About
My name is Jeff Davis and my amateur radio call sign is KE9V. I’ve been licensed since 1977 and previous calls held include N9AVG and WD9GCT.
See my QSL info and location specifics on QRZ.com.
I’ve been blogging in this space since 2002 though the archives don’t go back nearly that far. At least once a year I decide to “quit” and I flush the archives. Apparently, I enjoy writing about the everyday occurrences in the life of a ham radio operator — since I keep coming back to it.
‘Calling CQ’ is just the latest embodiment of my thoughts about the hobby.
Ham radio is an old world technology having been around since the beginning of the 20th century. Radio amateurs pioneered the art and skill of wireless communication to the benefit of commercial broadcasters, the military and for that matter, all of mankind. And then at some point we rested from our pioneering labor and simply enjoyed the fruits of our handiwork.
These days we’re mostly a bunch of dinosaurs, set in our ways and convinced that our kind of radio communication remains relevant in a more modern age. We love to point to newspaper and magazine articles about some ham saving the day during an emergency — but the truth is that ham radio is an aging hobby facing an imminent and rapid decline.
I freely admit that because my head trumps my heart — but the fact that we’re destined for the trash heap of history doesn’t mean that we must go quietly in the night. In the coming decade there will be significantly fewer of us with each passing year but we’ve yet to reach the end in what’s an amazing story of human invention.
While we have one or two chapters remaining before penning the epilogue, I intend to continue writing and speaking about the things that we have done and those things we continue to do.
Our hobby is a strange mixture of technical and social issues and I don’t feel the least bit constrained in commenting about things not directly related. I toss in book, movie, and music reviews, recipes, pictures of totally unrelated subject material, and all kinds of off-topic chatter much to the consternation of the serious-minded.
I consider my blog to be a lot like tuning 40 meters on a crisp, cool, Saturday morning. Anything and everything is open for discussion. Where politics and religion are generally considered taboo over the air, here on the Web we have no such limitations in freely discussing such matters.
I’ve been married for thirty-years and have four children. My wife’s best-friend happened to be the daughter of the fellow who gave me my Novice exam and that’s how I came to meet her. So she’s had more than enough time to get acclimated to amateur radio!
I hope that visitors feel free to participate in the conversation since blogs without reader participation usually end up abandoned and in the dead pile. Comment early and comment often. I read a lot of blogs and I’ve often noticed that the very best conversation takes place in the comments.
I’d love to see that happen here.
73 de Jeff
