Been working on getting the Morse code better. Read about Samuel Morse on about.com. Didn't know he was an artist most of his life.

Well I fired up the BitX20 yesterday and guess what? You guessed it, it didn't work. Squealed like a pig when I power it on. I guess I got some trouble shooting to do. No matter it is something to do.

I have made another contact on my HW-8. Not as easy as I was hoping, but it is coming along. It turns out the iCom IC-s700 is a marine band radio. It does transmit on the amateur bands but it has no tuning dial. You have to program frequencies into it. Was not happy with it, so I sent it back. Waiting for my refund.

Code speed is picking up a little but slooooow.

I also bought a BitX20 half built of of eBay and am finishing it up. We'll see how that goes.

Hello Radio!! , if you don't know,  is a punch line from a really bad practical joke. I thought it an appropriate title for my amateur radio blog. Not really sure what to do here, so here goes.

I have been interested in ham radio since I was a kid. But I never really was able to do anything for a host of reasons. But now all other priorities have been taken care of and I can now spend time with ham radio.

I got my Tech license in Jan 2012, general in May and extra in July. Not really a huge feat considering I am an electrical engineer and was also licensed as a novice back in the late 70's early 80's and also held a first class radio telephone license at one time.

As far as radios, I have a HW-8 (left over for my novice days) and a VHF/UHF HT. I am waiting for an iCOM ic-s700 that I bought on eBay.

I am trying to get my CW skills better, but it is a tough haul. Maybe 7 wpm right now.

I am finding it difficult making contract on my HW-8. I have only made one contact and did not get to complete it. But I'll keep trying.