Wow we are now online via Ham Radio

OH MY GOSH, I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

I just figured out how to hook up our modem so we can send e-mail via our ham radio and we got MAIL!!! Thanks to those of you who read our blog and sent mail to our ham e-mail, it was so thrilling. It is the first time we have got the thing hooked up and working and we have had it for almost two weeks. I kept trying to get the thing to work but had not hooked up to the right signal, and then I had the brain wave to go back to when the guy who had installed it, hooked it up and look to see what station he had contacted and try that station and it worked. Oh my gosh, what a relief that it worked and that I am not a total idiot for not being able to figure it out, WHEW!!!!

You have to know what stations you can hook up to in order to get a signal. There is a list of stations and then you can look at a grid that tells you what the propagation is like to that station at the particular hour and day that you want and then when it looks good you just go ahead and try and hook up, the station I hooked up to is at Atwater which is 675 Nautical Miles away from here. It apparently is a good station that I can access, so I have written down it’s call sign and the frequency that I reached it on. We are going to get a special notebook to note our ham connections.

We have not talked to anyone on the radio yet, but I have a list of nets that boaters use and then yesterday while going through my Ham Radio for Dummies book I found a list of frequencies that Ham’s use and when there is good propagation to be able to hear stuff, so I am going to work on that next. We have heard people but have not spoken to anyone so the scourge of the airwaves has been stymied in her efforts to break into the Ham world. Fear not, I will persist and let you know when I succeed. THEN WATCHOUT, you won’t be able to shut me up.