John monson AJ7MT
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One of our newer members, John achieved the amazing feat of passing all three amateur radio tests in one day. (Modestly, he says he had the advantage of having once held a commercial radio telephone license, so the Technician and General exams were review. But still!)
John enjoys DMR, and recently talked to a ham in India as his farthest DMR contact. However, he also very much likes 2-meter for rag-chewing with regional hams, and his rig so far is his Anytone D86UV dual-band handheld. John has built a “copper cactus” variety J Pole for 2 meter/70 cm. He also has an old Kenwood T120-s and is working on getting a K1POO off-center dipole up in the air high enough that it will work. That should get him on several HF bands. He is enthusiastic about helping with CCARC community service events, and says, “Call on me!” when participation is needed.
His interest in amateur radio and all things electronic dates back to his childhood, when his father was in the Navy between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. His dad was a ship’s radioman and Morse code operator. Although the elder Monson was never a ham, he enjoyed listening to SW and scanners. When John was a kid his dad would listen to weather reports in Morse code while simultaneously typing them out on a typewriter for fun. One day he gave John an old TV set with the dangerous parts removed, along with two 6-volt batteries, the running lights from an old trailer, miscellaneous wires, and told John, “Have fun!” John did have fun for a long time after that, building things that lit up, or buzzed, or moved.
A native of Helena, John worked for Radio Shack for two years, here and in Great Falls. After earning the third class radio telephone license (no longer available,) he went into broadcasting, worked for KCAP, and then was the morning news anchor on KMTX. Moving to a larger market, he anchored the news for KZOL, in Provo, Utah, one of the top ten stations in that region.
In college, not only did John major in broadcast journalism and minor in computer science, he also worked at the library all through school in the 1980s. While there a faculty member asked him to help test a new computer communications system. On his Radio Shack Color Computer with a 1200 baud modem, he made a local call to a telnet node, which connected to a telnet node in Los Angeles. That tripped a satellite link to a telnet node in Tokyo. From there he made a local phone call to a local electronic bulletin board and left a 255-character message. Very exciting in the 1980s!
That minor in computer science has turned into his main source of income. He is an Oracle statistician for the Montana Department of Corrections. He doesn’t like to bore people with talk about his work, but who else can tell you how many tooth brushes are issued in a prison in one year? Also an entrepreneur, he is a locksmith and woodworker.
John gives credit to two companions whose support helped him study and get through three amateur license exams in one day: Mindy W0OF and Sebastian K7RFF. Those were the call signs the Border collie and cocker spaniel earned while helping John study for the ham tests.
Photos by Sherri Monson.
July 2018
John enjoys DMR, and recently talked to a ham in India as his farthest DMR contact. However, he also very much likes 2-meter for rag-chewing with regional hams, and his rig so far is his Anytone D86UV dual-band handheld. John has built a “copper cactus” variety J Pole for 2 meter/70 cm. He also has an old Kenwood T120-s and is working on getting a K1POO off-center dipole up in the air high enough that it will work. That should get him on several HF bands. He is enthusiastic about helping with CCARC community service events, and says, “Call on me!” when participation is needed.
His interest in amateur radio and all things electronic dates back to his childhood, when his father was in the Navy between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. His dad was a ship’s radioman and Morse code operator. Although the elder Monson was never a ham, he enjoyed listening to SW and scanners. When John was a kid his dad would listen to weather reports in Morse code while simultaneously typing them out on a typewriter for fun. One day he gave John an old TV set with the dangerous parts removed, along with two 6-volt batteries, the running lights from an old trailer, miscellaneous wires, and told John, “Have fun!” John did have fun for a long time after that, building things that lit up, or buzzed, or moved.
A native of Helena, John worked for Radio Shack for two years, here and in Great Falls. After earning the third class radio telephone license (no longer available,) he went into broadcasting, worked for KCAP, and then was the morning news anchor on KMTX. Moving to a larger market, he anchored the news for KZOL, in Provo, Utah, one of the top ten stations in that region.
In college, not only did John major in broadcast journalism and minor in computer science, he also worked at the library all through school in the 1980s. While there a faculty member asked him to help test a new computer communications system. On his Radio Shack Color Computer with a 1200 baud modem, he made a local call to a telnet node, which connected to a telnet node in Los Angeles. That tripped a satellite link to a telnet node in Tokyo. From there he made a local phone call to a local electronic bulletin board and left a 255-character message. Very exciting in the 1980s!
That minor in computer science has turned into his main source of income. He is an Oracle statistician for the Montana Department of Corrections. He doesn’t like to bore people with talk about his work, but who else can tell you how many tooth brushes are issued in a prison in one year? Also an entrepreneur, he is a locksmith and woodworker.
John gives credit to two companions whose support helped him study and get through three amateur license exams in one day: Mindy W0OF and Sebastian K7RFF. Those were the call signs the Border collie and cocker spaniel earned while helping John study for the ham tests.
Photos by Sherri Monson.
July 2018
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Copper Cactus antenna
Sebastain R7UFF
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Mindy W0OF
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