-=> Kent Timm wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-

 > There have been a few other newish HAM's pop up on one of the
 > repeaters, so I guess I'm hitting it at a good time.

 KT> I don't know what happens to the new hams around here.  I've been
 KT> licensed since the beginning of 2010 and every fall they have a ham
 KT> course at the local club (which I am not involved with btw) and they
 KT> usually claim about 16 to 18 new hams each course, but rarely do I hear
 KT> any body new on the repeaters over the years.  and the ones that do
 KT> turn up don't stay active long.

That's kinda sad. Not that there are new ones, and not that they fall away
(not every hobby is for every body, of course) but that they boast that
many new ones but most fall away. I'd rather have only 5 people pass their
test each year and 3 or 4stay than 15 pass it and only 4 or 5 stay.

 KT> Part of me wants to get a regualr VHF radio again instead of just the
 KT> HT, since I have to keep the HT in the right spot to get a good signal,
 KT> but I just is hard to justity even getting a used radio when there's
 KT> nothing on there to hear or talk to except a couple nets..

I understand that for sure. 2m/440 is ALL I have right now. With my HT I
was only able to HEAR and SOMETIMES transmit. Now I have access to repeaters
30 - 50 miles away as well. Maybe with a 'more than HT' you'd have more
people to talk to?

 KT> btw: I got my license solo.  I used an old Radio Shack book "from 5
 KT> watts to 1000 watts" and some study info I found on a Toronto club's
 KT> website.

Nice. :-) My wife and I bought Gordo's books and used free iPhone practice
tests. :-)

 > I was in my wife's truck yesterday and I don't have her mobile rig
 > installed yet, so I popped open EchoLink on my iPhone just to see...
 > Went to a repeater in Alabama I had made a contact on and 'chewed'
 > for about 30 minutes with two different people local to that area.

 KT> I don't use echolink that much, but did something like that myself,
 KT> randomly picked a repeater in London UK and put out my callsign and
 KT> talked to a guy there on his way home from work for a while.

GB3LV? If so - just connected... No response yet, but I'll add it to my
favorites! 

 KT>     There's
 KT> an echolink net out of Florida (southcars) I check in to from time to
 KT> time too.

Can't find anything like that - which one? I'll add it to my favorites as
well.


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