miguel lopez w7mcl
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Radio has been at the back of Miguel’s mind for a long time. As a kid he discovered the power of antenna when he hooked up a wire to his broadcast radio, brought in other stations not heard in his area, and listened to Hopalong Cassidy and Lone Ranger while others couldn’t. Then in high school he took a required course in radio and electricity and liked it so well he signed up for another semester. The teacher had a big transmitter and tried to interest students in radio. When Miguel read up on it and discovered he would need to learn CW, he lost interest.
Then later, when CW was dropped from licensing requirements, he got interested on ham radio again. But it wasn’t until 2016 Miguel realized he needed radio for backwoods travel in the winter. He took up licensing studies again and discovered http://hamstudy.org. When he looked for a testing site, nothing local came up until he found http://ccarc.org and found John Geach’s phone number. John and the VE team tested Miguel at the library, and he passed with a score of 100%. In only a few months he was ready for the General, passed that, and month later, three days before Christmas, passed the Amateur Extra. Like so many of our members, Miguel is a self-taught do-it-yourselfer. He bought some wire at Restore, made a vertical dipole for his 2-meter radio, and connected with a ham in Boulder City, NV. He bought a Diamond X50 antenna for 2 meters and 70 cm, but needed a mount - until he found a 17-foot piece of steel pipe for $8. Miguel says he saved up for his ICOM 7300 and is now working on an antenna and figuring out how to bring the wire into the house. His next goal is to turn a reel of wire he found at Goodwill into a full-wave 80-meter loop. Miguel’s work in construction demands many long hours in the summer, but in the winter, he is off and able to come the CCARC club meetings and to participate in the ARES net. June 2021 |
