Personal Ham Radio Milestones

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 — 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 Matthew’s 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.
• 2026-05-04 — 3,000th POTA QSO, logged at US-3711 (Weeks Bay) — plus the first two Meteor Scatter POTA QSOs ever, during the same activation. The specific stations for those two aren’t 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 — possibly one of the “first two” MS POTA QSOs noted the next day, though not confirmed as such in the post text.
• 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.
• 2026-03-08 — 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).
• 2026-01-23 — 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.
• 2025-08-02 — Daily CW practice with the CW Studio app, working 10-20 WPM while hunting POTA activators.
• 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 — POTA activation from the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park: worked ZL1CZ in New Zealand on 10 meters SSB via grayline propagation, 7,923 miles (12,751 km) radio to radio.
• 2024-09-24 — First-ever 10 meter FM contact: worked K5BLS (DM09OL), 1,890 miles away.
• AMSAT, linear satellites — first contacts via ICOM IC-9700 and Arrow antenna. Exact date not found after a targeted X search (2026-07); update if the original post turns up.
• AMSAT, FM satellites — first contacts via Kenwood TH-D72A and Elk antenna. Exact date not found after a targeted X search (2026-07); update if the original post turns up.
• First POTA activation — first Parks on the Air activation, followed by a permanent 100-watt HOA-compliant HF setup.
• First HF contacts — Yaesu FT-891 with a Wolf River Coil, portable: worked 6 states and the Caribbean islands on the first test.
• Extra Class license earned, after two months of study.
• 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.
• 2022-06-22 — Licensed as AE4JC. First mobile ham radio QSOs: worked KG4CAP, KN4DND, and NF4J using a Baofeng UV5R with an adhesive window-mount antenna.

More categories on the way — POTA gets its own dedicated pass next, since each area of the hobby has different context. This page will keep growing as that comes in.