My Place to Reflect

In 2007, I qualified to receive an amateur radio license at the General class with call sign KJ4AAH. When I took the exam, taking higher levels was the same price as long as you kept passing. So I attempted the Extra class exam and failed it quite handily. That helped motivate me to study and a few months later, I upgraded my license to Amateur Extra class and changed to a new call sign AJ4FF. In 2008, I purchased a Yaesu FT-857d radio and eventually put up a homebrew 3-band fan dipole between a blue spruce in one corner of my yard and a much taller spruce adjacent to my house. The blue spruce died and had to come down and I never figured out an alternative to get a long wire into the air with just the one tree near my house. This last year, the tall spruce also had to come down. Well, in the middle of this time, one of my sons decided to plant a maple sapling near my back fence and it is now tall enough to help me out. I'm also more motivated right now to get involved again. I pur