Welcome to my little corner of the internet. Here I plan to document my ham radio and other technical adventures.
I will attempt to refrain from non-technical subjects here, although topics with a nexus to ham radio, such as club politics, may slip in from time to time.
I was initially licensed in 2007 as KL2NV, but my interest in radio started much earlier. My father was a state trooper and had to cover a significant area on his beat. Radio was his bread and butter, and he used it to keep in touch with state DOT plows, tow truck operators, and significant individuals and organizations in the area. Growing up, there was a large bookcase in his office full of nothing but radios, constantly scanning HF and VHF frequencies. Listening to shortwave broadcasts out of Iraq during the first Gulf War was mesmerizing. Needless to say, I was hooked.
As stated above, I got my technician in 2007 and, being young and dumb and and having more money than sense at the time, I promptly purchased a Yaesu VX-8R, the absolute top of the line HT at the time. APRS featured prominently on that radio, but corresponding infrastructure in the Anchorage area was lacking. Having minimal HF privileges, my interest started to wane, and the Yaesu languished in a desk drawer.
Along around 2015 or so, I rediscovered the Yaesu HT while doing a deep clean of my desk. My interest was rekindled, and I began to engage with ham radio again, as well as get involved with the Anchorage Amateur Radio Club KL7AA. This was a key moment, as I was able to involve myself with a project to build an APRS igate (KL7AA-10), upgrade to general, learn about systems like Winlink and AREDN mesh, and acquire surplus equipment that eventually came together into my own APRS igate KL1V-10.
In 2019, I finally upgraded to extra and changed my callsign to KL1V.
I've always been cripplingly mic-shy, so all my interests skew towards digital modes. This is readily apparent all through this site, as all the featured articles are discussions of LoRa, mesh radio systems, packet, and other assorted digital modes. I have also found most of my joy in this hobby comes less from operating and more from building. The more complex the system to be built, and the larger the user base grows, the more fascinated I become. (Starting a wireless ISP is a bad idea. Somebody talk me out of it.)
Kevin
KL1V
Contact info (in no particular order)
irc://irc.geekshed.net/redditnet (nickname shotgunmoose)
Hamshack Hotline: 610-2995
QSL direct. SASE appreciated but not required. Information on QRZ.com is current.
