Planning for My Operating Future

Well, as I had stated just recently I am no longer a resident of Bell County, Texas. I now belong to Bosque County and the city of Valley Mills, Texas...and I have begun to realize that I have made the right decision in making such a move. The people here are very warm and friendly and are very consistent in that; I cannot remember a time when I was ever made more welcome. Now I can be myself and do what I have always wanted to do, and Jenny definitely supports me in all of it (within reason, of course).

Here's what I will eventually do:

(1) Expand my equipment. I plan to add antennas and radios that will allow me to explore the VHF/UHF bands from 6 meters up through 70 cm. I plan to use Yagis and quads as the antennas of choice. Topography may limit some possibilities since I do live in a river valley but I can still even take advantage of that. Tropospheric ducting and other conditions that can occur in areas where valleys are located can allow for some interesting contacts. I plan to see what could be in store!

(2) Expand the number of operating modes I use. Right now it's just SSB and CW, but as I have said that I always wanted to do I plan to move into the digital modes for all bands that I will have operating capabilities for.

(3) Portable operating. All that I have mentioned in (1) and (2) I will also attempt to do in a portable setting. Of course there will be limitations but you never know what they are unless you try.

(4) Mobile operating. Right now the immediate plan is to get on 2 m and 70 cm in the car; all I really need is an antenna mount for the trunk of the car or a magnet mount for the roof of it. I should then be just fine. HF may not come until another vehicle is acquired; this may be a truck for which I will install whatever I want and however I want to install it.

(5) Backup power. This is something I have always wanted to do: keep my station off the power grid. This could become more important for me now since in Bosque County there is more of a tendency for the area to lose power for any number of reasons. Of course I could always hook up to a car battery and run that but I would rather have my own set of batteries running my station in the house or portable and not have to worry about anything. This will take some more research but I plan to seriously move forward on this.

Got any ideas as to how I handle the above topics? Drop me a line and let's discuss them...I will be all ears.

Stay tuned; there's more to come!

WR1TX