Greetings. I’m Tony Baker AA3HD, and I’m relatively new to the amateur radio world, just getting my Technician’s license in August of 2019. Getting an amateur radio license was something I had been wanting to do for a long time but hadn’t gotten around to it for one main reason…my employer of over 35 years did not allow it. One security restriction in working for the Central Intelligence Agency is that you cannot have an amateur radio license. (Perhaps this standard prohibition has been dropped or relaxed today.)
From a very young age, I remember always being interested in two-way radios. I think it was around the 7th grade that a friend of our family – “uncle” Bill – bought me a Knight 2-channel walkie-talkie kit. Uncle Bill helped me put the two kits together, teaching me how to solder, and me learning what the different parts, like resistors, looked like, and the importance of ensuring polarity was correct, etc. I remember having so much fun with my friends with those crystal-controlled radios after I got them together and the satisfaction of building them.
At age 20 I went to work for the CIA. It’s been nine years since I retired. Because of my employment restrictions, I did what I could do and got into citizens’ band radio. Probably a lot of us hams were into or dabbled in CB radio at one time. As a matter of fact, about two years ago I got out one of my old CB’s – an E.F. Johnson 40-channel SSB unit – and hooked it up in my truck, and, it worked!!! But it wasn’t like the good old days of the mid- to late 1970s when every CB channel was very active, and you could talk skip in a heartbeat. It seemed all the channels were silent. My old CB call sign was KHK-7098. Children and wives, (I’ve been divorced twice), forced me to change my priorities, and I eventually was unable to devote any time at all to my CB radio hobby.
Fast forward to last summer. (As background, I went to elementary school in Deer Isle, Maine, and have been going there for summers my entire life. Some of my relatives still live on Little Deer Isle, and my family still has a seasonal house on Little Deer Isle as well.) For whatever reason, this past summer I started reminiscing about how great the skip on CB was back in the day from Little Deer Isle, but how silent all the channels were now. I wondered to myself; why not get your amateur radio license now? After some research, I discovered you no longer needed to learn Morse code to pass the test. At that point, I decided to get my Technician’s ticket. With some more research, I found out about a two-day licensing class in Natick, MA, and after completing the course, passed the Tech test. Two weeks later I took and passed the General test, and two weeks after that, on September 7th in Boxboro at the HamXposition, I passed the Extra test. That said, I was probably the only Extra who hadn’t even made a transmission, not to mention that I didn’t have a radio either!!
Boxboro was an exciting time for me. It was here that I got exposed to some real hams, and some real radios, both new and old making and receiving transmissions. It also was in Boxboro that I first became exposed to the Nashua Area Radio Society, soaking up all the displays, taking the HAM Bootcamp course, and learning that NARS was ARRL’s choice for the best ham radio club for 2019. It also was at Boxboro that I decided to go to a NARS membership meeting and join if I liked what I saw. I realized that by living in Wells, Maine I wouldn’t exactly be close, but I couldn’t find any ham clubs in Maine that were nearly as diverse, active, or successful as NARS. Between Boxboro and attending my first NARS meeting in October, I bought two radios, the first being a Xiegu G90 HF, and the other an Anytone 868 dual-band DMR ht. I had also applied for a vanity call sign.
At that first NARS meeting, I was hoping to meet some Elmers, as I had still not made an amateur radio transmission and was hoping I could get some help getting on the air. It was at this meeting that I was introduced to NE1B – Bill Barber. He agreed to help me with my DMR radio and get me on the air. That Friday – October 4th – I went to Bill’s house. Bill is a well-seasoned ham with quite a radio shack and impressive awards to prove it. It was also the day I received my vanity call sign – AA3HD. I never made a call with my originally assigned call sign of KC1LUN. Bill helped me get my DMR radio up and programmed. At about 2:30 pm that day I made my first transmission. It was with Bill as I was driving away from his house. Not very far, but what a thrill. After literally decades of wanting to be a ham, I finally made it!
In Boxboro I also saw the instructor that helped me get my Tech license – K5TEC, Bob Phinney. When I told him I had just passed my Extra exam, he encouraged me to become a Volunteer Examiner. When AB1QB, Anita Kemmerer, made an appeal for VE’s at that first NARS meeting I attended in October, I decided to try to get my VE certification. In mid-November, I became a VE, and have, as my schedule permits, helped out at NARS VE sessions. How rewarding it is to see new hams and those getting upgrades to fulfill their dreams. Besides joining NARS, I also am an ARRL Life Member.
At the NARS holiday party, I got a Baofeng ht in the gift swap. I also have a Zumspot hotspot, and a Mirage VHF/UHF amplifier, all that I need to get up and running, and I still have to get my HF rig hooked up as well. Antenna limitations imposed by XYL have made my beginning ham journey challenging to say the least, besides the fact that in terms of amateur radio she says, “I couldn’t imagine something that I would be less interested in.” Right now I have my portable DMR radio working in both my truck and at home. My base antenna is a portable dual-band J-pole type (DBJ-2) that I purchased at Fall 2019 NEARFest. (A review of this antenna is in the March 2007 issue of QST.) In the mobile, I’m using a Diamond NR770HNMO antenna. I have plenty to figure out and explore, and I am finding amateur radio just as exciting as I always imagined it would be.
Other interests of mine include cars and motorcycles, but that will have to wait for another time.
73,
Tony, AA3HD
