[Boatanchors] Another new ham will hit the airwaves soon

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Congrats, Bob -

Been watching you snap up a lot of gear in the last coupla years, was
hoping you'd be using some of it on the air with us AMers.

I'm afraid Jim is right: you've fallen in with quite a bunch. Old
Radio theives who steal as much time and enjoyment on air as possible.
HF is an awfully lot of fun, especially on AM with old buzzard gear.
But with the sunspot cycle dragging bottom, most activity is
restricted to 40-160, with occasional openings on the higher bands.
The result is, a lot of active hams squeezed into only part of the
available spectrum. After you've played General for a while, you'll
likely want to upgrade to get the additional phone spectrum privileges
on 40 and 80 meters, particularly 80. The area formerly known as the
AM Window is a mess a lot of the time, and getting down below 3800
with our Canadian AM neighbors is a nice relief.

I'll warn you in advance: don't be too thin-skinned, and be careful of
your time. If you think fixing up old receivers takes up time, wait
until you start getting on the air. 'Habit-forming' comes to mind...

When May arrives, make the trip to Hopkinton, NH for the legendary
Hosstraders hamfest. The AM crowd has their own area referred to as
the AM Corral, coincidentally located near the horse and swine barns.
You'll get to meet a lot of the folks in person there that you'll soon
be meeting on the air, as well as seeing more old gear in one place
than you thought possible. Of course, if you've already been attending
as a SWL and old radio nut, disregard these remarks. You already know.

There are a lot of good folks in the northeast, Bob. Not unlike these
lists in general. After exchanging many online messages with Jim W5JO,
I was quite excited to finally get to work him on the air. Vermont to
Oklahoma, the furthest I'd ever worked on AM. Since then I've managed
to work Deano, WA1KNX/7 in Tucson AZ and Steve KL7OF/7 in Tum Tum,
Washington. Dean used to live in your neck of the woods and now
resides in VT and Maine in summer.

I look forward to working you on the air soon with my pissweak signal
via the shoestring antenna system. You're going to have a lot of fun,
Bob...

de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ   'The Voice of Vermont'