Today was a slow day at work, so I finally wired up my Yaesu FT-7900R in the XTerra (first HAM radio, got my license 3 months ago.) I could see it was receiving fine, so when I got in the truck to come home, I made a CQ on 146.52 and had my first HAM contact ever before I started the motor
Talked to a guy a few miles away who was more than happy to talk to a first time HAM, and gave me a couple of pointers for the local area as well as some repeaters near where I live. I've already gotten so much information from this one contact- special thanks to "Bob", AF6WN, of Ridgecrest, CA. I can see information sharing is going to be a big part of the fun in this hobby.
It's nice to have made first contact so quickly after trying- I was worried I'd have trouble finding the local network of HAMs, but Bob gave me a ton of useful info. I need to keep a pen and paper in the X, as I was writing stuff on the back of my hand so I'd have it for later!
Happy to be involved in another means of communication and meeting people.
