Radio For Teens

7-25-11

I am coming along on my quest of saving up enough money for the rest of my radio equipment. I plan to spend around $100-$125 for my 30 amp. power supply, around $100-$115 for a antenna tuner, and around $100-$150 for a multi-band dipole antenna. As the equipment bill stacks up, you start to realize just how much money it takes to get a shack together! I plan to pay for all of this myself though, and not just ask my parents to pay for it. I think that if I really want this station to be mine, then I need to take responsibility and pay for it myself. As far as setting all the equipment up, I plan to seek help from a few more experienced operators that I know, just to make sure that everything is running right and set up properly. That’s what has been on my mind today…

William, KI4WXL

7-24-11

School starts August 10th for me, and last year (freshman year), we got assigned to read three books for the next year. These books are VERY boring and time consuming, so I have been putting off reading them until the last minute. I feel like we do that a lot, put things that we know we have to do eventually, off into the future. Not only in school work, but also in our Ham Shacks. We say, “Oh, I need to label all the wires that go to my radio equipment… I think that I’ll do it in a couple of weeks.” A couple of weeks go by, and still the wires are not labeled. The fact is, we don’t have forever to do things, we need to be sure and get the things that we need to accomplish done, while we still can, and that goes for everything in life. just a random thought for the day….. 

William, KI4WXL

7-23-11

As I’ve tried to stress for years now, I believe that Ham Radio is first and foremost a hobby , and we shouldn’t let it (no matter how fun it may be) distract from what we plan to do with our lives in the long run. I believe that we should treat the experience of operating in our shacks as a treat, and as you know, to many treats can be a bad thing, so I think that teens especially should not be so caught up in the hobby that they forget about schoolwork, or other things that are important to us. I have had to learn this the hard way, in that what I do mainly in my life is music. I am a concert pianist, and I study at Eastern Kentucky University with one of the piano professors. Piano takes up a lot of time, because you have to practice so much, and that is time that I have to spend away from the radios, which is okay for me, because I enjoy piano just as much or more that I do radio, and I think that other teens have that same type of story that goes for them. It’s okay for radio to be just a fun side hobby, it doesn’t take away from the fun that you have when you’re on the air!

William, KI4WXL

7-22-11

Not much happening today. Just counting down the days till school gets started again. I am taking a lot of AP classes this year so I have a feeling that there will be a lot of Homework involved, which I am not looking forward to, but I am looking forward to being back with friends and actually accomplishing something during the day. I plan to continue to make the “Reaching For Extra” podcasts so that they will be ready to post on time, and finish up Summer Work in the next few days, and then I will be going to my grandfathers to stay for a couple of nights coming up next weekend. Other than that, 73′s, and have a good rest of the day!

William, KI4WXL

7-21-111

I have decided to start this journal to keep something new on the site every day or so. The posts on this page will sometimes not have to do with Ham Radio, though most of the content will. The posts will not be long, maybe a paragraph or so, so nobody gets bored by reading forever. Today, I am just trying to get back into the grove of waking up early and being productive during the day. I am looking for a part-time job so that I can get my radio equipment, and entering some writing contests today. Contests are great because you can win money by just doing what you love. Well, that’s all I have for today, have a good night!

William, KI4WXL