CQ CQ CQ – Ham Radio Saturday – Annuntio vobis gaudium!

UPDATES below.

Original published on: May 2, 2015 @ 10:16

___

This morning I took my General Class license examination.

I passed with a perfect score (as I did for my Tech exam).

Now it is on to the Extra Class exam!

The study books, by the way, were sent by you readers from my wishlist. Thank you, again! You helped me and I am grateful.

The VEs running the exam session were as nice as can be. One had brought some sweet rolls in honor of his 250th exam session. He also invited me to join their square dancing club.

So, I can operate on the General bands if I wish, but I will have to add “AG” as a suffix to me call until my status changes in the FCC database.

I had received by email a note from an American prelate that he, too, is working on the General.  Go team, go!

To Fr. B – I put that Baofung on the wishlist, as you instructed last week. HERE [See the update, below!]

So… now for some Echolink stuff (which I’ve mentioned before  HERE). I’ll turn on my Echolink program on my desktop here in the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue.

KC9ZJN
73

UPDATE 2025 GMT:

I remembered that our own WB0YLE had set up an Echolink node for us, so I found it. Hey! It’s a step, right?

15_05_02_echolink_01

UPDATE:

I had my first RF contact this afternoon via Echolink.  Thanks to WB0YLE for the help with the Echolink stuff.   Very cool.   He has made his node available to all of us.  There is space for 20 hams!  Node: 554286 WB0YLE-R

UPDATE 5 May:

Many thanks to MRG for the Baofeng UV5R!   I have it fired up right now.   It has just the little rubber ducky antenna but it finds the repeater here with no problems.

Click me!

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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32 Comments

  1. Max says:

    Congratulations!
    BTW, a priest in cassock doing square dance might be a good way to get vocations. Or not. Just don’t try it on the altar, LOL.

  2. SKAY says:

    Congratulations, Father!!

  3. Max says:

    Congratulations!
    BTW, a priest in cassock doing square dance might be a good way to get vocations. Or not. Just don’t try it on the altar, LOL.

    Now we can expand Catholic media to the Ham Radio community. New Evangelization!

  4. Andreas says:

    Father Z. wrote, “The VEs running the exam session were as nice as can be. One had brought some sweet rolls in honor of his 250th exam session. He also invited me to join their square dancing club.”
    In this regard, some time ago Msgr. Pope noted that, “Surely as a young man I never gave a thought to the Church, in terms of square dancing. But now with this great love for God and for the Church, I can’t help it, I see the Church in square dancing.” The link to Msgr.’s interesting essay is:
    http://blog.adw.org/2013/01/what-can-square-dancing-teach-us-about-the-church/

  5. FloridaJoan says:

    Congratulations Father !

    Hope to log your station on HF soon.

    73
    W4JMJ

    [When I get some appropriate gear, we can make that happen.]

  6. The Cobbler says:

    The article Andreas links to reminds me a bit of the end of Perelandra.

  7. JonPatrick says:

    Elizabeth D, shouldn’t that be “Habemus Perna” ? :)

    [pernaM]

  8. jbpolhamus says:

    I know the fast is optional these days, but being the concientious Catholic that you are, I take it you’ll be abstaining from HAM on Fridays?

  9. wanda says:

    Congratulations, Fr. Z. Can you award yourself the gold star?

    Elizabeth D – Ha! Good one!

  10. Elizabeth D says:

    jbpolhamus, habeo tofu. Pater Z habea pernam et facit ham.

  11. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    Macte, Pater.

  12. Art says:

    Congratulations, Father!

    So when will you schedule the WDTPRS net on Echolink?

  13. Jack says:

    Congrats on the upgrade!
    W1JEM sends.

  14. acardnal says:

    Job well done, Father Z! Congratulations!
    DE KE4 WKV

  15. acardnal says:

    How many other folks were taking the exam today?

  16. acardnal:

    I saw three others. But it was not all joy in Mudville.

  17. plaf26 says:

    KC9ZJN Congrats and 73 de KC0GA. Thinking about a Ten-Tec Eagle myself.

