Back in March, I volunteered for three events: the Keweenaw Winter TSD Rally, The Copper Dog 150, and the Great Bear Chase.

The TSD Rally was a blast, i got to ride all over the the Copper Country with Jack Swift N8WAV, one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Leaving Houghton late in the morning we sped across the western UP setting up and running check points throughout the course. Being a TSD rally the racers weren’t driving full speed, so we could take shortcuts from  checkpoint to checkpoint with a little time to spare and set them up before the racers would arrive. In Jack’s own words “the job was a lot of hurry up and wait.” Although, when the racers would cross the check points it was a mad dash to to take down times and pass out tickets as each car crossed; and alot of them were very close together. After about five hours or so we were back in Houghton enjoying dinner at the North Shore Grill and passing out awards.

Two weeks later I volunteered with net control at the Copper Dog 150, this was by far the most fun I have had in HAM radio yet, I got to work with Bill KD8JAM and Howard KD8ABP, who were very helpful in teaching me the ins and outs of acting as a net control operator, and a lot of really useful general HAM info as well.

The Copper Dog 150 is a three day dog sled race. On day one the sleds left from downtown Calumet and raced up to Eagle Harbor. On day two, they raced up to Copper Harbor; and on day three back to Calumet. Day one I was mainly observing, although I did get to make a run out to a checkpoint in Laurium, where reception was low, to assist with radio communication. As day one drew to a close and the sleds made their way into Eagle Harbor, one team stalled out 2 miles from town. This kept a small handful of volunteers in the field (including a good friend of mine, KD8OXB) up until a little after 3am. On day two I actually got to work net control all day with KD8JAM. Day three I helped track the race official car locations. Both day two and day three ran smoothly with a couple small hiccups here and there.  In the end it was bib #23, JR Anderson, and his team that took First place, a first for him and his team. Congrats.

A week after that  I volunteered as a field radio operator in the Great Bear Chase, a cross country skiing race. This was the most uneventful of the three races I helped with that month. I mainly worked at checkpoint as a HAM operator and providing refreshments to the racers, nothing noteworthy happened related to radio operations.

All in all, Volunteering was pretty fun, and something I look forward to continue in the future.

Over the past couple week I’ve been reading a lot of all over the web about all the fun things to do in HAM Radio: DXing, satellites communications, antenna construction, moon bounce, etc. One thing I latched onto was Amsat, I spent a lot of time on their website. After downloading some satellite tracking software I headed up to the Ham Shack with the anticipation of picking up a beacon from something overhead.  To my dismay the only VHF/UHF radio that was capable had a misaligned antenna, and I didn’t end up hearing anything from space. But I did pick up some DXers on 20-meters, while playing with HF transceiver. To my amazement I was able to pick up signals from Tennessee, Florida, and Arizona. Being only a Technician Class Operator I could not legally attempt to make contact. But it did light a fire under me to get studying for the next HAM Exam.

It’s been a week, since I got on the air. I’ve stumbled through a couple QSOs during the week, and there’s still a lot I have to learn. I got my Alinco rig set up and running. Although, I am a little worried about the audio equipment in my apartment and neighboring apartments, since when I powered it up for the first time, I left my desktop speakers powered on and they screeched loudly with noise when I tried to transmit. I’ve since moved my antenna, however there is a hiss when I transmit. I’m not too worried about damaging anything since I moved the antenna, but I hope I’m not annoying anyone around me.

Last night was the first night of Winter Carnival here at Michigan Tech. While my friends and I were busy away building an 8 ft Companion Cube snow sculpture, a number of us were carrying our handy talkies. And with three feet to go in the mold, a friend of mine stops the operation announcing that he cannot find his radio. I pulled out mine and sent out a test message over a local repeater he was last tuned into. And we mix of relief and concern, when a slight sound could be heard coming from beneath the snow. I kept transmitting for a little while to help out, and after some digging, the radio was recovered.

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.