First QSOs

Today was the first day I made contacts over the radio successfully.  I now know my previous failed attempts were a result of either a under-powered HT or the short in my mobile setup.  With short corrected I made my first contact headed to Jiffy Lube for an inspection on the 70cm (440Mhz) band.  We had a good chat and he turned out to be a string advocate for new HAMs and making sure they didn't abandon the hobby as a result of frustration.  He got my email from QRZ.com and sent some links about classes he teaches and a social media network project he is working on with a group that is designed to function purely over packet radio (no internet involved at all).

After the Jiffy Lube inspection and a chat with my wife I made contact with a fellow HAM on the 1.25m (220Mhz) band which the repeater was on an antenna just over 20 miles away from location (and I was driving further away).  This was a great test of the new Compactenna and 25W Radioddity QB25 quad-band radio I was using.  We maintained a conversation until I we descended down into a small valley and he reported my signal as too weak to continue.  I gave a 73 and called it a success.

Later during the night after listening to a couple of NETs (no I haven't participated in one yet) I was waiting for my daughter's youth group at our Church to let out and struck up a conversation with a gentleman on 2m (144Mhz) who had been a HAM for 50 years by his calculations.  We had a short conversation where he like all others congratulated me on becoming a HAM and hoped I enjoyed the hobby for years to come.

This wrapped up a good day with contacts on all three VHF/UHF bands and confirmation that the mobile setup was doing pretty good.