Starting Out

Hi, I’m Jon Turner, AC1EV and I’d like to tell you a bit about my Ham Radio Adventure.  In late 2017, my wife Stephanie began pestering me to let her know what I wanted for Christmas.  This was a perennial problem for us.  I usually had problems thinking of something that was not ridiculous, like a new RV.  I heard about a new thing called “SDR” radio and found out about the RSP1A SDR.  It’s affordable and hooks up to a computer. There are lots of things to do with it.  On Christmas morning, I had a new toy, and my adventure began.  30 years earlier I used to have a Sony ICF-2010 Shortwave radio that I listened to while I traveled the country in my job as an owner-operator trucker.

In addition to the shortwave bands, it also had Ham bands and I explored them all.  As a trucker, I also had a pretty good CB radio setup, including SSB so was not new to being behind the mike.

Training

After a month or so of listening to the RSP1A SDR, it was obvious to me that I needed to be able to join in on the conversations (now I call them QSOs) I was monitoring.  After trucking, my second career was in IT, so I was very familiar with using internet resources to learn new technologies.  I self-studied and prepared for the Technician exam, which I took with the Billerica Amateur Radio Society in Chelmsford, Ma at the end of February 2018.  Already in study mode, I kept going and studying for the General exam.  My self-study program was a combination of the ARRL Exam Prep books, ARRL Exam Review for Ham Radio™, and YouTube videos produced by the Hurst Amateur Radio Society in Texas.  After I passed that exam, I began to build my station.  I often visited Ham Radio Outlet in Salem, NH to buy items to build or improve my station.  One day in mid-April I was talking with another customer there and mentioned that I was studying for the Amateur Extra test.  He told me that his club, Nashua Area Radio Society was putting on a boot-camp license training for Extra the upcoming weekend!  I was about halfway through my own studying for the test and decided to sign up for the training.  That decision turned out to be one of the most significant of my life.  Sure, I got the license that weekend, which was great, but more important was that I ended up joining the club.

Welcome to NARS

As a new ham I was eager to engage with the hobby and make contacts to far away exotic locations.  I knew the basics of what Hams can do but didn’t realize how much more was available or what being a member of a first-rate ham club could offer to me.  First, I started with building a station.  I didn’t realize at the time that this part of the hobby would never really end.  There is always something that needs to be tweaked or improved. When I began, I worked on getting my new IC-7300 and a 63-foot end-fed antenna to work.

Field Day 2018

At the same time, the club was getting ready for Field Day 2018 and 13 Colonies.  As a new member of the club and living 30 miles away, I hadn’t been involved with working on club projects and events by then.  I went to visit Field Day to see what was going on and spent a few hours there with the club checking out the setup and taking pictures.  The club had 10+ stations, 3 towers, and a 40-meter V-Beam and made over 2000 contacts.  I had no idea of the scope of this event or how much planning and work was involved in it.

Wow, once I saw this and had some time to think about it, I decided I wanted to be a part of it next year and also to join in on other projects and events with the club.  It turns out I didn’t have long to wait.

I want to take a moment here to point out something about NARS, it is a primary goal of the club to give anyone who is interested in participating in any club activity the opportunity and support to help make that happen.  Some organizations are so competitive that newbies are rarely allowed to have access to operate in special events or otherwise participate in the planning and setup of other club projects.  I found out that Nashua Area Radio Society makes a deliberate effort to include all, especially new hams, or hams inexperienced with a particular technology in whatever activity is underway.

13 Colonies 2018

13 Colonies is a special event each year during the week of the 4th of July.  This is an extremely popular event for hams around the world. In 2017 NARS was the top club and made NH the top state in the event, beating the next state, PA, by only 5 contacts!  Only a few minutes of operating time over a 7-day event made the difference!  An overly competitive club might want to restrict access to new or unproven operators to try and maximize the chances of repeating the win again.  NARS’ philosophy was to bring as many members as interested in participating into the action and give them a chance to experience the event (and hobby) at the highest level.

With only 2 months experience operating on HF SSB I had a chance to operate at the club’s president Fred (AB1OC) and wife Anita’s (AB1QB) world class station.

I was not just given a chance to operate, but to be included on the team of operators.  I made a meaningful contribution to the club’s effort in the event.  In July 2018 I had my Amateur Extra license for around 2 ½ months. According to QRZ.com, I had less than 250 QSOs in my log.  Presently, I have 10,990 QSOs in my log.  There are many more stories to tell about how I got here from there.  This is just the beginning; I will continue my story in future posts.

Jon, AC1EV