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Subject:
From:
Jeff Kenyon <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
For blind ham radio operators <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 24 Apr 2006 20:49:55 -0400
Content-Type:
TEXT/PLAIN
Parts/Attachments:
TEXT/PLAIN (163 lines)
I don't know about changing it on line, but you can download the form.  I
need to change mine as well, but I don't know how long I'll be here, but
when I move I will have to change the license address.  My house is on the
market, but nothing in this area is selling at all.





On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Matt V wrote:

> i need to change the address too when i renew mine
> where would i do that online and can i do it before i renew or does it
> have to be done together?
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Jeff Kenyon wrote:
>
> > Good evening John and the group.  I passed the novice in 2000 and was
> > granted my license in May of that year  It was just before the
> > restructuring took place.  I know that on our nets there are constantly
> > messages reminding people it is time to upgrade, but does the FCC to it at
> > all?  In 2010 I do plan on updating and renewing no matter where I may be
> > or what I may be doing.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, John Miller wrote:
> >
> >> I know what you mean, I remember last year when it was time for my first
> >> renewal of my license I was taken aback for a minute that 10 years went by
> >> that fast and I am still now as involved as I ever was and probably more.
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:17 PM
> >> Subject: Re: My 40th Ham Radio Anniversary
> >>
> >>
> >>> Oops, this not only went private to poor Barb, but I sent it before I
> >>> was done...
> >>>
> >>> Well, since we're all waxing nostalgic, I reckon it's my turn!
> >>>
> >>> October 24th (well, to be technical, October 20th, so says my first
> >>> license, now unfortunately long gone--but got it on the 24th), will
> >>> see my 19th anniversary as a ham this year. Next year--20 years--
> >>> who'd've thunk it? It's sort of like...I don't know, you never really
> >>> think you'll grow up, and you never really think about having done
> >>> anything for 20 years when you just get started. But here it is, this
> >>> side of 19 years, 20 years in site.
> >>>
> >>> I've actually known about ham radio for ages and ages. In fact, I
> >>> have a vague memory of being about five and with a teacher and
> >>> walking into the ham radio station at the New Mexico School for the
> >>> Visually Handicapped when I was there and (obviously) very, very
> >>> young. I just remember some radio static, asking, "What's that?", and
> >>> someone telling me it's the ham radio station. In typical five-year-
> >>> old fashion, I just said, "Oh." And forgot about it.
> >>>
> >>> Well, I guess I didn't really forget about it, though. I saw a book
> >>> when I was nine and thought, "Oh, ham radio, I think I've heard of
> >>> that." Reading the book, I thought (in typical stupid 9-year-old
> >>> fashion), "Oh. You can't play music on it? What good is it then?!" I
> >>> managed to meet some hams some time after that, but didn't give it
> >>> much thought then either. But it just wouldn't quit! Because a while
> >>> after that, we moved from Arizona to Texas, and I met an O&M
> >>> instructor who oriented me to the school I was going to, or
> >>> something, and, on the way home, he showed me his (you guessed it)
> >>> ham radio, made a phone patch to my mom, and I thought, "Oh well, now
> >>> isn't that interesting?" But it still didn't quit, because a few
> >>> years later, I found a book called "How To Become A Radio
> >>> Amateur" (Copyright 1950) and thought, "Oh, I've heard of that",
> >>> checked the book out, didn't understand a damned thing in it (well,
> >>> not much, anyway), and decided I'd get a ham radio license. (You see,
> >>> I can even learn, eventually.) I even thought, "Oh, well, I guess
> >>> I'll learn that morse code because I have to, but I don't think I'll
> >>> like it. I'll probably never even use it." How surprised was I that I
> >>> really not only learned it very easily, but absolutely fell in love
> >>> with it! Having a head for stupid details, I remembered that this O&M
> >>> instructor was a ham and somehow managed to let him know I wanted to
> >>> be a ham, too. So, Steve not only helped me get started, put up
> >>> antennas, lent me a receiver, helped me procure my first station,
