Greeting.
My name is Mark Rajchel, but my friends call me markmatt, mattmark or matt.
For as long as i can remember, my grandfather in upstate New York and my father in central pa have been into ham radios. some of my earliest memories are of us driving to see my grandfather and my dad taking out his HAM once we got through the worst of the mountains and contacting my grandfather. Recently my nana, (grandpas wife) passed away. they were together since they were 16 years old. we were all devastated but they lived a good life together. I figured a good way to help him get through the sadness and distract him i would get my ham radio license. So last Tuesday i started studying and got about half way through the material by Friday. Friday night came and i was finished with work, i studied until 4 am and was able to find a test that was happening Saturday morning. i drove my motorcycle about an hour, got lost and turned around but finally made it to the back room of a boscoves in media pa to take my test. I passed with flying colors! i called my dad and grandfather right away and they couldn't believe it. Im just happy i made them proud. it is something both of them wanted me to do for a long time, i was just never able to find the time.
So this is my first post and frankly, i decided to do this because i am trying to kill time until my callsign shows up on the FCC website. I am in serious danger of breaking my f5 button on my keyboard! but patients is a virtue which i still need to learn apparently.
my situation is very interesting. i grew up in central pa, dad is still in Lebanon pa, and now i am in Philadelphia. i thought i would have a lot of issues getting connected to anything or anyone but i put my radio on scan sunday and got so many hits. Apparently the greater philadelphia has a ton of repeaters and most of those repeaters are attached to huge networks so i am in a good position.
Im sure this question has been addressed many times but any advice for a brand new ham?
also any recommendations ic an get for antennas for my hand held would be great. i need something dual band with an sma female connector. the repeater that me and my father plan to talk on is 446.XXX i forget exactly, but all of the antennas for hand helds that i have found only go up to about 430. i ordered one of them recently and the rubber ducky actually performed better then the 16" antenna i got in the mail (presumably because it was out of that 430 range).
thanks in advance and i look forward to talking with you all
73s
My name is Mark Rajchel, but my friends call me markmatt, mattmark or matt.
For as long as i can remember, my grandfather in upstate New York and my father in central pa have been into ham radios. some of my earliest memories are of us driving to see my grandfather and my dad taking out his HAM once we got through the worst of the mountains and contacting my grandfather. Recently my nana, (grandpas wife) passed away. they were together since they were 16 years old. we were all devastated but they lived a good life together. I figured a good way to help him get through the sadness and distract him i would get my ham radio license. So last Tuesday i started studying and got about half way through the material by Friday. Friday night came and i was finished with work, i studied until 4 am and was able to find a test that was happening Saturday morning. i drove my motorcycle about an hour, got lost and turned around but finally made it to the back room of a boscoves in media pa to take my test. I passed with flying colors! i called my dad and grandfather right away and they couldn't believe it. Im just happy i made them proud. it is something both of them wanted me to do for a long time, i was just never able to find the time.
So this is my first post and frankly, i decided to do this because i am trying to kill time until my callsign shows up on the FCC website. I am in serious danger of breaking my f5 button on my keyboard! but patients is a virtue which i still need to learn apparently.
my situation is very interesting. i grew up in central pa, dad is still in Lebanon pa, and now i am in Philadelphia. i thought i would have a lot of issues getting connected to anything or anyone but i put my radio on scan sunday and got so many hits. Apparently the greater philadelphia has a ton of repeaters and most of those repeaters are attached to huge networks so i am in a good position.
Im sure this question has been addressed many times but any advice for a brand new ham?
also any recommendations ic an get for antennas for my hand held would be great. i need something dual band with an sma female connector. the repeater that me and my father plan to talk on is 446.XXX i forget exactly, but all of the antennas for hand helds that i have found only go up to about 430. i ordered one of them recently and the rubber ducky actually performed better then the 16" antenna i got in the mail (presumably because it was out of that 430 range).
thanks in advance and i look forward to talking with you all
73s
