My Philosophy:

Stronger stations can always be easily worked at any time, but the weaker stations may quickly fade out with changing band conditions. Therefore good Amateur Radio operators always work the weakest stations first and the stronger stations last.This courtesy gives everyone a chance to make the contact and talk.

My Radio Equipment:

Ten Tec Omni VII (previously owned by my friend K5LEM, now a Silent Key)
Kenwood TS 120SE
MFJ Antenna Tuner (a loaner)
Homemade 2 meter J-Pole on a push up pole
10 meter Dipole
20 meter Dipole
40 Meter Dipole
75 meter Dipole
hoisted up between two 50 foot tall push up poles.
Three Yaesu FT 2900 Mobile Radios
One Yeasu VX8DR HT

I enjoy:

Enjoying the Amateur Radio Hobby with my Son
Making New Country, State, and County Contacts on HF
Ten-Ten Member Contacts
Contacting Special Event Stations
Collecting QSL Cards
Emergency Comunications
Working Communications for bike and foot races
Fox Hunting / Hidden Transmitter Hunting
Rag Chewing with my Amateur Radio Friends
Reading QST Magazine
Chasing Balloons with Radio Beacons
Eatting Lunch with my Ham Buddies
Hamfests
FIeld Days


MISSISSIPPI AMATEUR RADIO CLUB MEMBERSHIPS:

Jackson Amateur Radio Club (JARC)

Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association (CMARA)

Scott County Amateur Radio Club (SCARC) - Co-Founder with W5JMJ

Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club (VARC) (Membership Pending)

Mississippi Ten-Tuners - chapter of Ten-Ten International - Founded by W5JMJ (In the process of forming) - Chapter #


NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS:

Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) - Member and Volunteer Examiner (VE)

Ambassadors for Christ - Member # 1687

Ten-Ten International - Member # 76157

OMISS - Old Man International Sideband Society - Member # 7966


MORSE CODE SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS:

FISTS International Morse Code Preservation Society - Member # 15738

SKCC - Straight Key Century Club - Member # 8680

NAQCC - North American QRP CW Club - Member # 5805


QRP SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS:

QRP ARCI - QRP Amateur Radio Club International - Member # 14646

NAQCC - North American QRP CW Club - Member # 5805

HF Pack - Member Numbers Not Given


ATTEMPTING TO JOIN:

South Coast Amateur Radio Society (SOUTHCARS) - Member #

3905 Century Club Net - Member #


SKYWARN COURSES & CERTIFICATIONS:

SKYWARN Basic Spotter Certification

SKYWARN Advanced Spotter Certification


EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COURSES & CERTIFICATIONS:

ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001)
Section: 26108, Mentor: Frederick Baguhn, W9GOC
Course Dates: Friday, May 27 2011 - Friday, July 29 2011
Passed: August 1, 2011

FEMA COURSE CERTIFICATIONS:

IS-100.b - Introduction to the Incident Command System ICS-100 - April 11, 2011
IS-200.b - ICS for Single Incidents and Initial Action Incidents, ICS-200 - April 13, 2011
IS-250 - Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF15), External Affairs - April 15, 2011
IS -700 - National Incident Management System (NIMS) An Introduction - April 13, 2011
IS-800 - National Response Framework, An Introduction - April 14, 2011
IS-809 - Emergency Support Function (ESP) #9 Search and Rescue - April 15, 2011


EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION COURSE I AM CURRENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF TAKING (as of May 1, 2012):

ARRL Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs (EC-016)
This one course replaced the ARRL’s Intermediate and Advanced Emergency Communications courses.

Within this course I am required to take and pass the following FEMA courses:

IS-240.a Leadership & Influence ·        
IS-241.a Decision Making & Problem Solving
IS-250 Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF-15) External Affairs·        
IS-1 Emergency Manager, An Orientation to the Position ·        
IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management ·        
IS-244.a Developing and Managing Volunteers ·        
IS-120.a An Introduction to Exercises ·        
IS-130 Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning ·        
IS-139 Exercise Design    


EMERGENCY SERVICE:

Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) member - since 2010

Emergency Coordinator (EC) for the Scott County Amateur Radio Emergency Sevices (ARES) - Appointed January 2011

Scott County Amateur Radio Emergency Sevices - Co-founded SCARES with W5JMJ in January 2011

Scott County ARES Net. Co-founded with W5JMJ. Meeting weekly since January 2011 at 7:00 pm on Monday nights on the Pelahatchie Repeater, 146.390 with a 77 Hz tone.

