Well, congratulations for the start of something fun. Once you get there, there are so many avenues. If you were a nurse, you know what I mean by avenues. Same thing.. different venue.
I started in 1957 as a novice in Louisiana. Couple of my HS buddied decided to do it.. and we had played with some simple electronic stuff. We built a small transmitter that could work from room to room over AM radio.. and decided to see how far we could make it transmit. Put it in a car and we had fun with antennas, etc to up the distance.. Elation.
We all got novice licenses and had fun with crystal controlled transmitters, working different states.. and then came the time to go for General.. study, study, study and up the morse code to better than 13 WPM. We were there. Back then, you had to take the tests at an FCC office.. so we all drove from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. They passed the test, I choked on the code despite the fact that I could do about 17 WPM (Words Per Minute). I got discouraged but kept up the code.
We pulled up stakes and moved to Calif when I graduated.. then my license ran out. One of the guys that worked for me talked me into taking the tech license.. along with another student.. I was working for Univ of Calif at a research facility.. nother story... Well, we both took the test and we both passed the theory and 13 WPM code. Didn't do much on any HF.. but spent a lot of time on 6 Meter SSB. That was a blast.. for me DX (long distance) was from Bodega Bay, CA to San Diego, CA..
Finally got up the gumption go to for my General.. I didn't do much code on 6 M
so had to get that back in shape.. boned up on theory and passed the General Exam.. yipee.. Now on to different avenues. I really got hooked on DX after I had my first "other country" besides the US. Japan.. yah hoooo. Lots of Japan.. Then some of the S. Pacific Islands.. both voice and CW (morse code).. was I hooked. In fact, I really improved my CW. Got up to about 30 WPM.. not clean.. but enough to know what the conversation was about. I could send 30 clean.. but not receive it quite that well. I've worked over 130 countries, mostly CW and all states on a few different bands. Some of the countries were worked with my 2 watt HF transceiver. Fun Fun.
There is a ton of different volunteer things you can do.. Public Service work. I worked with the Calif Div of Forestry as, what they call a VIP. Training for emergencies specifically with the DoF. Worked many charity bicycle rides which is great training for emergencies.. and spent a number of days working with the local Department of Emergency Services during local floods, etc.
I haven't been on the air for a few years now.. but, I need to see if I can sell most of my equipment..such as my Linear (2000 watts) and a couple of transceivers and get something small for my RV.. after deciding on what antenna to use. So much............
Good luck and keep on pushing toward the goal.
Linear Mode
