Personal Ham Radio Milestones and History

Achievements and firsts, most recent first. Sourced directly from real X posts where marked with a link — dates, distances, and callsigns are as posted at the time.

• 2026-06-28 — Summer Field Day 2026 (June 27–28) at Camp Silvercreek in Silverhill, Alabama — QRV for AMSAT and ARRL Field Day as N4MZ 2A AL EM60. The weekend’s standout moment wasn’t mine: W5LFL (Margaret), a brand-new ham, made her first-ever satellite contact, logging the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s K4BFT through AO-7. Ahead of the event I put together a bandpass filter installation and best-practices guide for groups running multiple stations off shared antennas — the interference problem every multi-transmitter Field Day site runs into.
• 2026-06-28 — New ham’s first satellite contact at N4MZ Summer Field Day (2A AL EM60), Camp Silvercreek, Silverhill, AL: W5LFL (Margaret) made her first-ever satellite contact, logging Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s K4BFT (296 mi away) via AO-7. A Field Day highlight, not my own first — dad N4WBF and brother were there too, CW practice happening alongside.
• 2026-06-19 — ISS ARISS pass, received live from South Alabama (EM60): receive-only reception of the YOTA Camp 2026 ARISS contact with astronaut Chris Williams, KJ5GEW, followed by a full-pass livestream. Not a two-way QSO — a successful RX catch of a rare scheduled school contact.
• 2026-06-07 — First set of CW paddles, and learning to call CQ in Morse code at 15 WPM.
• 2026-05-18 — CW as a lifestyle: daily Morse practice and POTA hunting, working toward being fully conversational on CW.
• 2026-05-09 — First QSO through a new 6m bandpass filter, via MSK144 Meteor Scatter with KA6U in Florida (379 mi), while testing the new filter.
• 2026-05-03 — 3,000th POTA QSO, logged at US-3711 (Weeks Bay) — plus the first two Meteor Scatter POTA QSOs ever, during the same activation. One of those two is confirmed as W9VHF via W9VHF’s own public ClubLog record (AE4JC, 2026-05-03, 6m, MSK144); the second station isn’t identified in the post text, only visible in the attached WSJT-X screenshots — not claiming more precision than that.
• 2026-05-03 — MSK144 Meteor Scatter POTA QSO with W9VHF (Indiana), from US-3711 (Weeks Bay) during the Eta Aquarids period — confirmed as one of the “first two” MS POTA QSOs logged that day via W9VHF’s own public ClubLog record.
• 2026-04-19 — 6m MSK144 Meteor Scatter contact with W5LDA (Oklahoma, grid EM15XU, 598.5 mi) — a standalone meteor scatter contact, not part of a POTA activation.
• 2026-04-06 — RaDAR Rally: man-pack portable HF using a Xeigu G90 and Buddistick Pro. Finished 2nd/3rd with KQ4TPD (chose fresh grilled food over an earlier start). Also worked 5 QSOs on 52 simplex during the event.
• 2026-03-22 — 2m SSB POTA activation with an Elk Antenna from US-3711 (Weeks Bay), rigged on a portable mast during good VHF conditions: 10 stations worked.
• 2026-03-08 — DX to New Zealand and the Mariana Islands on 10m SSB: ZM4T (New Zealand, IOTA OC-036, grid RF80LF, ~7,780 mi) and KH0/KC0W (Mariana Islands, IOTA OC-086, grid QK25VF, ~7,672 mi).
• 2026-02-27 — N4MZ Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club finished 1st out of 53 entries in Alabama, and 13th out of 2,537 entries overall, in the 2026 Winter Field Day event. Already planning improvements for next year.
• 2026-01-29 — Winter Field Day 2026 recap: a strong turnout of campers and overnighters (Jarrod, Henry, Mike, Ken, myself, and others), 9 of 12 Band Bonus achieved, solid VHF & Up efforts, new antenna deployments, coordination with Westminster Village Club (AB4WV), and roving contacts with K4JOM. Weather challenges were overcome with good HF representation. Lessons learned for next year: a 160m antenna, 220/900/1.2 GHz improvements, and better portability.