  18. Kathleen10 says:

    Congratulations!! Wow, one look at the manual and I knew it was way past my skills, so kudos!
    ElizabethD and all, lol.

  19. And, from what I understand…Father made his first RF contact today, albeit through Echolink into a repeater, but, the journey of a thousand QSOs begins with the first. Mine was K2ORS in October of 1969, arranged by my elmer, who happened to be his studio engineer, and arranged for it without my knowledge. Still have the QSL.

    Congrats, well done.

    And anticipating that more than one may want to use the facilities that Fr noted above, I’ve increased the bandwidth allocated on my net connection and bumped up the number of simultaneous connections to 20…it’s there, so, fellow ops, feel free to use as you see fit.

    Kathleen10: It’s not way past anyone’s skills. Just a little book time, a little study, and it’s really within the grasp of anyone. Lots of YLs (young ladies) and XYLs (ex-young ladies) are sharing the bands with us OMs (old men).

    St Maximillian Kolbe, SP3RN, patron of ham operators, pray for us.

  20. jilly says:

    Congrats!

    …I will have to figure out how to use Echolink & join that node. :)

    Jilly
    WA4CZD

  21. gramma10 says:

    I have no idea really what you’re saying. But that is ok. Congrats Father anyway!
    I thought it was really sweet for you to be invited to join in the square dancing! : )
    Maybe you ought to try it once.
    I admire that you seem to be an almost “jack of all trades” type of priest. Your interests are diverse and cool!
    You are a fine example of using all the things that God gave us for the good and being open to His awesome world here. Thanks for sharing!
    Now swing your partner by the arm and ‘doh se doh.’

  22. jpaluh says:

    Congratulations Father Z!
    Joe
    KB3LUE

  23. markomalley says:

    Bravo Zulu Father!

  24. Humilitas says:

    Congratulations Father Z.
    I’m in my 70’s, and have had my license for only a couple of years.
    I wish you many years of enjoyment and look forward to catching you on one of the HF bands in the future.
    Congratulations KC9ZJN and 73, de KC4RAC.

  25. Fr. Bryan says:

    KC9ZJN/AG ARL Fifty Six Upgrade 73
    (That ought to get you to look up the National Traffic System ARL codes for Radiograms)
    Well done, Father!

  26. Fr. Bryan says: Well done, Father!

    Thanks!

    I’ve started working on Extra Class.

  27. jeffc says:

    Well done Fr. Z!

    Another in a long line of priestly hams! I fondly remember one of my Elmers, the late Rev. Peter Beckman, OSB (sadly, I do not remember his call sign)

    73
    JeffC
    AC5XL

  28. The Masked Chicken says:

    Dear Brian Boyle,

    Two questions:

    1. Do you need a license to listen to Ham radio broadcasts?

    2. Are there any websites that allow this (like the Short Wave sites)?

    I would love to get a license – I studied back before the new FCC regs abolishing Morse Code requirements went into effect, but in those non-solid state days, one had to actually be able to draw tube circuits and my understanding of circuit theory (I was really young) was not developed, enough. Today, I could do a complete mathematical analysis, although times have moved on to solid-state, which is a Black box to most people, although I did take a course in instrumentation, including digital circuits, in college. Still, I like to understand circuits before I use them, so, for me to really feel comfortable, I need a masters in electrical engineering. I know one can flip switches and turn on dials, but I would not consider myself a true Ham until I could build a simple transmitter, from scratch.

    Still, I want to slide into it by becoming familiar with the chatter. Is this possible? There is a Ham in my department, who could be my Elmer, if need be.

    The Chicken

  29. jilly says:

    Father Z. –

    I have an old Argosy HF transmitter & power supply & mic – works fine – that you can borrow indefinitely until you get a newer/100 Watt rig. I’ve worked 110 countries with 50 watts.

    I can mail it to you – let me know. WA4CZD@arrl.net

    [How kind you are! I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to borrow something like this, as some distance.]

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