gerowen
Member
Howdy everybody, I just wanted to drop in and say hello. I've visited Radio Reference in the past for police scanner frequencies and such, so I figured I'd go ahead and register and maybe try to contribute a little something to the site.
My name is Marcus, I live in eastern Kentucky. My love affair with all things radio didn't really start until "after" I got out of the Army. I was a 25B, IT Specialist in the Army, but for some reason after I moved back to Kentucky I fell into the radio hobby. I'm a CB radio operator/enthusiast. I have 3 Cobra 148 GTLs, one in the house that is powered by a DC power supply with a Solarcon A-99 base antenna, one in my pickup truck, and one in my wife's car. They're our primary means of communication locally because they're more reliable and less distracting than a cell phone while driving, and there's a local group of guys I hang out with at night time and just shoot the breeze about whatever. I have a 7 amp hour battery set aside for powering the house CB radio if the electricity fails so we have a means to communicate during power outages like when the tornado hit town a few years back and knocked out all power for 4 or 5 days. I also have a hand-held radio scanner next to my CB radio that I use to monitor the local emergency services and the weather bands. I've connected it to an external antenna when inside the house since it just uses a BNC connector. The antenna my scanner runs off of is actually a dual bay VHF/UHF television antenna that feeds television signal from a mountaintop station about 30 miles away into two separate TVs in the house, and also feeds radio signals to an AM/FM stereo. I've got 2 separate 5-900 Mhz signal amplifiers in-line from that antenna to boost the signal to all of the devices that are connected to it, and since all of the devices are passive (listen only) they don't seem to bother one another being hooked up at the same time. I have an UPS (uninterruptable power supply) under my desk that my radio power supply is connected to that will run the radio and a lamp for 4 or 5 hours if the power goes out for just a little while.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. I'm considering getting my technician class amateur radio license just to try and talk to the international space station. I don't know of any of my friends who operate ham radios, but I think it'd be neat to get licensed and dabble in it here and there. Hopefully I won't overstay my welcome and I'll be a valuable addition to this community of radio users and enthusiasts,
My name is Marcus, I live in eastern Kentucky. My love affair with all things radio didn't really start until "after" I got out of the Army. I was a 25B, IT Specialist in the Army, but for some reason after I moved back to Kentucky I fell into the radio hobby. I'm a CB radio operator/enthusiast. I have 3 Cobra 148 GTLs, one in the house that is powered by a DC power supply with a Solarcon A-99 base antenna, one in my pickup truck, and one in my wife's car. They're our primary means of communication locally because they're more reliable and less distracting than a cell phone while driving, and there's a local group of guys I hang out with at night time and just shoot the breeze about whatever. I have a 7 amp hour battery set aside for powering the house CB radio if the electricity fails so we have a means to communicate during power outages like when the tornado hit town a few years back and knocked out all power for 4 or 5 days. I also have a hand-held radio scanner next to my CB radio that I use to monitor the local emergency services and the weather bands. I've connected it to an external antenna when inside the house since it just uses a BNC connector. The antenna my scanner runs off of is actually a dual bay VHF/UHF television antenna that feeds television signal from a mountaintop station about 30 miles away into two separate TVs in the house, and also feeds radio signals to an AM/FM stereo. I've got 2 separate 5-900 Mhz signal amplifiers in-line from that antenna to boost the signal to all of the devices that are connected to it, and since all of the devices are passive (listen only) they don't seem to bother one another being hooked up at the same time. I have an UPS (uninterruptable power supply) under my desk that my radio power supply is connected to that will run the radio and a lamp for 4 or 5 hours if the power goes out for just a little while.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. I'm considering getting my technician class amateur radio license just to try and talk to the international space station. I don't know of any of my friends who operate ham radios, but I think it'd be neat to get licensed and dabble in it here and there. Hopefully I won't overstay my welcome and I'll be a valuable addition to this community of radio users and enthusiasts,
