Tonight it all came together, a wire antenna made from salvaged hookup wire and coax, a 30 year old transceiver and a homebrewed antenna switch and dummy load. I made my first contact on the high frequency (HF) bands tonight. It was on 40 meters around 7.228 MHz with Harry KW5HP in Little Rock, AR. We had your standard chit-chat about location, signal strength and weather and then signed off. I made sure to tell him that he was my first QSO and he was kind about it.
It was a great feeling to have my long, slow, cheap process of building a station come together. I bought the transceiver about two months ago and have been slowly putting the pieces of a complete station together. I got some good advice about starting with a resonant dipole for 40 meters and starting with success on a single band. The microphone was an eBay purchase that I almost screwed up poking around with. (I broke a solder connection between the battery and the gain potentiometer, but managed to re-solder it.) The dummy load I built from the very nice plans of K4EAA. The antenna switch I designed and built myself out of copper-clad PCB material and a scrap double-pole-double-throw switch, with some scrap BNC panel mount connectors.
Putting the antenna up in the backyard was the hardest part. It took me a while to get the rope I wanted; the Dayton Hamvention is bad news for all of the rest of the country’s hams who want to buy from small ham-oriented businesses! Then, once I had the pieces, it took me a while to find time to get out in the backyard and throw them up in the trees. Last weekend I finally got the antenna up and was able to listen with it. It pulled in signals better than the long wire which was my first attempt at a receiving antenna.
All week long, I’ve been trying to find time to go downstairs and make a contact, but it wasn’t happening. I was also hoping to find someone to do a scheduled contact with me, but that didn’t happen. So tonight, I threw caution to the wind and responded when I heard someone call CQ after the end of a conversation I had been listening to. And I am sure glad to have finally done it. I look forward to lots more persistence, patience, and eventually success.