cody melton ai7ca

​   Amateur radio fascinated Cody as a kid, and he has been thinking about radio ever since. However, it was not until 2019-2020, while homeschooling his children, that he decided to get serious about amateur radio. He passed all three licensing exams in about six months. At first, he thought he would want to concentrate on emergency preparedness, but now he is finding a lot of desire to learn more about QRP or low power transmission and CW. He bought a soldering kit and the parts he needs and is tackling learning that side of the hobby as well. Cody likes to challenge himself to learn new things, so satellite is on his agenda, too. On his to-do list this year, is to complete setting up his own hot spot, learn more about electronics, and hopes to get into POTA and SOTA.
He hopes to get his shack dialed in after his recent move from the south of Helena to the downtown area. Cody and his wife have bought a house on North Warren Street, where they are neighbors with the Kingerys, Rob AE7AP and Barb AE7AQ. Unpacked and ready to set up and use are a Mountain Topper MTR4B-V2 CW rig, and an Xiegu G90 portable base station. He also has a Packtenna Mini Random Wire (9:1 UNUN) antenna and MFJ QRPocket Loop antenna, making his entire set up easily portable. For everyday use, Cody likes listening to the regional chatter on his BTech DMR-6X2 handheld.
   Formerly a fourth-grade teacher and a banker, he has recently been hired as systems assistant at the Lewis and Clark Library, working with Matt Beckstrom N7MAB. How does a fourth-grade teacher become a systems assistant? Cody earned a Full Stack Web Development certificate from the Big Sky Code Academy, having spent 8 months learning how to make web applications. However, he first taught himself web development when he was in middle and high school. Back then he had his own company, Helena Internet Advertising and Design, where the Montana Board of Public Education and Montana School Board Association were some of his first customers.
Although Cody’s commitment to his son’s soccer team prevented him from coming to Field Day, he took on the job of submitting the club’s report afterwards. He enjoys challenging himself to learn something new.

July 2021