Update: Feb. 24, 2007:
Thanks to an FCC Rules change, I may now operate on the HF bands (below 30
MHz.) On the first exam day after the rules change I submitted my
application to become a General Class. I had passed the test a few
weeks before. The final step is to become Extra class. Until
2/23/2007, both General and Extra class licenses required a Morse Code test.
I'm KD4BBM. That's the callsign the Federal
Communications Commission has assigned to me. For more information about Amateur
Radio, check out the ARRL.
My Repeaters in Miami are:
I'm also the Trustee of the following SFFMA Repeaters:
146.76 MHz, 1291.80 MHz, 51.66 MHz
I have a number of APRS stations on the air:
- KD4BBM - Home
- KD4BBM-12 - Mazda Navaho
- KD4BBM-4 - Weather Station
- KD4BBM-15 - Portable (loaner) tracker
- KD4BBM-6 - Wide Digi.
I also own a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) Repeater in Miami, KAF9118.
Check out my GMRS page.
Just so it's public (to add a bit more pressure) here's my short 'to-do' list:
- Put 147.24 on the air (DONE)
- Set up a new weather station in Coral Gables
- Link 147.24 to the rest of my system
- Install county wide Emergency Link to both my and the SFFMA system.
- Set up the 51.66 RX for the SFFMA
- Create an Internet to 441.125 station for APRS worldwide data
- Set up an APRS station on 53.53 MHz for propagation reports
Wish me luck!
Ever stay up late at night trying to remember the call sign on the 1970's TV show Emergency?
Find out here The Call sign
is a real LA County call sign issued by the FCC. The dispatcher's
voice is also a real dispatcher.
Thanks to Dave Springer, N0TXJ: One Adam 12's Call sign: KMA367
Also a real callsign with lots
of history. If you can remember the close-up of the control head they
always used when the dispatcher spoke, Dave says: "The head was for a
Motorola Motran/Motrac/Mocom 70"
Other useless TV trivia: Flipper: WD9598
Herman Munster: W6XRL4
Here are some interesting links for radio mods: http://www.mods.dk/
I got some feedback about No-Code Extra and telephone collecting:
I'm what used to be called a "no-code" Extra. I've got
lifetime credit from my original test in 1985 for 1(A), 2 and 3(A) and 3(B),
so on April 15, 2000, I applied for grandfathering from Tech to General. In
the meantime I passed 4(A) and 4(B), so I could apply for upgrade from General
to Extra. April 15, 2000 is when they changed the rules the previous time.
Prior to that, you had to have credit for 1(A), 1(B) and 1(C), and 2,3(A),
3(B), 4(A) and 4(B) for Extra and it had been that way since about 1987. Prior
to that 3 was one test unit and the elements for Extra had been the same since
about 1967, though the questions had changed over the years.
Now you're going to be a real 'no-code' Extra.
Congratulations. I just got your site from the Singing Wires mailing list,
which I've joined because I'm interested somewhat in old telephones.
I collect not really old telephones (I have 3 a Stromberg
Carlson 1243, a AE 80E and a Trimline rotary), but old telephone BOOKS. I'm
looking for 1963 GTE's, and prior years for Olney, Illinois, Paris, Illinois,
and Terre Haute, Indiana. I started collecting phone books in 1965 when my
grandfather gave me his 1963 Olney telephone directory, which I still have.
After they got to 7 digits, things got a lot more booring. I have a run
through 1979 for Olney, plus a current one. I have Paris for 1967 and 1968
(The year of the big switch, everyone went to 7 digits except Marshall, we
lived there that year and went from Paris 5-4350 to 217-465-4350.) Terre Haute
I have January 1968, the odd book where they had 7 digit numbers, had been for
a year, but still had to call the Operator to call out of town. I'm trying to
get some of the older books for them.
Charles Fregeau N5HSR/9