Chris Thompson KD7URE
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In 2003 my wife asked if we could get some of those Family Radio Service walkie-talkies. Having been a Novice ham 40 years earlier in junior high school, I told her, “There is a better way!” So, with two of our kids (then ages 14 and 15) Mary Ellen (now KD7VWF) and I took the Technician course offered by John Geach. I got a General and they got Tech tickets.
We bought four 2-meter handhelds and used them for hiking and communicating around town before we had cell phones. We worked the Governor’s Cup Marathon a couple times.
My neighbor, Will Wilburn WA7GQF (now SK) and Clark Riesland ND7A helped me raise a 25-foot 20-meter rig with an inverted V antenna. I worked stations 400 miles east of Moscow, Russia; Santiago, Chile; and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, South Pacific. Made a few slow-code QSOs, too.
I work full time at Wal-Mart and always work Saturdays, so that has limited my fellowship with the Club and progress in the hobby to some degree. I am also busy as one of the volunteer Chaplains for the Helena Police Department and the Lewis & Clark Sheriff’s Office. In the last year or so Tim Sowa KB7DMK let me use a digital 2-meter handheld, and Wes Rowe W7WES provided an Icom IC-781 Transceiver. Ed Willet W7MAD answered my request for an Icom microphone. My son in-law-Kyle helped me get the inverted V back up, but so far, I have only figured out how to listen on it. If there are any Elmer types who are familiar with Icoms, I could use some counsel to get that revved up. (Someone did.)
I normally have too many lines in the water, but ham radio has been one of the fun ones.
November 2021
We bought four 2-meter handhelds and used them for hiking and communicating around town before we had cell phones. We worked the Governor’s Cup Marathon a couple times.
My neighbor, Will Wilburn WA7GQF (now SK) and Clark Riesland ND7A helped me raise a 25-foot 20-meter rig with an inverted V antenna. I worked stations 400 miles east of Moscow, Russia; Santiago, Chile; and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, South Pacific. Made a few slow-code QSOs, too.
I work full time at Wal-Mart and always work Saturdays, so that has limited my fellowship with the Club and progress in the hobby to some degree. I am also busy as one of the volunteer Chaplains for the Helena Police Department and the Lewis & Clark Sheriff’s Office. In the last year or so Tim Sowa KB7DMK let me use a digital 2-meter handheld, and Wes Rowe W7WES provided an Icom IC-781 Transceiver. Ed Willet W7MAD answered my request for an Icom microphone. My son in-law-Kyle helped me get the inverted V back up, but so far, I have only figured out how to listen on it. If there are any Elmer types who are familiar with Icoms, I could use some counsel to get that revved up. (Someone did.)
I normally have too many lines in the water, but ham radio has been one of the fun ones.
November 2021
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