Ham Radio Update

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Ham Radio
• Date: Mar 9,2008

I have had my Ham Radio now for a couple of weeks. I’m very happy with the Yaesu Ft-2800m. I have discovered a bunch of new repeaters, since I am ideally located in the southern tip of Montreal Island, near the water, so I have access to the south shore and west island.
One of the more interesting repeaters for me, is on Mount Sutton, which enables me to talk to people in Vermont and Burlington. I’m not used to doing Ham Radio in english, (since I only do VHF and that’s more local) but it’s very very nice.

I was worried about my J-Pole, since it’s the first antenna i’ve ever built myself, but the results have been extraordinary. I have yet to get a single BAD SIGNAL report from anyone, however I look forward to testing / tuning it with a proper SWR meter.

I would really like to contact the International Space Space, and have tried a few times, but so far I have not picked up ANYTHING on the ISS frequencies when it’s passing over me. (Although I only have access to the VHF frequencies, UHF would help alot) Every time it’s passed over me so far has been during the day, which is not the best time for Satellite / space communications.

It’s also been very nice talking to a few people that I remember (and they remember me) from 10-12 years ago when I was a very active Ham Radio operator. (And one of the youngest in Quebec, at the time using the callsign Ve2 JAZ .

There was a large snowstorm last night (March 8, 2008) and the city’s of St-Jerome and Dorval called for Ham Radio operators to be onsite at Transport Quebec locations and City Hall’s for emergency communications. I was unable to participate since those cities are kind of far, and the road conditions were VERY VERY bad. (Which is why the Ham Radio operators where called in in the first place) . Too bad though, I love those kinds of events. I’m not quiet ready to pack-up and leave to do emergency communications yet anyways.