Radio Installed, Sort Of

Sort of installed my new radio in the truck today...  I say sort of, because I've used it to talk to a few folks after we hooked it up.  But we didn't mount it behind the seat and on the dashbord as I was expecting because Jack forgot to bring his power tools.  He said we could do that pretty quick another time.

After hooking up the radio, I did take some time to manually program in a few channels.  Specifically the freqs for the RARS repeater (164.640), the JARS repeater (147.270), the S Wake repeater (145.210), the Hillsborough repeater (147.225), and the SIMPLEX channel (146.520).  I talked on RARS and SIMPLEX earlier today, and hope to join nets on some of the others this evening.

New Rig

Thursday morning is the time each week when a number of HAMs meet over at one of the local mall food courts.  For the last few months, I've been joining them for a little talk and BS, as I learn more about the Amateur Radio community.  Today, some of the talk was about Hurricane Isaac.  One of our members, Jack Foster (NCUYB), received a call near the end of our meeting warning him that he might be activated in support of Isaac activities.  Jack participates in the Emergency Responders part of HAM radio.  Jack is also one of the local gurus on HAM equipment (he installed my truck tri-band antenna and power connection).

This afternoon, UPS delivered my new truck rig...  a Yaesu FT-7900R.  I ordered it from HAM City last Friday, and knew it was coming (Happy Birthday Mike!).  I've already talked to Jack, and plan to meet him in the morning to install it.  Then, I'll be spending a good part of the weekend programming in the various frequencies that I expect to use in the near future.  Admittedly, there is no way I expect to use all of the features of this toy any time soon, but it was the least expensive unit that had all the features that I did want.

Yes yes, yell at me.  I haven't been posting on this blog with any regularity.  It's been a stressful 6 months while I was looking for work.  Well, that is coming to an end, since it look's like I'll be getting the contract with GeoMagic up in RTP/Durham.  Tentative start date is the day after labor day.

So... what is going on in my world of Ham Radio.  The big news is that, since I'll have an income source, I went ahead and ordered my 2M mobile rig...  the YAESU
FT-7900R.  I spent the extra $20 on 3-day shipping to make sure I got it before next Friday, so I can get Jack (N6UYB) to help me install it.  He did my tri-band antenna and power lead last month, and rigged it so installing the radio should be a snap.  

Upcoming events include the Ride Without Limits out of Moncure, NC, 9/15 - 9/16.

73's

Busy, and Moving Forward

Last week, I volunteered to participate in the Firecracker Bike Race as a communication link.  Spent four hours at Rest Stop #1 as a rest stop comm guy.

Going Live

Yes, I know.  It's been a shamefully long time since I've blogged here or in any of my other blog pages.  Chalk it up to laziness, and a massive amount of work related to Toastmasters.

What have I been doing?  I've participated in a number of bicycle tours as a SIG (Support and Gear) vehicle.  I've also installed a tri-band (144/220/440) mobile antenna on my truck.

Tomorrow I'll be presenting a speech to the Raleigh Preppers group on the subject of Amateur Radio as part of their monthly meetup.  Nice to be combining three different extracurricular activities in one go.