USA
K5EZT   ex: KE5RME Thomas E Tankersley 5025 DeMilo Dr Houston, TX 77092-4211 USA Lookups:   219 Ham Member

QRZ Record: 1694261 Login to manage/edit Lookups: 219 (219) Mailing Label... QRZ Admin: K5EZT Last Update: 2010-03-13 08:01:40 Class: Extra Codes: HVIE Effective: 2010-03-12 Expires: 2020-02-06 Latitude: 29.833550 (29° 50' 0'' N) Longitude: -95.473861 (95° 28' 25'' W) Grid Square: EL29gu US State: Texas US County: Harris Previous: KE5RME ITU Zone: 7 CQ Zone: 4 GMT Offset: -6 hours ULS Record: 3166814 FCC page... QSL by Mail?: Yes (e.g. Will this ham QSL by Postal Mail?) QSL by eQSL?: No (e.g. Will this ham QSL with eQSL?) Uses LOTW?: No (e.g. Does this ham use ARRL's LOTW ?) Admin For: (1) K5EZT

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K5EZT

• About Me
• My First Hamfest and a License Upgrade
• My Rig
• Activities
  
• License Status
• How I Got Into Ham Radio
  

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About Me

I live in northwest Houston, Texas, and have an apartment as temporary housing near the Memorial City/Town and Country area on the near west side. This arrangement serves as a study area and office close to the campus where I attend classes and work. I am a part-time college student studying music business and audio recording while working part-time in my "regular" career, information technology. I have been a user support technician for over thirteen years, working mostly at colleges, and I am now working my way through college to explore my interests further, become more involved in the industry, and get to know others with similar interests.

My First Hamfest and a License Upgrade

March 6, 2010
This year I attended my first Hamfest, the BVARC Greater Houston Hamfest at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds in Rosenberg, Texas. Being my first, there were a few things I wanted to make sure I did. The first was to take a stab at the Extra Class exam. The second was to purchase a call sign I.D. badge. Another was to sit in on an ARES meeting. I also wanted to hear the lectures, see the emergency vehicles, browse the tailgates and booths, make some new friends, and of course, win valuable prizes. I am happy to say that I accomplished all of these goals.

My Rig

My first (and only, so far) rig was generously handed down to me by KD5E, and consists of an ICOM IC-3200A 2M/440 5W/25W mobile FM transceiver with a Workman UV-325 magnetic mount dual band antenna for the truck and a hand-crafted brass tubing Slim Jim for the apartment.

For portable use, I am experimenting with a roll-up 300 ohm twin-lead dual-band j-pole design by WB6IQN that I found at http://www.fars.k6ya.org/docs/DBJ2_port_art.pdf and the first one I made seems to be working pretty good on both bands. I can open all of the area repeaters that I've tried so far, but I haven't tested the distance on simplex.

Activities

At the moment, I do not currently belong to any radio clubs, ARES groups, or CERT teams. I'm coming out of some difficult times (aren't we all) and have been taking care of a lot of "backlog" in my life. I don't want to be half-involved in a team situation, so as I continue to get my house in order, I am gradually making more time to learn about and become more involved in various group activities.

I completed a CERT class in 2008, but I haven't done anything with that either. I have, however, started the FEMA online emergency training as a next step in preparing myself to serve with ARES and/or CERT. I'm also very interested in participating in NTS once I get an HF rig, so in the meantime I'll be looking to learn more about how that works. More importantly, I look forward to spending more time on the air and at events getting to know everybody.

License Status

I earned my Technician license in November 2007 after taking an eight-week class at the Greater Houston Area Chapter of The American Red Cross, taught by N0XFD. Since I didn't have the money to immediately run out and buy a radio, I decided to spend $25.00 on the General Class license manual and study for the upgrade while I was saving up for a rig. I passed the General Class exam in January 2008 at the Houston Community College campus in Stafford, Texas.

I wanted to continue on the fast track and take the Extra exam before the question pool expired in June 2008, so I bought that manual and began to study. Then school began to get a little heavy and I needed to focus on that, so I put the Ham stuff aside for a while. During the 2009 holiday season, I finally got around to getting the new Extra Class manual, and continued studying. This time I planned carefully, got aggressive, and got a jump on my school workload. Consequently I managed to study for and pass the Extra Class license exam at the March 6, 2010 BVARC Greater Houston Hamfest in Rosenberg, Texas.

I wish to thank all VE's everywhere (and their assistants) for volunteering their valuable time and exceptional professionalism in preparing and administering amateur radio license exams, with special thanks to those who administered my exams. Listed below are the ones that I know of:

K3FL K5LJ K5OOR KD5UJT KD5VGE KK5NU

KM5VP N5DTT N8NOV W5DDD W5OFT

How I Got Into Ham Radio

I was encouraged to earn my license by my electronics professor, friend, and elmer, KD5E, who offers extra credit to his students for passing the Technician exam. I immediately decided to take the exam whether I needed the extra credit or not. Fortunately I did well in his electronics class (he's an excellent instructor) and didn't need the extra credit, but I enjoyed learning about the wonderful world of amateur radio so much that I went on to study for and pass the General exam a couple of months later.