A Family of Hams

What has brought this family together?  Over the past few months, my wife, son, and I have  been working together as a family to earn our amateur radio licenses. We spent about a half an hour to an hour each night reading the Technician Class Exam book produced by Gordon West.  All three of us were in new territory and had no experience with the math, science, and vocabulary concerning amateur radio.  The only guide we had was the textbook and using a free online program called www.hamstudy.org.  

Being consumed by work, and practicing for technician license exam in the evenings, the YouTube channel and blog fell to the wayside.   In May, we all took a deep breath and scheduled to take the exam at the nearest testing center.  All of us passed the technician license and earned our call signs.  At this point, we had already proceeded this far in the license process and we vacillated on the next exam to improve our license.  Within the month, we took the plunge again and tested for our general license, the next level up. I left the testing center as the only general licensee. Krista and Kirt needed more time to study for the test.

Just a week ago, my wife and son joined me with their general license as well. Being further inspired by visiting our local amateur radio Field Day in June.  Each one of us has our own unique interests with amateur radio. My son enjoys the contesting aspect of the amateur license, my wife likes the idea of doing POTA & SOTA, Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air, in which a person travels to a state/national park or hikes to a mountain peak and has to make contacts for points. As for myself, well, I enjoy the building of antennas, and desire to learn how to build my own radio from scratch in the footsteps of Marconi and Tesla. 

In the video I document the journey and even include how amateur radio has started to blend with our off grid lifestyle. 

Helping our son to have more skills and tools for the future.

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