Well, I got my “advanced extra” ham radio license today. It was quite an adventure involving broken down trucks and a few other mishapes, but the testers were troopers and got me tested! Now I just need to get my antenna up to snuff so I can transmit!
All that said - I’m really glad to have that morse code exam done. Of course, I’m going to go back and learn the whole thing over again at a faster speed. Hopefully, it won’t be quite so bad as starting from scratch since I at least of a bit of an association with all the letters, numbers, etc.
Well, I was tunning around 7240 khz tonight to try my hand at copying some morse code from the ether. Well, I experienced what a pile sounds like - for real - for the first time.
Basically, a “pile-up” happens during a contest or an expedition.
Someone is off in some obscure country or on some expedition to, say, Antarctica, or some other place that people all around the world want to contact - really, really, really badly. For some, they want to just work a wierd station. Others want to get that last country or continent for some award. Whatever the reason… a few dozen people try to answer the same call to the same station at the same time.
… did you get that? I’ll give $10 to anyone who can tell me how many people are sending in that pile up and what their call signs are! I’ll give another $10 to anyone who can convince me that they really figured it out… no guessing!
Well, I go in at the end of the month to shoot for my Extra Advanced ham license. I’m still working on the code (procrastinator till the end), but I should be ready. I have the letters kinda figured out - though more practice is needed. I’ve also started working on my numbers. Those little buggers are going to be harder than they I had thought.
I’ve sold out to 5 WPM - just to get past the test. I intend go back and re-learn everything at 20+ WPM. But at this point I’m just eager to give this ‘ole Yeasu Tempo One a try.