• 2026-01-23 — First load-out of mostly AMSAT satellite gear for Winter Field Day 2026 — multiple antennas and radios dedicated to portable satellite operating.
• 2025-12-10 — Shifted CW practice strategy toward head copy, aiming to master copying Morse in the head rather than writing it down.
• 2025-10-12 — First-ever EME moonbounce decodes, with NC1I doing the heavy lifting and HB9Q also decoded on 23cm the night before. A feedline connection issue was fixed along the way; decodes came via a WSJT-X-style digital mode.
• 2025-10-10 — First attempt at EME “moonbounce,” with a lot of help from W3IPA — a 1296 MHz (23cm) loop antenna setup, barefoot IC-9700, no decodes yet. More detail from a later recap: only one or two big-gun stations were receivable with this antenna, and a full QSO wasn’t possible with it — a folding dish came later, with an amplifier planned next for more power and gain.
• 2025-08-02 — Daily CW practice with the CW Studio app, working 10-20 WPM while hunting POTA activators.
• 2025-07-07 — Completed the 13 Colonies clean sweep by logging K2G. It was more difficult than expected — a real lesson in propagation, spotting, and antenna performance (switched from 17m FT8 to 40m SSB to finally land it). Plans to do it again next year.
• 2025-06-29 — Summer Field Day 2025 (June 28–29) with the N4MZ crew — 11 satellite QSOs on RS-44, AO-123 and JO-97, plus sitting up at 1:00 am waiting on the International Space Station. My assignments for the weekend were satellites, the GOTA station, VHF contacts, and talk-in through the local repeater. Lightning had its say again: operations went on hold and everything came unplugged mid-afternoon. Prep worth repeating — a quick-connect added to a tripod to carry the G-5500 satellite rotator, the tripod itself a Goodwill find and the quick-connect made from two Marshalltown concrete float pole sections.
• 2025-05-21 — QRP CW practice attempt during a Wyoming activation.
• 2025-05-03 — First confirmed POTA CW contact, after months of practice — three years earlier, working CW had seemed impossible.
• 2025-01-29 — Got a Quantum Spectrum DSP gadget and began dedicated daily CW transmit/receive practice.
• 2025-01-26 — Winter Field Day 2025 (January 25–26), operating as N4MZ 2I AL — and it very nearly didn’t happen on schedule. South Alabama had taken a once-in-a-lifetime snowfall days earlier, with a county state of emergency and I-10 eastbound closed at exit 44. The satellite array went up on snow anyway. Highlights: an SSB satellite contact through RS-44 thanks to N2FYA (John), K4LLL running one of the N4MZ stations, and a contact through AO-07 — a satellite over 50 years old. The modified Hastings fiberglass quick-connect poles built to carry the satellite antennas worked great.
• 2024-11-04 — Short trips to the park for digital ham radio practice, getting comfortable with modes and setups — noted as the first POTA QSO with JS8Call.
• 2025 — KQ4TPD worked ZL1CZ in New Zealand on 10 meters SSB via grayline propagation, 7,923 miles (12,751 km) radio to radio, during a POTA activation from the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. A friend’s contact, shared here — not my own.
• 2024-09-24 — First-ever 10 meter FM contact: worked K5BLS (DM09OL), 1,890 miles away.
• 2024-06-23 — Summer Field Day 2024 (June 22–23) at camp with the Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club — club call N4MZ, Get On The Air call WB4EMA. The satellite station ran from EM60, waiting out SO-50 and other passes through the weekend. Best hard lesson of the event: running a battery down to nothing for the first time ever and switching to the gasoline generator to recharge — Field Day earning its keep as an exercise in finding equipment limits. Prep included RS-44 QSOs from EM60 the week before and solving how to haul the satellite antenna using the bottom section of a hitch pole. The weekend’s highlight belonged to someone else: Joel (W2BJN) made his first-ever satellite QSO on RS-44 after most of the site had packed up.
• 2024-06-23 — The N4MZ crew stayed after most had packed up to cheer on Joel (W2BJN) making his first-ever satellite QSO via CW on RS-44 — a few hiccups along the way, but it came together. One of the most enjoyable moments of Field Day, even though it didn’t count for score. Not my own contact.
