I feeling a little bit like a child in a candy store.  My Radio has shipped from the warehouse and I expect it to arrive (per UPS) on Monday next week.  I have to say Gigaparts is doing well so far and now all I have to do is wait.  I don’t like waiting.

I was going to write more stuff, but it is after midnight here and I’m tired.  Y’all are just gonna have to wait.

I attended a class to become a licensed HAM operator (Technician) primarily to be able to work the radios in our EOC.  We will be using them to build/join a HAM radio net used by all the local EOCs for Communications when phone service is interrupted.  Since phone service is not the most reliable means of communications during an emergency situation, HAM was a good choice with access to the hardware and easy licensing processes.  I wanted to have a HAM license for quite some time, but never took the time to go deeper.  Well, I am licensed now (KF5MTE) and my first radio has been ordered.

On that note, I chose for my first radio the Yaesu FT-60R dual-band (2m & 70cm) due to the popularity of both bands in my area as well as Satellite uplink/downlink freqs are 140s/440s split.  It would be nice to reach them and be able to talk AND listen.  Anyway, the radio is a handheld (5w) and has a lot of decent reviews spread out over many years of service.  I think it will serve me well starting off.

I purchased the radio (FT-60R), a desktop quick charger (VAC-370), and a Diamond High Gain SMA Antenna (SRH77CA) with a +6 db gain.  The whole setup ran me $256.90 through Gigaparts.com with free shipping.  The free shipping, I believe, is for orders over a certain total, which apparently my order qualified for.  I hope to receive my radio on or before next Thursday so I can have it before our trip to Chicago.

I came across another HAM operator in the Fort Worth area, surprisingly very close to where I live.  He runs a blog called showmeblog.com.  I find it interesting, but I would expect that most people may not.  It would have to be in the eye of the beholder.  He has been very friendly and we may just have to have a Mark 1 eyeball soon to say hi.

Well, I need to do some actual work now, so this is me signing off, KF5MTE (KF5-Mighty)