Scott County Severe Weather Net. Co-founded with W5JMJ in January 2011. Activated during severe weather on the Pelahatchie Repeater, 146.390 with a 77 Hz tone.

2010 Yazoo City Tornado - Deployed with W5JMJ to handle emergency traffic during the aftermath of severe tornado damage to the city of Yazoo, MS. Received Certificate of Thanks from the Yazoo County Emergency Coordinator.

2012 ARES/RACES/MARS Digital Interoperability Emergency Exercise, May 5, 2012, Mississippi Emergency Managment Agency (MEMA), Pearl,MS

2012 ARES / ARRL Mississippi Section Simulated Emergency Test (SET) - May 30, 2012, Netc Control Station on 75 meter backup Frerqeincy

2012 RACES / MEMA Hurricane Exercise - May 30, 2012, Netc Control Station on 75 meter backup Frerqeincy


COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS:


2010

Bike MS: Bike to the Battlefield, October 9-10, 2010, Clinton, MS to Vicksburg, MS

Pearl 5K


2011

Mississippi Blues Marathon - January 8, 2011, Jackson, MS

32th Annual Vicksburg Run Thru History, Saturday March 5, 2011, Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg, Mississippi

Natchez Trace Century Ride 2011, April 9, 2011, Ridgeland, MS


2012

2012 Jackson Walk MS - National Multiple Sclerosis Society, May 5, 2012, Winners Circle Park, Flowood, MS

Natchez Trace Century Ride 2012, May 12, 2011, Ridgeland, MS

SPECIAL EVENT STATIONS:

Served as Operator For:

2011, June – Museum Ships On The Air. Served a turn at K5ZRO, located on the USS Cairo, the only restored Civil War Ironclad Gunboat in the Unite States, located at the the Vicksburg Military Park in Vicksburg, MS. Event Sponsored by the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club.

Contacted:

(Will fill this data in later)


BALLOON CHASE

2011 - Official Chase Team Member- (Found and Recovered the balloon with W5JMJ, Andy, and Heather)

2012 - Chase Team Captain


FIELD DAYS:

2010: CMARA Field Day and JARC Field Day

2011: CMARA Field Day and JARC Field Day

Worked club station W5PFC for one hour with W5JMJ for JARC


NETS I CHECK IN TO:

LOCAL VHF SOCIAL NETS:

The Amnesia Net (Social Net)


LOCAL VHF EMERGENCY NETS:

Scott County ARES Net

Metro Jackson ARES Net

Rankin County ARES Net

Jackson Emergency Net


HF NETS:

Mississippi ARRL Section Net

Mississippi Baptist Hams Net

Ambassadors for Christ Net

Ten-Ten International Net

OMISS Net

(3905 Century Club Net) Joining Soon

QSL:

Direct Mail (Preferred) -

ARRL Bureau -

OMISS Bureau -

10-10 International Bureau -

LOTW (Last Resort) -


How I Became a Ham:

(The names in bold are the people who played a major role in either my becoming an Amateur Radio Operator or in my progressing in the hobby. The name in red is my Elmer. He is the person who has helped me grow as a Amateur Radio Operator the most.)

The 1960s:

The first person to introduce me to Amateur Radio was my Mom’s brother. When I was a child we would drive from Mississippi to South Carolina to visit relatives. My uncle, Reggie Wesberry, lived in Columbia, SC and had been an Amateur Radio Operator since the late 1930s or early 1940s. Every time we visited him he would show me his Radio Shack which was built inside a wide closet in an otherwise rarely used hallway. I was amazed that he could make contact with people from all over the world using nothing but his radios and an antenna. He was also an officer in the Civil Air Patrol and had a radio which he used for communication in that organization as well.

As a child in the 1960s I was interested enough to get my parents to purchase me a Cub Scout Morse Code practice oscillator and I played around with it a good bit. However, I had no formal instruction, nor knew of the best methods for learning the code and so without any guidance or encouragement I eventually lost interest.

