My love is 6 Meters when its open and enjoy HF in the mobile. I am the ARES Emergency Coordinator for Clay County / and the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for the Flora/Clay County Emergency Services & Disaster Agency (ESDA). I am a Certified SKYWARN and National Weather Service Significant Weather Observation Program weather observer. I am a member of the Clay County Area Amateur Radio Club, a Life member of the ARRL, a W5YI & ARRL Volunteer Examiner and a past member of Army & Navy / Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System. I enjoy Geneaology and family research.
My interest radio started in childhood, when I listen to short wave radio stations from all over the world with a transistorized superhet and plug- in coils. I migrated to CB in the late 60s early 70s and am still a scanner listener. I enjoyed the early 70s when low band was in. Local police and sheriffs departments used it before going to VHF 155 Mhz. Summer brought band openings on 39.5 and 42.5 Mhz. I heard stations coming in from all over the southeastern parts of the United States with sporadic- E openings. Our local ESDA had radios on 45.12 . The State of Illinois Emergency Management Agency still uses analog 45.44 Mhz as a main control frequency state wide, but other main operations is now P25 or commonly called Starcom.
I loved the times when we would get band openings on television. DXing Channel 2 through 12 would fade in and out and other stations would take their place during sporadic- E openings. You can still DX FM analog radio stations, as it is all headed also to the digital age. With the new digital world I am now utilizing Winmor and Winlink RMS Express for Packet transmissions on HF & VHF, assisting our IEMA state wide. Another very fun mode is FT8 especially on 6 meters, and many more good digital modes out there! My main radio is Icom 9100. I use Icom7300 dedicated to digital and also have an Icom 756Pro stored and use my Icom 706Mkiig in the mobile.
