We’ve got ham!

Inspired by the upcoming 2010 ARRL Field Day event, we finally got off our duffs and set up a real amateur radio station at the resistor clubhouse. We now have a 60 foot long dipole on the roof, an antenna tuner, a couple of transcievers (one 100W and one QRP), a CW key, and a TNC for using digital modes with a laptop. With a few hours of operating under our belt, our logbook shows contacts with stations in the US, Canada, Europe, and South America, using phone (voice), CW (morse code), and PSK31 (digital).

The best part of our station is how little QRM (man-made noise) our antenna picks up. When we first put the station on the air, I thought something wasn’t hooked up right. Being in the middle of a densely-populated area, I expected to hear horrendous noise from power lines, AC motors, etc., but heard almost none. This makes tuning the bands a real pleasure.

Our club callsign is N2YCR. If you hear us calling CQ, give us a call back. We’d love to talk to you!