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Old 05-18-2010, 03:58 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
The WB8NHV story

I'm Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV. Was first licensed in June 1972, but I didn't get on air until 97 days later. First station was a 60-watt rockbound (quartz crystal controlled) 60-watt Heathkit DX40 transmitter and a Hallicrafters SX-101A receiver, ham bands only, and a 25' loaded vertical. I'll never forget my first contact as Novice class WN8NHV, in October 1972. W9PQO in (at the time) South Bend, Indiana answered my sixth (!) CQ call; I gave him my name, location and RST (signal report), then I couldn't think of a thing to say to him after that.

I was off the air for eleven months after my Novice ticket expired, but in May 1975 I took and passed my Technician class license test (the Tech class only allowed operations from 50 MHz on up in those days) and was back making contacts shortly thereafter. Worked 6-meter AM voice with a Heathkit Sixer transceiver, initially rockbound on 50.35 MHz; I later got a crystal for 51.0 MHz when I found out about a six-meter ragchew net in the neighborhood (Cleveland Heights, east suburban Cleveland) in which I was living at the time. I'll never forget the first station I heard on my new (to me) Heath Sixer with its makeshift antenna (a random length of lamp cord) -- WAØSDK in South Dakota! Never did get back to him, but even after 35 years I've never forgotten hearing him in suburban Cleveland, while using a rig with a superregenerative receiver and a hank of wire as an "antenna." (That so-called antenna really caused TVI problems, both in the house where I was living and the neighbors' homes as well.)

When I moved back to my hometown of Wickliffe, Ohio (far east suburban Cleveland) after graduating high school in 1975, I got back on six meters with my Heath Sixer and a home-brew antenna, but worked only one station -- WA8CSQ (now off the air -- I looked up his call on QRZ.com the other day, or tried to, but found that the license had expired some time ago).

From 1976 until 1982 I worked exclusively 2-meter FM, and was a member of a radio club in suburban Cleveland that operated two repeaters, one east and one west of the city of Cleveland. In summer 1982 I reactivated my Novice station under new Technician rules (Techs now had HF privileges on the Novice HF bands) and worked several states with the Heathkit/Hallicrafters combination, now feeding a loaded vertical once again--not unlike the one I had during my Novice days. The difference between that vertical and my 1982 Tech-Plus antenna, however, was that the latter was a no-tune all-band system, 80 through ten meters, whereas with my Novice vertical one had to move a tap up and down a loading coil to change bands.

I operated CW and 2-meter FM exclusively for the next 17 years, upgrading to General in 1985 and becoming a member of the Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association of Painesville, Ohio (30 miles east of Cleveland and only three miles [!] from where I live today) two years later. In late 1999, I had to give up my HF station, after working 49 states and a handful of foreign countries on 20, 30 and 15-meter CW. I moved in late '99 into an apartment, was off the air for ten years (except for 2m FM), then discovered Echolink about a year ago. EL got me back on HF (I am using the standard EL software, with the EchoBase 100 virtual transceiver addon, installed in my IBM Aptiva 595 computer), and I am still active on 2 meters with the Lake County radio club I mentioned above. If you live in, near, or are planning to visit the northeastern Ohio area, please look me up. On 2 meters I listen on the Lake County ARA repeater, N8BC, 147.81-.21, and participate in the club's weekly 2-meter net. The repeater does not have the fantastic coverage it once did, but it covers Lake County and eastern Cuyahoga County quite well from its new location (as of about four months ago) atop a medical center near Painesville.

That's the "WB8NHV story" in a nutshell. Even after nearly 38 years in this hobby, I still enjoy it, my antenna restrictions as of a decade ago notwithstanding. Since Echolink makes use of RF links in conjunction with the Internet (the latter using a technology known as voice over Internet protocol or VoIP), making contacts with it, especially (in my opinion) when using the software with the EchoBASE transceiver addon, which gives EL the look and feel of a real amateur transceiver, I feel like I never really gave up my HF ham station at all. The links to the grand bunch of fellows in the Lake County ARA via the local repeater help out a lot as well. Been a member of that club since '87, just renewed membership a couple months ago, and will not give it (or ham radio itself) up any time soon--I like the hobby too darn much!


73,

Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV
Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA
Grid square EN91go
Echolink node #331660
Member Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association (N8BC/R, 147.81./21)

Station:

HF: Echolink v9.0208 with EchoBase addon; IBM "Aptiva" 595 PC
2 meters: Icom IC-T22A, 1.5 watt HT
"Hamming it up" since 1972
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 05-18-2010 at 04:06 PM. Reason: Title change
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