Update from KN4YQL In Spartanburg, S.C. (AL Post 28)

Since we started working from our HAM Shack at Post 28, we have made contacts with 18 other posts. Most all of these were made by the Mt. Mitchell, N.C., the N2GE repeater at 145.190, and sometimes through EchoLink.
In the last three weeks, our Thursday communications has made six new ‘First Time Contacts.’ I will be sending these new contacts our QSL card. I also participate with our honor guard for veteran funerals, and last week I participated with one on Thursday. This was a mistake! One of our radio operators saw we didn’t have anyone answering the phone, so he stayed upstairs doing that. This left our check-in contacts neglected, with many of our regular contacts missing our Thursday net. With that, I advised our commander I wouldn’t be doing honor guard activities on Thursdays.
On my search for a designated SSB frequency to declare our net operations: I failed to find any frequency unused. Other groups can come in on top of our communications on any day we work it. So I found a group who has graciously welcomed me to join in with them! I assured them our check-ins shouldn’t be that many during our two-hour net time. This will be at 3.856 on 75M. (And I forgot to determine the SSB we were using. I’ll update that in my next e-mail.)
I received some good news today! The bathroom downstairs has been out of service for several years because of a blocked drain line. Today, we had a crew come in and determine the location of the blocked drain with an estimated repair cost of $750. With this, we may have an operating bathroom downstairs where our HAM Shack is located. This will help with interesting other HAM radio operators to consider joining us! We are set up so our radio operators can come in at any time to work our KN4YQL station without disturbing the security system in the rest of our building. We are locked off from that. We’ll have a bathroom and kitchen area in our basement area. I feel the bathroom being inoperable has discouraged more radio operators from joining us.

For KN4YQL, Calvin Bridges – KJ4HGT