Radio Nets

Attended my first nets tonight, where I was actually transmitting, instead of just listening. I've decided that my radio is working just fine for listening, but I'm having some issues getting a good signal to the outside world. I'm going to really have to come up with a good way to fix that...



So, right now my primary focus on nets is for two nets in particular, namely the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group (LARG), and the DC ERC group, an Emergency Preparedness group. I found that I was able to communicate, when I turned my transmitter up to the max for the ERC, and one setting below max for the Loudoun group. It's taking me 70 W just to cross 25 miles or so, which seems to me like a bit much... Well, sooner or later I'll figure out how to get my system tuned properly, which should reduce that power load a bit...

Overall, the experience was fun. I got to hear from a lot of people in the area, about their adventures in the amateur radio world. I even heard from someone who made a contact with Iraq and Afghanistan, a very long ways away! This seems to be a good way for me to get my feet wet, but it still hasn't included a lot of face to face contact yet...

It was kind of funny, there was another person with my same first name, and a somewhat similar sounding call sign, joining for the first time on both of the nets that I joined. What a coincidence... Hopefully I can meet this person sometime soon.