Early 1970s:

In Junior High School I had a friend named Paul Luke (N4NBC) who was a Amateur Radio Operator. His Dad, Keith Luke (W5AV) was also an Amateur Radio Operator. I remember the tall tower they had behind their house in our South Jackson neighborhood. I didn’t get to know his Dad until a few years ago, but at the time Paul introduced me more fully to the requirements of becoming a Ham. After looking over the test materials I figured it would be too hard for me to accomplish and subsequently gave up the idea.

Late 1970s:

In High School a different uncle, Gary Johnson, gave me a radio scanner for my birthday. So I bought a Radio Shack book on radio frequencies and got into the listening aspect of radio.

Also, around that same time my Amateur Radio Uncle from South Carolina drove his Volkswagen Mini Bus to Mississippi to visit us. He had a mobile CB Radio which he used to communicate with folks on his drive out. He explained to me how I didn’t have to pass a Morse Code Exam to get a license for CB. So I got into CB and so did several of my friends. My handle was "I-Talian". I can only remember a few of the handles of my CB friends, but Jay Bird, Corona Man, Cash Box, Penny in the Cashbox, and Sweet Talker are a few I can still remember. I had a small MG Midget convertible with a Radio Shack whip antenna on the bumper. That very small car with that very tall antenna was a comical sight to see. I gave up CB in the early 1980s when it got too crowded and the language people used on the air got bad.

The 1980s:

Every few years I would visit Hooper’s Electronics, located in the old Mart 51 Shopping Plaza on Terry Road in South Jackson. They sold amateur radios, ARRL publications, licensing manuals, as well as records and cassette tapes for learning the various speeds of Morse Code required for licensing.

I always enjoyed looking at the radios and listening to them, but because of the code requirements I kept putting off studying for the exam. Over the years college, dating, marriage, proffesion, and children became the focus of my life, but every now and then I would think about Amateur Radio and would say "One of these days, I’ll pursue it." It was always on the back of my mind.

Fast Forward to 2008:

On June 7, 2008 I took my family down to Tylertown to attend the Walthall County Dairy Festival, an olde-time styled festival which has been the oldest and biggest festival in Walthall County for over 34 years. Unfortunately, the dairy truck didn’t make it, so they had no dairy products or ice-cream that year.

However, they did have one thing at the festival which became a pivotal point in my life. There were a couple of Amateur Radio Operators sitting under a pavilion working their radio. They were members of the Southwest Mississippi ARC I noticed that for power they were using nothing more than a battery sitting in an ice chest. And for an antenna they were using nothing more than a wire thrown over tree limbs. They let my oldest son, who was eleven years old at the time, give it a try. He made contact with a station in Georgia and a station in New Jersey.

Having just a few years earlier experienced the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and a subsequent week without electricity, hard to find fuel, food, and supplies coupled with no land line phone service and very spotty cell phone service), I was immediately struck by the high value Amateur Radio would have as a failsafe form of communications during emergencies and disasters.

I asked these gentlemen several questions and found out that the Morse Code requirement had just been dropped a year or so earlier. As soon as we got back home I scoured the Internet for information on Amateur Radio. I joined ARRL (months before passing my exam) and ordered their Technician’s Exam guidebook. I read through the book and in January of 2009 a couple of weeks before they exam date I began studying for the Tech Exam.

My wife and oldest son drilled me on the questions. I think both of them could have passed the exam themselves if they tried since they had drilled me so much on the questions.

On Saturday morning, January 31, 2009 I took my Technicians Exam at the Jackson Amateur Radio Club’s annual HamFest in Jackson, Mississippi. When the VE called me to his desk to tell me how I did, he said he was proud of me, because he hadn’t seen many people score a perfect 100. His name was Jimmie Myers (KD5FUY) an Extra who lived in Star, Mississippi. I chatted with him many times over the next year before he became a Silent Key. I chatted with him just a day or two before he passed away.

While at the HamFest that day I ran into an old college days friend whom I didn’t know was an Amateur Radio Operator. I ran into Terry Drake (KD5JPB) and discovered that he was also the current President of the Jackson Amateur Radio Club. I also met for the first time another gentleman who was testing for his General upgrade, named Glenn Patterson (KE5YES). Later on he became the EC for Yazoo County.

