Some years back, I became interested in radio. I read a lot about it, I listen to it in all of its forms, and I spent four years behind a mike in college. (Shout out to WSYC-FM!)
Anyway, part of this love is I wanted to get my amateur radio license. There were only two problems, the dot and the dash. Until 2007, you see, the FCC required all license holders to learn Morse code. I couldn't learn Morse to save my life. But since that's no longer an issue, I studied for my license. I spent a lot of time on this and one fine Saturday, I drove to Reisterstown, Maryland to take the exam. Less than an hour later, I went home with a shiny new certificate, and about a week later, the official piece of paper with my call sign and everything showed up from the FCC in Gettysburg. I became KC3CEK.
The technician exam isn't all that difficult, especially if you have a little bit of experience with electronics and a little bit of common sense. But while technician is a good start, and it will allow you to get on the air and find people to talk to (not that I have; I'm shy and afraid of screwing up), but general will allow me to use all of the bands. So I've been doing that all weekend. So far, it's going smoothly, but antenna theory is kicking my ass. I understand the basic idea, but the specifics don't make a lot of sense to me.
And, since I'm a total overachiever, I found out which FEMA courses will allow me to get into emergency communication, and I've taken and passed both of those, as well as the basic public information officer course. I think I'm going to do more of the PIO stuff. They're free, so why not?
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