• 2024-05-10 — 63 contacts in 49 minutes on 20m SSB during a POTA activation of the USS Alabama Battleship Park, despite poor HF conditions — worked across the United States.
• 2024-04-28 — Unexpected DX during a morning POTA activation at US-3711 (Weeks Bay): worked VK3YV in Australia (QF31au, 9,360.6 mi) on 20m SSB.
• 2024-03-23 — First-time activation of Chewacla State Park (US-1038), during a visit to Auburn, Alabama.
• First HF contacts — Yaesu FT-891 with a Wolf River Coil, portable: worked 6 states and the Caribbean islands on the first test.
• 2024-01-28 — Winter Field Day 2024 (January 27–28) with the Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club (N4MZ) opened with a wet start in South Alabama — dodging lightning, plugging and unplugging as each wave came through. Once the weather let up I ran one of the club stations for a couple of hours, and a contact through FUNcube-1 (AO-73) went out on an Arrow antenna and IC-9700 — with FOX10 on site filming as it happened. Prep for the weekend included testing the portable station (two QSOs on 146.520) and guying a portable mast using Erik NonIdle’s method. Takeaways: quiet, long-running generators, connectors organized in a tackle box, and a Buddipole among the seven-plus antennas on site.
• 2023-09-08 — Beginnings of AMSAT for me, linear satellites: after figuring out RIT on the IC-9700, a contact through RS-44 at the end of a pass, with a SAT device — thanks to WM3O for the QSO. Earliest linear-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not explicitly logged as a “first” at the time, so treated as the earliest on record rather than a confirmed first.
• 2023-06-25 — Summer Field Day 2023 (June 24–25) was my first attempt at working satellites with the club — FM HT capability only at the time, and no idea how crowded the birds get on Field Day weekend. It took most of the night; the contact finally came in the early hours of the morning, thanks to WA0POD answering the call. Station prep in the days before: TEVEL-2 and TEVEL-6 worked full-duplex with a Kenwood TH-D72 HT, Arrow antenna and a ~30 W BTECH AMP-V25, a first-ever LilacSat-2 (CAS-3H) contact, and TEVEL-3’s FM transponder switched on for the weekend. Recounted from posts written after the fact — the contemporaneous Field Day posts are thin for this one.
• 2024 — Mobile station upgraded to Yaesu FTM-300D and FT-891. First eBay project radio (ICOM IC-255A) brought online. VHF band opening reached stations in Alabama, Mississippi (246 mi), and Texas (621 mi) on 146.520 FM simplex.
• 2023-02-05 — Beginnings of AMSAT for me, FM satellites: a QSO through the ISS FM repeater, 2/5/2023 UTC 15:34-15:45, copying WA0D (EM12) and KL4PDI (EL99) — logged at the time as my first successful AMSAT QSO. Earliest FM-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not independently confirmed as the literal first, but nothing earlier turned up.
• 2022-11-19 — Granted the vanity callsign AE4JC (Amateur Extra), replacing KQ4AWC.
• 2022-09-30 — First-ever Parks on the Air activation, as KQ4AWC, at Meaher State Park (US-1047) — 85 phone QSOs logged. Confirmed via pota.app activation history, sorted oldest-first.
• 2022-09-07 — Upgraded to Amateur Extra class, still under KQ4AWC, after about two months of study following the General upgrade.
• 2022-07-05 — Upgraded from Technician to General class, still under KQ4AWC.
• 2022-06-22 — First mobile ham radio QSOs, as KQ4AWC: worked KG4CAP, KN4DND, and NF4J using a Baofeng UV5R with an adhesive window-mount antenna.
• 2022-05-27 — Licensed by the FCC as KQ4AWC, Technician class — the original callsign, later upgraded through General and Amateur Extra before switching to AE4JC.

This page will keep growing as more comes in. The AMSAT FM and linear entries below are the earliest successes found in a 2026-07 X archive search, worded as ‘beginnings of’ rather than a flat ‘first’ — the FM one was actually logged as a first at the time, the linear one wasn’t, and ‘beginnings of’ covers both without overclaiming the second.