Before I ever took my exam, I knew that I wanted the vanity call-sign "K1REZ." My first name is "Juarez", but with the exception of a few teachers in High School and College, I have been called "Rez" as long as I can remember. No one has called me Juarez in over 30 years. I found out many months before I took my exam that K1REZ was available and so I nervously held out hoping that no one else would get it before I could request it.

The very day (February 28, 2009) that my name and original call-sign (KE5ZBU) first appeared on the FCC Database I requested my vanity call-sign. Since I didn’t have a radio yet, I never even used my original call-sign and it still sounds very foreign to me. A long 40 days later my vanity license arrived and I was extremely relieved to finally have it.

I get asked a lot why I have a "1" in my call-sign and if I’m originally from Maine. I guess this is the best place to answer that question. I was born in the South and have always lived in the South. However, the original plan was for me, and my father, and my oldest son, who all share the same name (Juarez Johnson Sr., Juarez Johnson Jr., and Juarez Johnson III), to all three get our Amateur Radio licenses.

My father, Juarez Johnson Sr. was going to be K1REZ, I, Juarez Johnson Jr. was going to be K2REZ, and my son, Juarez Johnson III was going to be K3REZ. My Dad decided not to get his license, so I took K1REZ. A year later when my son became a Ham he decided that he preferred to have his own initials be his suffix, so he chose W5JMJ. After that I considered changing mine to K5REZ since I’m not from Maine, but am Southern Born and bred, proud of it, and proud to be a Mississippian. However, by this time everyone knew me as K1REZ. On July 2, 2010 a new Technician in Texas obtained K5REZ thus sealing my fate of sticking with K1REZ. I do like it however, and plan to keep it, even after I pass the Extra upgrade exam and qualify for a 1 x 2 call-sign (especially since K5RZ is already taken).

After passing my Technician Class exam I assumed that amateur radios were too expense and subsequently put the hobby on the back burner, until one day in August when Terry Drake (KD5JPB) called me up and said he had a radio to loan me. He said that if I didn’t hurry up and get on the air I might never get into the hobby. So we met for lunch and I asked him tons of questions about the local clubs, about emergency communications, about the local ARES, about SKYWARN, about operating procedures, etc… He loaned me a book and a 2 meter Kenwood Radio and when I got home he made that very first contact with me to make sure I knew what was doing. I guess if he hadn’t pushed me on into it I might still be hem-hawing around.

I listened for about a month or so to the various nets and QSOs before ever attempting to initiate a contact. Several times I started to make a call, but thought "none of these people know me and probably don’t want to talk to someone they don’t know." So I let my mic-fright hold me back for a while. For a while I had been listening to the Amnesia Net which met every weekday morning at 8:00 am on the Florence Repeater (145.760 with 77Hz tone). There was a regular check in on that net named Tony Stewart (W5PRL) who was at that time KE5WAD. I also heard him frequently talking to several other Hams. He seemed like a nice guy so one day I got my courage up to give him a call after one of his QSO’s. He replied back and encouraged me to keep making contacts. I began replying to all calls on 2 meters while driving and began making my own calls. I also started checking into the Amnesia net and that greatly helped me get used to talking on the radio. In November I drove my family to South Carolina to visit relatives for Thanksgiving and made numerous contacts while in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

Shortly afterwards I bought my own first radio from Leo McGehee (K5LEM) then K5RHK. He was a regular on the Amnesia Net and I heard him mention he had a radio (FT 8800) for sale so I met him at a gas station in Jackson and bought it from him. He was the Ham I met in person that I had initially met on the air. From that point on I chatted with Leo every day on the radio and he became a good friend. I visited with him in his home and in his Radio Shack and ate lunch with him numerous times, including at a weekly Ham Lunch. He and his wife were very kind to me and my children.

The radio I bought from him was a dual band and at that point in my life I really needed a single band to keep from getting confused (wish I still had it now), so I bought a Yaesu FT 2900R and installed it in my car and sold the FT8800. I became very active on 2 meters and even bought a second FT 2900 to loan to a friend, Daniel Inman (KF5EZY) whom I had introduced to Amateur Radio and encouraged to take and pass his Tech exam.