> >>> took me to hamfests and field day and all sorts of things, but he
> >>> became a great friend.
> >>>
> >>> Anyway, just six months after picking up that initial copy of How To
> >>> Become A radio Amateur, and several outdated study guides later (with
> >>> patient help from Steve), I passed my novice test. By the way, if
> >>> anyone knows where I can lay hands on a braille copy of this book,
> >>> I'd be forever grateful; if I knew that TSB was throwing theirs out--
> >>> the very one that got me started--I'd've asked for it, but I didn't
> >>> know, and it got thrown out without any input from me.
> >>>
> >>> So that brought me to that Saturday, October 24th, 1987. I was
> >>> talking to a friend on the phone, and I think motor Week had just
> >>> gone off the TV. And my initial thought when my (uh. sister?) told me
> >>> what my new call letters were...was, "Yuck!" (You see, I really was
> >>> secretly hoping to get issued KB5LID mostly because I have a twisted
> >>> sense of humor.) But it grew on me...like a cancer?...and a week
> >>> later, I was making my first few contacts at Steve's ham shack. I
> >>> really wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, but then, I'd been
> >>> practicing for ages! My first contacts were on 15-meter cw; first
> >>> with KA1JDG, then WA9YMI. I think my first QSL card came from YMI. I
> >>> then made a couple of 10-meter phone contacts, which weren't nearly
> >>> as much fun as I thought they'd be (they were lots of fun, though!),
> >>> then one on 40-meter cw. The 15-meter novice band was my favorite
> >>> band thereafter, for several years. Even after I tried 10-meter
> >>> phone, 20-meter phone, lots of phone, lots of cw on several bands, 15-
> >>> meter novice band was the home of many, many memorable contacts. It
> >>> was the band I got the worst signal report I ever got, and probably
> >>> the worst signal report just about anyone ever got. JH1WIX, whom I
> >>> contacted again several months later, gave me a 219 signal report.
> >>>
> >>> I was a 20-WPM Novice for a month, then got my General. Worked lots
> >>> of traffic nets. Made lots of wonderful friends. And the one striking
> >>> thing about ham radio for me, as a 14- and 15-year-old kid, was that
> >>> the hams fairly unversally treated me as an equal and with
> >>> respect...not like some dumb kid.
> >>>
> >>> BTW, my first rig? A set of Drake twins. Fantastic rig. And as much
> >>> as I absolutely loved (and still love) cw, I used a straight key
> >>> exclusively for about three years, tried a Heath keyer for a while,
> >>> went back to the key, tried a bug and loved it. Now I use an
> >>> electronic keyer, but I really want another good hand key for my
> >>> desk. And a bug. There's just something about sending cw with
> >>> mechanical things. I should say, too, that unlike many of my modern
> >>> ham brethren, I didn't actually get on 2 meters (apart from Steve's
> >>> mobile) for about a year after I got licensed, and a good nine months
> >>> after I got my general.
> >>>
> >>> So, even though my activity sort of drops off (like now, for
> >>> instance), I still love ham radio, and cw is my first ham radio love.
> >>> There were some amazing times, like that night in 1989 when I cruised
> >>> 20 meter cw and had dx come back to my cq's for several hours; one of
> >>> those contacts was Lyuba, UA1OSA, who (I found out later) has a sort
> >>> of interesting background--look her up on QRZ. If I'd known then. ...
> >>> But I didn't, and having the dx just sitting there without much
> >>> effort was just amazing to me. Wow but that was an amazing evening.
> >>> Sure wish I still had access to those logs, but I don't. Or what
> >>> about those evenings on the Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net, when a
> >>> big hurricane was coming and my friends on the coast, some of them
> >>> just weren't leaving. They got through OK, though. Just lots of
> >>> stuff. Now I'm starting to play with QRP. Still can't quite bring
> >>> myself to try hf digital modes, though.
> >>> --
> >>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV : Independent Watkins Associate #361534
> >>> Email: [log in to unmask] : Phone: 888-752-8339
> >>> --------------------------------------
> >>> For over 135 years, Watkins has brought you products to improve your
> >>> health and your home: http://www.tastyshop.net
> >>> ...And a Watkins business could change your life! Get all the info on
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> >>>
> >>
> >
>

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