Hi All, Thank youall for all the good input on this chatline. I am a new beginner birder and I need all the help I can get. I have become a Trail Volunteer at Blacklick Metro Park and Friday morning I tried to at least count the number of bird I saw. I lost count!! Hopefully someday I can know more than Robins and Cardinals!!! Maybe a few others. I did see a Redtail Hawk there a couple of weeks ago. Below is some good news that I am excited about. I know it is off-subject but I am excited. Hopefully soon I also will be able to do birding too. My wilderness survival instructor strongly encourages me (as recently as 3 hours ago). I will be hiking the outer perimeter trails of Blacklick Monday morning fm 630am until about 9am if someone wants to come and teach & accompany me. I will park at the Ranger station with my little redbird Miata. thanx again for all your inputs, pax, cheers, judojoe Joe Phillips Columbus, Ohio -----Original Message----- From: Joe Phillips [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2007 2:50 PM To: Donn Schucker [[log in to unmask]] Cc: [log in to unmask] Subject: I PASSED the General Class Ham Exam!!!!! Hi All, THIS EMAIL ANNOUNCES THAT I PASSED TODAY'S GENERAL CLASS AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS LICENSE EXAM!!! MY CALLSIGN IS (KD8GND). 1. Emergency Communications is one of my Survival Skills for the requirements of the Goshinkan (the umbrella system for the combination cross-training martial arts and survival skills system associated with the USMA and officially named the ALERTSS Goshinkan Survival System. However, all of my electronics skills had become dated and partly obsolete: US Navy Electronics Technician (1965 - 1984), BSEE from Univ. of Tennessee (Electrical Engineering - Electronics Major (Graduated 1973), avionics radio operator owner and pilot of several small planes for rental club (1984 - 1992), and taught Industrial Electronics at COTC (1996 - 2004). 2. So to update and upgrade I have joined the ARRL Amateur Radio Relay League, passed the entry Technicians License in June 2007, completed the ARRL on-line course Basic Emergency Communications EC-1 in July 2007, and today passed the General Class License Exam. 3. I took the Extra Class exam also today (without studying) and made a failing 50%. However, I will now study for the next 2 weeks and take it again on August 18th. 4. In July I purchased very reasonably a used but rugged HT Handheld Transceiver Yaesu VX-7RB and am struggling to learn all the bells and whistles, software entry, and learning how to operate on 2 meters and 440 mHz doing local COARES small events. 5. Today at the Columbus Hamfest I purchased the tiny HT Yaesu VX-2RB. So now I have 2 very rugged handheld transceivers. 6. So now for my volunteer CERT commitments (Community Emergency Response Team), my COARES commitments (Central Ohio Amateur Emergency Services), my R.A.C.E. SAR commitments (Rapid Assistance for Community Emergencies Search and Rescue) I have two professional quality transceivers. These volunteer groups are all part of my personal efforts to advance my EmCom Emergency Communications, USAR Urban Search and Rescue, and WSAR Wilderness Search and Rescue Survival Skills. 7. Now I need to decide what mobile transceiver that will also be a higher powered backpacking transceiver. 8. If anyone out there in cyberland is an expert in Yaesu HT's please teach me the software interfaces!!! sincerely, cheers, judojoe Joe D. Phillips (KD8GND), 7th Dan Headmaster AGSS (USMA Affiliated) The Goshinkan Institute P. O. Box 30263 Columbus, Ohio 43230 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]