Me Working DX - I need Practice - VIDEO

What I mean by the title is that I seem to get lost when giving the signal report, my QTH, and my name. I sound 'amateurish' (no pun intended) and I'm slow in my delivery of said info. 

Why is that? Perhaps I'm the kind of person who wants to say more than than they do.  Perhaps I want to speak about what life is like across the Oceans; first hand.

At any rate, I was having fun on the day I recorded the video clips.  One of the guys I spoke with was kind of funny to listen to.  See if you can tell which one I'm talking about. 

The Freewheelers Wish me a Happy Birthday

I think this is pretty awesome.  The Freewheelers do this for everyone on their birthday's, and they welcome new stations into the net with this same method.:  A lot of call signs.

I happened to be ready to record last night so I hit the record button.

The images you see in the video are some I've made over the past couple years.  I thought I was being clever for me to insert myself talking to the Freewheelers when the actual video was taken some time last year.  If you notice the bright light coming into my window, it was daytime and the Freewheeler net takes place at night.

Here is the video:

My 5th Region Traffic Net NCS Methods

I thought about doing a video like this for some time, and finally got around to doing it. 

 As I say in the video, you don't have to do this my way, but I found this method works great for me.

  I use this method for the 5th region traffic net only.   I don't do this for our local ARES net because I don't need to keep track, necessarily, of the exact location of each check-in. If I were keeping track, I might do something similar to this - where I might pre-write each Parish/county (instead of section) and plug check-ins into their appropriate county/parish. 

Here is my video: 

This second video I made shows how I actually call the nets. There really isn't much to it, all I'm doing is pointing out my easy strategies. 

Mary - KE5LTA Tower Progress

Mary, KE5LTA, recently began calling the 5th region traffic net on a regular basis and we are very proud of the great job she is doing.

Understandably, she was apprehensive about the quality of her station and her ability to hear as to being heard.

She recently sent me this photo of the tower she and her husband have been working of for some time.  I can tell by her email that she is chomping at the bit to get it finished and operational.  Alas, according to her commentary, her husband has taken his time sanding and painting the tower to exacting standards.  (Okay, she didn't put it that way, but that's how I interpreted her comment on the issue.)

She lives in Oklahoma, and as I remember form my visit to that state back in '86, it looks very flat.

Here is the picture:

ICOM 7700 Video - I WANT ONE!

Yes, I shot this video at the Pineville, LA hamfest.  This is the ICOM 7700, and what a fine rig it is.

Just look at it.  And, if you saw the video I shot of my 'Big Rack', you'll know I have the perfect place to mount this.

Tongue-in-cheekisly, I express my desire to obtain one of these in the first frame and last frame of this video.

That said, it would be a treat to own this beauty.

2012 Pineville, Louisiana Hamfest Photographs

Four of us from Northeast Louisiana rode down to Pineville, La to partake in the festivities of their hamfest.

Carlos-KB5YEG, Mack-KA5JNL, Gene-KC5WS, arrived at around 8:15am.

All the people at the event were friendly and  we had a great time.  Unfortunately, none of us won any of the grand prizes.

I met Mel-WD5CAE, in person for the first time.  He's a regular on the Louisiana Traffic Net (LTN) and always has a good signal.

I was glad to see Jim-N5NVP, also an LTN regular and an important CW asset for the National Traffic System.  Being legally blind, I passed bye Jim several times before I realized who he was.  (I hate it when that happens).

I aquired a dual band h/t while there and it is working wonderfully.
Here are the few pics I took when I was there.