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About Me
Well for beginners my name is Tim Hale and I am a 21 year old male from Appleton, WI USA. I currently work at Alto Dairy and before that I worked at Target as a Backroom Team Member. I am also the current holder of the FCC issued Amateur Radio call sign KC9FSH. I was licensed as a Technician on March 31, 2004. I did not pass my test on my first try, I missed by one question. I had many things going on in my life at the time so after that I decided to wait a few months until things cleared out so I could actually study for the test. So a couple months later I went to the local Red Cross and took my test. I want to say I took the test on March 27, 2004 but it could have also been March 20, 2004 either way it doesn't really matter. I only had 3 questions wrong this time. I was very excited as it was something I had wanted to do for a year or so. During March 2006 I took the written portion of the General exam and passed it. The only reason I decided to take this exam was because I drove a friend of mine down to Madison, WI to take his Tech exam and I figured I might as well make it worth while for myself as well. I never did get the code down 100% so as soon as the FCC dropped the morse code requirement I went to a VE Testing session and turned in my CSCE and was upgraded to general.
No one else in my family has ever held a Amateur Radio license so it was a pretty good feeling knowing that I was the only one. So some of you are probably asking how I became interested in Amateur Radio. I must give credit to two people for getting me involved. Nate Welch, KB9RQL, and my grandfather. My grandfather got me interested in radios by using his CB when I would visit him as a child. Nate Welch is a friend of mine who is a General class license. One day while I was hanging out at his house we got on the topic of radios. He mentioned that he held a Ham Radio license. I heard of it before but never really knew much about it. After he explained a couple things to me I knew I wanted to become licensed.
When I got home that day I went online and looked up more information on it. I found a web site that explained how to get a license so I did as they suggested and bought the ARRL's Technician class study book.
After I got my license I didn't have much money since my transmission in my car decided to shoot the diff pin out, but we will leave the topic for another time. Because of the repairs my car needed I couldn't afford a radio. Nate lent me his HTX-202, which is Radio Shack's 2 meter HT, so I was able try and use it for a little while during the summer. During LiFest 2004 I was the Associate Director of Audio and Video and while making my rounds I came across the Winnebago ARES/Skywarn trailer. I stopped in and introduced myself. Stephen KB9RLF was one of the people there that day. I talked with them for a while and then got the information for the repeater they were on along with the simplex frequency for that event. I had the HTX-202 with me so I gave it a try and helped them out a little bit, wasn't much but with my other responsibilities it was enough.
In August, Nate needed his HT back so I was now without a radio. But wait my birth was coming up in September. I figured I'd ask for money from everyone and put it towards a radio. I got around $150 from everyone and so the search for a radio was on. I read many great reviews on the ICom IC-207h. I looked it up on E-Bay and found one for around $215. I had saved up around $100 to use on a radio myself so I had enough to get it. About a week later I received it.
Alright so that ends that part of the About Me page. Now onto the other parts.
I am a member and Exec Board Member of the Fox Cities Amateur Radio Club, W9ZL. I also helped coordinate Field Day 2007, along with Bernie N9YMC and Tom N9UY, and I look forward to doing this again for Field Day 2008. I also am a net control operator for their weekly 2 meter net.
Well I'll end the about me page here. I hope you've enjoyed reading about me.
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