I met Keith Luke (W5AV) on the air and when I realized he was my old friend’s father I went to visit him. My sons and I visited with him on several occasions and he gave us lots of good advice and also a large amount of coaxial and several connectors. He was one of the original founding members of the Amnesia net, which was originally called the Geritol Net.

I met Pope (KC5STC) a regular member of the Amnesia net and found out that he lived in Forest, Mississippi which is no too too faraway from where we live. We visited with him on several occasions and he gave us advice and loaned us equipment. He gave me the elements off of an old TV antenna and I used them to build a handheld Fox hunting Yagi antenna.

My oldest son was twelve years old at the time. He decided he wanted to become an Amateur Radio Operator. So I became reviewing the questions with him. We also made it a regular part of his Home School Studies. Every day during the fall of 2009 he studied the Technician book and memorized questions.

Rick Nichols (K5FV), the President of CMARA and Bill White (K5BLL) Exam Coordinator of JARC both encouraged me to upgrade to General and sent me various study guides. I also bought the ARRL General Exam book and in December of 2009 I began studying for the General upgrade exam in.

I later met David Patterson (W5CSI) a Baptist Minister in Crystal Springs, Mississippi and he and I have had many a good spiritual chat on the air.

I later met Linda Goodman (KE5PYM) and she trained us to work the SKYWARN radios at the Mississippi National Weather Station at the airport. Later on my son and I received Basic and Advanced Storm Spotter Training certification.

I also met Jake Lancaster (KE5KTU), the ARES DEC for West Central Mississippi and learned a lot about ARES from him. He and I shared a love for Hidden Transmitter hunting and went on several Fox Hunts, both fun and serious.

Some time in 2009, while talking to an Amateur Radio Operator named Marty Wilson (W5PES), who is also a Baptist Minister, I heard another Amateur Radio Operator who was in Vicksburg join the conversation. His name was Lloyd Causey (K5IMT). Marty had reached his destination and signed off and so I continued the conversation with Lloyd while sitting in my car at Logan’s Road House on Lakeland Drive in Jackson. I was amazed that he was able to reach the Florence (Jackson) Repeater all the way from Vicksburg. I found out that he had been out of the hobby for a number of years due to some health issues and also due to the decline of membership in the former large and very active Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club. I encouraged him to get back on the air more often.

Lloyd (K5IMT) and I started chatting on the air almost daily and he resumed checking into the morning Amnesia Net during the week days. Through our conversations I found out that he had been a Ham since 1957 and had been very active in the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club until it had declined several years earlier. He was a retired electrician who had worked for Mississippi Power and Light for over thirty five years. He was extremely savvy in electronics, having built a lot of his own Amateur Radio equipment. He had put up and ran the first 2 meter repeater in Vicksburg, had extensive experience in Emergency Communications, and had served as net Control Station for the Mississippi Section net on HF, before becoming inactive in Amateur Radio.

I’d like to think that it was my encouragement which prompted Lloyd to gradually get more and more active again in Amateur Radio. However, whether that is true or not, one thing is certain, he has taught me more about Amateur Radio than any other single individual and thus became my mentor or "Elmer" as we call it in Ham Radio lingo. He has been my go-to person whenever I have had a question, no matter how silly I thought it might sound. And he has always graciously answered all my questions and patiently explained things to me. Most of what I know about Amateur Radio I leaned from Lloyd (K5IMT). He even taught me the correct way to solder and how to build dipoles. He has loaned me equipment and built antennas for me and repaired equipment for me and is constantly teaching me new things about the hobby. Even though he lives over 75 miles away I have visited with Lloyd many times in Vicksburg at his home and Radio Shack and we have eaten out both in Vicksburg and Jackson together many times. I have also been to his annual birthday party the last two years in a row. I am very grateful to have Lloyd (K5IMT) as an Elmer and a friend. Later on when my son (W5JMJ) got his Technician license he chose Lloyd to be his very first contact.

2010:

In early January my son, W5JMJ, and I worked communications for the Mississippi Blues marathon. While there noticed that the workers had placed the directional cones in the wrong place and once they confirmed this they corrected it, just in time for the racers to arrive and head off in the correct direction. If we hadn’t noticed this there would have been a lot of angry and confused runners that day.

