Happy Halloween! Scary? Try Amateur Radio License...

Count Dover-cula

Eva completed her last day with her part-time job yesterday!  Whoopee!!!  This means that we are officially on "Countdown to Cast-Off: Mexico Here We Come!".  Craig is still finishing projects for some of our Ventura Boat Doctor clients, but is trying to balance them with our own, still very long list of projects to complete before we leave. 

We added a big task to that long list last week when we purchased a used Ham Radio.  We both started studying to take the written exam for our Amateur Radio licenses which is required for us to legally transmit via our new/old radio by the FCC.  Craig LOVES it!  He is like a kid at a candy store and giggles with delight at pouring through our new Ham Radio study materials.  "Whiskey! Bravo! Delta! Zulu!..."  Call signs.  Super Secret Radio Language.  Add antennas, knobs, buttons, sky and ground wave propagation with a dash of historical romance, and Craig has found his next big hobbie and new great love!  I'm happy for him.  Truly.

Eva just wants to be a safe, prudent mariner, and have a logical, dependable form of communication aboard South Trail.  She now finds herself trying to memorize questions like this:

What is meant by Harmonic Radiation?
A.  Unwanted signals at frequencies that are multiples of the fundamental (chosen) frequency
B.  Unwanted signals that are combined with a 60-Hz hum
C.  Unwanted signals caused by sympathetic vibrations from a nearby transmitter
D.  Signals that cause skip propagation to occur

In case anyone cares, the answer is A.   My point is this is really BORING for Eva.  I am giving it the ol' college try though.  That means because I find the subject so dry I am pulling every memorization trick I have ever learned out of my dusty collegiate hat.  December 5th is our exam here in Ventura.  I have no doubt that Craig will pass with flying colors and have his very own call sign and station...  Eva?  Stay tuned.  We'll see.