Operator
Name Juha
QTH Seinäjoki, Finland (northern Europe)
Locator KP12KS
Age <40
Club OH6AC
I'm also a member of The Finnish Amateur Radio League - SRAL Suomen Radioamatööriliitto ry
Being a HAM has affected many things in my life. When I was a boy I use to go to club (OH6AI) twice a week. Oldtimers there said to me that you should not ruin your great hobby. You should get a job that's not related to it. So I did. I have studied Social Services, Social pedagogy, criminals reintagrating to society, substance abuse prevention , youthwork, mental healt work and things like that. It had been interesting and it still is.
Early days
I have been HAM since my teenage years. That was early nineties. Actually I did go to exams when I was 12 years old or something but at that time I didn't pass because math was so difficult for me at that age.
Hopefully my father did pass his exams then, so I could observe his hobby closely and I get very interested. Two or so more years later I finally passed. Packetradio was a wonderfull thing for me and I was very excited about it. I was already programming before that. You don't need a license for that. Hi!
I was using Commodore 64 and a Baycom -modem and at first my fathers Alinco (propably a DJ-560E) handheld and after that my very own Kenwood TH-79E. Our home had some Diamond vertical antenna at that time and with that and my Kenwood everything worked great. 5 Watts was enough to connect to the whole world!
I specially remember that I use to send messages to America to a boy who was just my age. That was many years before Internet came reality. Actually I remember when few years later I was in highschool and there was some other students who use Bulletin Board System with telephone. That was so expensive, unpractical and packetradio system allready have that one must have feature, it was allready then a global system.
Because APRS is based on a legacy of packet radio I'm very much into it. Check out, if you want to. I won't put any links here because of some privacy matters but if you know where to look at, feel free to do so. I have nothing to hide from you, my fellow ham!