I got serious about studying in January and managed to memorize all of the answers to all of the test questions in the General pool except the very last group of questions. I started to attempt to memorize the last group the morning of the exam but decided against it. I chose to review instead.

On Saturday, January 30, 2010 I took the General Class upgrade exam and I only missed one question. You guessed it. It was from the one group that I hadn’t memorized. I was hoping I’d get lucky and guess the question from that group. But I have never liked relying on luck. I prefer to know all the answers and do my very best on every exam I take. My goal is always not to simply pass, but to ace the exam with a 100! I just started studying and memorizing questions too late to get that last group memorized.

However, I know a lot of people who just barely passed the General Exam and a lot of people who had to take it several times before they passed it. As my examining VE Jimmie Myers (KD5FUY) told me, "You are still a General whether you ace the test or just barely pass it. And missing only one question is still very good." I guess he’s right because I don’t get any extra privileges for acing the exam.

I’m still going to try my best to ace the Extra Exam even though that means memorizing over 700 questions. But as long as I pass I’m not going to complain.

I was so much more excited that day by the fact that my son passed his Technician Class exam. I don’t remember his score. I think he missed only one question. But I was so proud of him and still am.

We went to lunch at Keifers that day and while we were gone they called our name for a radio award. Since we weren’t there they drew another slip. So we almost won a radio that day.

On February 5, 2010 my General Class upgrade showed up on the FCC database.

On February 27, 2010 my sons original call-sign (KF5EVS) appeared on the FCC database and that very day he applied for the vanity call-sign he had been wanting: W5JMJ, the suffix of which are his initials.

I had him a Yaesu FT2900R I had bought just for his room waiting on him to pass his exam. Wayne (AD5XR) and Joanie (KE5PTL) Squires, regular members of the Amnesia net graciously gave him a large 2 meter J-Pole so that he could get on the air. I put it on top of a Push Up pole and he was able to get on the air. He has enjoyed it ever since. As mentioned previously he chose my Elmer, Lloyd (K5IMT) to be his very first contact.

Ed King (KD5GHZ) was instrumental in helping my son get his base station on the air, giving him a Ameretron Power Supply and building power cords for him. Johnny Kazeminezhad (W5PFR) helped us out on numerous occasions, provided a suitable ground rod wire, and tested our antennas with his Antenna Tuner.

In April of 2010 my son, W5JMJ and I were deployed to Yazoo City to work emergency communications in the aftermath of the deadly devastation caused by a tornado on April 24th. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2010_tornado_outbreak) We later received a certificate of thanks from the Yazoo County ARES and the EC of Yazoo County, Glenn Patterson (KE5YES).

In the fall of 2010 my son, W5JMJ, began serving as a monthly Net Control Operator for the Metro Jackson ARES Net on Monday nights at 8:00 pm. He has continued serving in this capacity ever since.

2011:

In January I founded the Scott County Amateur Radio Club. My son and I worked a table for the SCARC at the Jackson Amateur Radio Club’s HamFest this year.

At that time I also started the Scott County ARES Net, which meets at 7:00 pm on Monday nights and the Scott County Emergency Weather net, both which meet on the Pelahatchie Repeater (145.390 with a 77Hz tone) . At this time my son, W5JMJ, began serving as a monthly Net Control Operator for the Scott County ARES Net on Monday nights at 7:00 pm. He has continued serving in this capacity ever since and soon after I was appointed EC he took over as Net Manager for Scott County ARES.

In early 2011 I was appointed the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) Emergency Coordinator (EC) for Scott County by Malcolm Keown (W5XX) the ARRL Section Manager of Mississippi.

On March 5th my son, W5JMJ, and I worked communications for the Vicksburg Run through History 10K race. We got to visit with my Elmer, Lloyd (K5IMT) and our friends in the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club.

