KD9OFI was assigned to me on November 7th, 2019. I aced the technician exam (35/35) and failed the general, which was offered free after the technician. Had I known this before, I would have studied for both. Lesson learned!
My buddy KF0BTJ and I have overlapping interests in amateur radio, including antenna design/SWR, digital (DMR mostly, though I also have a DStar-capable radio so I have been tinkering with that too), APRS, UHF/VHF, satellite work, and more.
Equipment:
I currently own several radios. My preferred daily-driver is a Kenwood TH-D74A. It was my second radio purchased, the first being a Baofeng BF-F8HP. The learning curve was steep with the Kenwood but totally worth it. DStar repeaters sound awesome on it. It’s also not as susceptible to the front-end overloading that the cheap Chinese Baofengs suffer from.
I also have a BTech GMRS v1, a Baofeng UV-5RX3 (generously donated by KF0BTJ for the APRS digipeater project) and, the latest addition: A BTech DMR 6×2 that I’m really still learning the ropes on.
In addition, I have an Arrow II 146/437-10BP Split boom Yagi, several dual-band Signal Sticks, a Nagoya 771, a Nagoya UT-72 19″ magmount for the car, a NanoVNA, HackRF, and many adapters and cables.
In storage is my Yaesu FT-891 HF radio, an MFJ HF dipole, and an MFJ antenna tuner. I’m currently in the process of building a shack in the basement of the house – once that project is done, the HF stuff will be installed.
Lastly I have an ADS-B setup consisting of a Raspberry Pi connected to a FlightAware 978/1090 antenna mounted outside about 20 feet (7 meters) high. I’m using the FlightAware SDR dongle for reception and currently feed ADBSexchange.com and Flightaware.
