LA4CIA

A picture of my shack as it was before I started my flying carrier. Sad to say there is not much left of this shack now. Almost all my transceivers are now broke and needs repair. All this is for the moment set on hold, as I spend my surplus money on aviation. But, as Arnold Svartseneger puts it: "I'll be back!"

In Norway, as in many other countries, it is possible to attain radio amateur licenses. These licenses give the holder different rights, depending on the complexity of knowledge and skill shown on the exams. The "LA" prefix, indicates that the license holder is from Norway, and that he/she has the highest level of license. The "LA" license is a; "allowed to do it all," license! Yepp folks! Go for the top! Later you can choose what part of the hobby you find most rewarding.

"What part of the hobby"? What is there to do? And more importantly, why in the world does anybody continue on with this "fossil/outdated" hobby now that the Web, E-mail, and cellular-phones is accessible to everybody?

Now, that's a hard one to answer, but I'll try. I can start with asking an other question. Why does mountaineers go through all the fuss of climbing the side of a mountain with ropes etc. when you can easily get to the top with a helicopter? If you ask a mountaineer why he climbs mountains, he will probably answer something like: "because it is there..."! OK, so it is the presses of getting to the top , doing it yourself part, that is rewarding. So what I'm trying to say is that radio-amateurs do not use the radio just because they need to communicate with somebody. We have the phone, fax, e-mail etc. for that. We use, build, and experiment with radios because it fascinates us! It is challenging, you have to use your knowledge and skills, and when you achieve an intermediate goal it is simply immensely rewarding.

Some of the boys in the "radio-amateur class" at the club house in Oslo (LA4O). The teacher in electronics at the center, behind the brown bottle. (By the way, the contents of this bottle does not contain any alcohol! No need to get shocked here!)

 

Some more boys in the "radio-amateur class" at the club house in Oslo (LA4O). The picture is taken in the brake time. Notice (now LA3FIA) sitting in the middle, shoving in on the cake. OK, they look like pro's here, but this was some of the first few feeble steps!

 

GETTING THE BUG! Here I am as a kid, watching my father (OA8CL) talking on the HF radio. While living in the Amazon of Peru, the HF radio was our ONLY link to the world! A 3.6 kW Lister generator produced the power for this old "tube-rig"

 

My satellite station (in the back to the left) on a field day. The computer is there to automatically and continually steer the antennas toward the satellite as it zooms over the sky. At the very front (wearing headsets) Rune (LA7UCA) is tuning in something interesting on the HF rig. A petrol-generator supplies the equipment with "juice".

 

This is a picture of the my satellite antennas, including the two rotors from Yaesu. As you probably already figured, this is also on field day. Yepp, I agree! Not a good picture of the antennas, but the best I could muster right now!