March 26th my son, W5JMJ, and I were part of the four-man Chase Team that found the Titans in Space balloon. We left Jackson early that morning. As chance would have it, by the time we arrived in Meridian (the direction we had predicted the balloon would travel) the Meridian Amateur Radio Club was having its weekly Saturday morning breakfast at the Checkerboard Restaurant. So we stopped in for breakfast and visited with the club before heading on to chase the balloon. Our Chase Team consisted of me and my son in one vehicle, Leo (K5LEM) and Jim Rapp (WS7EOC) in another vehicle, and Jim Coker (AE5SK and his son in a third vehicle, and Andy () in a fourth vehicle. There were also several other unofficial chasers from other counties and even one from Georgia. When my son and I arrived as close to the balloon landing site as roads would take us we took to the woods with our radios and a handheld GPS receiver. We could hear the 2 meter beacon on our radios, but we also had the exact coordinates from a satellite phone which was on the balloon. We followed the direction on my handheld GPS and Andy and ? followed us. After a long hike through briars, woods, fields, and even a scramble down into and up out of a deep creek, we finally caught a glimpse of the balloon in a tree. We managed to recover the balloon and its payload and waited for the rest of the team to arrive.

On April 9th 2011 my son, W5JMJ, and I worked communications for the Natchez Trace Century Ride, a 100 mile bike ride. This was the last event we got to participate in with my friend, Leo McGehee (K5LEM) before he passed away.

On June 5th 2011 my son, W5JMJ, and I worked the special event station on the restored Civil War ironclad ship, the Cairo, at the Vicksburg National Military Park on Museum Ships Weekend. We got to visit with my Elmer, Lloyd (K5IMT) and our friends in the Vicksburg Amateur Radio Club.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

My son, W5JMJ McLeod Johnson and I attended the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association’s Field Day at River Oakes Hospital in Flowood, Rankin County, MS. We went early because my son wanted to take his General Exam. He passed it with flying colors and I was so proud of him. At that time I signed him up as a new member of CMARA and renewed my dues. I also got to administer and grade my first Technician Class exam as a new Volunteer Examiner (VE). After a brief introduction to Digital Modes from Mike Dancey (WX5H) we went to the Jackson Amateur Radio Club’s Field Day which was held at Old Trace Park on the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Ridgeland, Mississippi. This idyllic location, on the bluffs overlooking the water, made for a beautiful and breezy summer spot to have Field Day. My son and I worked the 20 meter station for about an hour together.

On July 7, 2011 my son’s General Class upgrade appeared on the FCC database.

From May 27th through July 29th I took and passed the nine week Basic Emergency Communications Course offered online by the ARRL: EC-001 - Introduction to Emergency Communication. I received my graduation certificate on August 1, 2011.

I am preparing to take the Advanced Emergency Communications Course: EC-016 - Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs.

During the summer of 2011 my Elmer, Lloyd (K5IMT) decided I needed a push to get on HF and so he loaned me one of his HF Radios. He made me a 10 meter dipole while teaching me how to measure and build dipoles. I built a 75 meter dipole and made my first HF contact from my house with Lloyd (K5IMT) in July. I built a 20 meter dipole and got it on the air just in time to make contact with several 4th of July Special Event Stations. Both my son and I were able to receive the 13 Original Colonies Certificate (http://www.13colonies.info/).

In October of 2011 I purchased a Kenwood TS 130SE from Wayne Darby (KB5JCI), long time employee at Hooper’s Electronics.

In October I took my family on a two week trip to California, driving along the old Route 66 (Interstate 40) and made numerous 2 meter contacts along the way, including W6J, a Route 66 Special Event station in Elk City. Oklahoma.

2012:

I purchased a en-Tec Omni VII from the widow of my good friend Leo McGehee (K5LEM) who passed away a year ago. I consider it an honor to own and use the radio he enjoyed using.

My son and I are currently studying for and plan to take our Extra Exams at Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association's (CMARA) Field Day on June 23-24, 2012.

There are many other Hams whom I have met that have influenced me in the hobby. The above are just a few of many who influenced me early on.

Charles Simmons(N5SPL) taught me the finer points of soldering correctly, gave me coaxil, repaired our J Pole.

Bob Marr (WB5YKR) gave us coaxil.

Orris Hicks (N5OH) made me a great deal on his J38 Key

I know there are many, many other Hams who have helped my son and I, and we appreciate all of them and hopefully will get all of their names on this page eventually.

73s,
Rez (K1REZ)