N7TRY on QSL.NET
My life as a HAM
It was 1990 when I took my first exam. Techician it was. Originally I just
had a single Alinco handheld for 2 meter ops. It wasn't long before I wanted
to boost my signal a bit so I invested in an Alinco mobile rig and a Diamond
X30 vertical antenna. I was having a lot of fun immediately. It was back
then that Packet Radio became popular. It was nothing like today. It was DOS
based and here in Oregon we were all running two different software sets.
The nodes ran on the DOS version of BPQ by John Wiseman (G8BPQ.) The BBS
software was RLI or W0RLI written by Hank Oredson W0RLI (SK 6 January 2013.)
I was bit immediately. Living in King City Oregon at the time, the BPQ Node
KCITY was born. The BBS was TRYMB. The popularity was crazy during those
years. Life continued and on into the 2000's Packet remained strong, that
is, until the Internet really started to mature. DSL, Cable and other
high speed mediums began to take the operators down a different path with
Email just simply too easy. Packet participation began to dwindle
until almost non-existant. It took a break from the digital modes for a
time. As computers and software advanced, so did the Packet platform. John
Wiseman combined the BPQ node software orginally DOS with his version of BBS
code and released a self contained solution now known as G8BPQ. I got back
into Packet with the new platform and have been active ever since. I
have also evolved, now an Extra Class Operator and ARRL VE.
I really got busy in the Digital Modes once again but this time using HF as
well. I also got rather good with the Raspberry PI family and TNC-PI TNCs.
Now I'm running Raspberry Nodes, APRS and my main system is a high end PC
running the G8BPQ software, VARA HF and VARA FM. Further, my other HF radio
(I have like 5 now) is available for playing around with FT8 and other
digital modes. I also run FLDIGI for evesdropping on RTTY and other modes
including the Maritime Museum weekly CW and RTTY broadcasts on HF.
I'm also now involved in Radiogram handling via the National Traffic
Network. Our local voice net meets M-W-F & Sa at 1805 local time for the
purpose of handling formal writting traffic into and out of Northwest
Oregon. I placed a link to the right under contacts should you like to
investigate. I also participate in the nightly CW net OSN or Oregon Section
Net where traffic moves to and from the local NTTN net. We also use
the BBS for routing Digital Traffic. This is all for the purpose of
maintaining communication in the event of an emergency or disaster.
My page continues to evolve, so check back often to see updates.
73, Todd N7TRY
