -93.9135
- Grid: EN35be

[eagle-co94]

KC4LCB

I'm not really that active and only have a 2m rig that I haven't fired up in ages. I did recently renew my license. My morse is worse than rusty. I needed to know 5 wpm to get my Novice license.

[Rich W]

Wayne Wagner

AA9DY

One of our DMC Club members who moved out to the East Coast a few years ago.

Not sure if he is still active or not.


Another local club member, Paul Skita, is very active with Ham Radios.

Paul does all the radio installs for the Chicago Fire Department vehicles.

Sorry I do not recall Paul's call-sign off hand.

[rdarlington]

Any DeLorean owners or enthusiasts that are licensed ham radio operators? If so, sign in here and post your license & details so that we have a list in one place.
- Grid: EN35be

N3XKB here. Extra class. Icom IC-7000 in the Toyota with the AH-4 auto-tuner and a bunch of hamsticks. IC-706MkIIg in the corner room ham shack with a 35 foot crank up tower right outside. Still working on the room so no details as of yet.

Got my friends good when I asked them for a 3/4" chassis punch that needed to get through stainless (for NMO antenna connectors). :-)

I operate mostly digital modes as I don't really like talking on the radio! I'm into amplifier design, milliwatts to kilowatts in both silicon and vacuum tube based designs. Working on a resonant cavity amp for 23cm for moon bounce around a 2C39 tube at the moment.

-Bob

[SS Spoiler]

huh?

[nkemp]

huh?

Could you elaborate?

[Galt]

Any DeLorean owners or enthusiasts that are licensed ham radio operators? If so, sign in here and post your license & details so that we have a list in one place.

For starters, I'm:
N1KMP
- Own a HT
- Likely to buy a Elecraft KX3
- Interested in portable operation including using while touring
- Would like to learn Morse if I can get this old brain to learn a new language
- Latitude: 45.1667 Longitude: -93.9135
- Grid: EN35be

I was kicking around getting into the hobby. I thought it'd be cool to run into Art Bell one night, or chat with a Ham on the ISS - but other than that, what's the daily appeal that justifies all the fiery hoops and expense to get started?

[nkemp]

... but other than that, what's the daily appeal that justifies all the fiery hoops and expense to get started?


For some it is understanding the technology and how to use it.

Think of it this way ... some folks like to tweak or build engines or do engine swaps. To what purpose? In amateur radio it is similar. The learning/doing experience of building, tweaking and using transceiver equipment.


For others it is the ability to talk to anyone anywhere on the planet.
For some it is the emergency communications capability be it personal or as a service to their community.
For some it is the ability to communicate to great distances on very very little power (AKA operating QRP).
For some, SOTA (sota.org) is a fun thing to do. Others it is HF backpacking.
Some just like to talk to strangers


Any other thoughts out there?

[eagle-co94]

Other than taking a test and finding what radio you want to use there aren't really any hurdles. I got my license at 12 years old so there's nothing "fiery" about it. I had to learn 5 wpm morse code to do it and morse isn't even a requirement at entry level anymore.

Having said that I got my license before cell phones were mainstream as my family had a 2M rig in every car. For me the emergency communication aspect is the biggest one. After natural disasters Hams are often the first communication operators in place.

[DMCMW Dave]

- - - but other than that, what's the daily appeal that justifies all the fiery hoops and expense to get started?

I thought this was a pretty funny comment coming from a car forum. The parallels are endless. Why on earth would you jump through all the hoops and expense to buy a DeLorean, so you can join a forum and go to group gatherings to discuss how to keep it running? If all you wanted to do was drive somewhere you'd buy a Camry.

Same with amateur radio - if all you want to do is talk you buy a cellphone. People that are into it tend to be into the technology which leads to talking with a bunch of folks who are also into the technology (or the other aspects that Nick Mentioned).

Similarly, there are people into the car for the tech (keep it running experience) and for the social (hanging out at car shows, "hey look at me", etc. or the combination of social and tech (look at all the people who use "tech sessions" as an excuse to hang out at someone's house, who you would never otherwise know, to work on each others cars).

[nkemp]

When it comes to hobbies/interests/etc, I think you can group them into three categories:

Users.

For radio, these are the one who buy equipment and simply use it.
For car enthusiasts, these are the ones who drive them and have other service them for the most part.


Tweakers, modders, kit builders and the like.

In radio, these will buy radio kits to assemble, build their own antennas mostly from plans and may rebuild an old set of equipment
For car enthusiasts, they will fix leaks, improve the wiring, solve problems based on other's designs, add an option such as headers and similar skill level projects.


The engineers and designer types

In radio, they will design and build their own radios, power supplies, antennas and the like
For car enthusiasts, they may build a custom engine from compatible parts, reshape body panels, design their own suspension, etc.



So if you buy into the the 3 types listed above, the question relative to any pursuit becomes one of understanding where you fit and how much pleasure you will get out of it. For me and the DeLorean, I fit into the 2nd category. That said, I sometimes believe that the first are the ones that enjoy the car the most.

So relative to the ham radio license, where do you fit and what will you use it for to get satisfaction.