Last weekend I took the HAM test and got Technician Class License, almost on a spur-of-the-moment. The night before test I heard about the exam and decided I’d give it a go, and crammed for it in a few hours. I didn’t pass the first test I took, but I did make Technician on my second try.

That Thursday, I popped in the Michigan Tech HAM-Shack for a weekly meeting of the Husky Amateur Radio Club (HARC),  and joined the club.

Finally on Friday and I was checking the FFC call-sign directory compulsively all day until just before the end of the day when it finally appeared; I was exuberant. I couldn’t wait for work to get. When I did get out, I headed straight up the HAM-Shack and checked out a Handy-Talkie. I started monitoring the Eighty-Eight (146.88 MHz), and finally around 11PM, I made contact with a fellow named Terry, but who’s call-sign I fail to remember. He was nice enough to give me (and two friends that were with me at the time), a heads up on a swap meet that was planned to take place the next morning a little over two hours away. Needless to say I went straight to an ATM and then straight to bed.

The next morning I woke up at 5:45 AM and was on the road by 6:30 AM. By 9:15 AM we were at the Swap and I was busy negotiating a deal on an Alinco DR-600T Twin Band Transceiver. And just like that, I License, Letters, and Radio all in a little under a week.

Interestingly enough, I ran into a lot of interesting folk at the Swap: A HARC Alum, A couple of the Testers from my examination, and even Terry. All in all, it’s been a pretty cool week.