KD8LCD

Hello, My name is Rick my amateur radio call is KD8LCD

My first experiences with Amateur Radio came in the early nities under the call of N8SRA, I was then active on 2 meters SSB mainly county chasing with an old Kenwood TS-700A the 10 watts output in SSB drove a Mirage 160 amplifier for almost 140 watts output into a Cushcraft 13 element beam. I was also into 440 ATV and with the help of another Amateur Tom WA8ZAD I was able to build a simple 50 watt ATV transmitter and receiver using a homebrew exciter and a Motorola RF brick, it was simple, stable and work well, I used a 48 element J-beam that antenna was actually part of a lager array that WA8ZAH had up but if I recall correctly it came down during a bad storm or mast failure, feed with some hard-line it worked well and I had a blast with a regular group that were advit ATV Amateurs, but time soon came to an end and I was moving around for next few years I never got back on the air, sold my equipment and let my license expire.

Which bring me to now, one day while I surfing around the internet I came across some pages by Amatures and remembered all the fun I had years before, and thought I can take that test and get back on the air. In May of 2009 I did just that I took my Technician element and passed that with a perfect score, my first radio was an older Yaesu FT 690R II all mode QRP 6 meter rig, although it was QRP I had a blast with it I used an Diamond 2 element 6 meter antenna (A-502HB) and worked some decent DX with that setup. That got me hooked back into amature radio and I soon wanted more.

During my Technician test I met Don N8KYX who soon became my elmer, he helped me with my antenna for 6 meters and soon helped me in studying for my General Class License, In August of 2009 I took and passed my General exam and now had more band privileges but still only had the QRP 6 meter radio and on a tight budget, looking around I found that the Yaesu FT-450 was going to fill the need for more bands and more output it is a HF/6 meter all mode 100 watt Mobile/Base transceiver 02/2011 Upgraded to a Yaesu FT-2000 transceiver, in October 2011 replaced with a FLEX 3000 which I am very happy with. Now I needed an HF antenna to work my new privileges, having a small yard was not helping that out , I choose to use a Fan Dipole by Alpha-Delta model DX-EE , it is a shortened 40-10 meter wire dipole that has an overall length of about 40 feet, its narrow banded on 40 meters, after some major tuning issues with the initial antenna I finally got things straightened out, and it seems to be a pretty decent performer for those with limited space (2010 switched to an S9 sv43 Vertical). After working more DX and getting started with some of the digital modes I soon found that the bands were becoming less and less active mainly due to conditions. But it seemed I always heard a couple stations in the DX portions of the bands mainly in the extra class segments, looks like I was going to have to upgrade again (12/2009 Upgraded to Extra Class).

Amateur radio is a great way to meet and make new friends. It's also a way to find old ones as well. Back a couple months ago I was on the area local 2 meter repeater and heard a call that sounded very familiar it was my old ATV friend Tom-WA8ZAH who I now talk with a few times a week once again.

I'm now also an Accredited Extra Class Volunteer Examiner

Thanks to all for the encouragement and help along the way of getting back into the hobby of amateur radio.