I finally got back on the air over the weekend and made some contacts.  The next thing I knew it was 1:00AM and i needed to crash.  It was fun to get back on and I’ll be back very soon.

I received in the mail the other day the ARRL General Class License Manual and I’m working on it.  I can’t wait to be able to transmit on HF, however I need to find a rig.  I’m currently thinking the Yaesu FT-857D but I’m going to need to save some money up first.  Also TBD is what antenna and other gear I will need (tuners, wire, etc.).  I’m not sure exactly what to get right now, my operations will either be indoors in my apartment (no balcony) or based out of my car.

I’ll admit the Yaesu FT-817ND looks interesting, but I don’t want to be limited to 5W.  The battery operation would be nice, but from what I read they need to be upgraded to last more than 60 minutes.  When it comes down to it, 100W vs. 60 minutes of portability, I think I’ll take the 100W.

I’m picking a lot up tonight on shortwave. Making recordings, here’s what I am working on:

• Radio Romania International, 7340khz, 4:26-4:57, Signal started strong and clear and gradually got worse.  They played a lot of music.
• BBC, 7445khz, 5:00- , It’s rare I pick up the BBC from my apartment, fun to listen tonight.

I haven’t had good luck on shortwave recently, it seems every time I listened I got static lately, so tonight is much more fun.  The challenge for me is I live in an apartment, so my options for antennas are severely limited.  The AN-LP1 antenna really helps pull in signals better than the whip antenna or a wire.  I’ve used it camping outdoors and I can listen to so many different stations.

For me the fun of shortwave is how far around the world I can listen to.  No infastructure, no subscriptions, just a radio that pulls signals from everywhere.  Tonight I’ve listened to stations that are a distance of 5219 miles (Țigănești, Romania) and 6017 miles (BBC- Ascension Island).

I listened to Area 51 tonight from WBCQ on 5110khz, Radio Newyork International was on, but this was before I pulled my recorder out.