My name is Pablo and if you are an amateur radio operator, you know me as K6YES. In this post, I share the K6YES intro to amateur radio as a kid in Puerto Rico. I have been fascinated by radio communications for as long as I can remember – all the way back to my first set of walkie-talkies when I was 5 years old. My interest in antennas started shortly after with my first radio – a one-speaker Panasonic AM/FM radio – when I learned I could hear new stations by connecting cables of different lengths to the built-in antenna. I was seven or eight when I opened the Panasonic to tinker inside to hear radio stations farther away. My Panasonic radio never worked the same again!
A friend of my father found me stringing cables all over the yard and introduced me to a thing called CB radio – he owned a CB radio. I wanted one but my parents didn’t have that kind of money to spare. Later that year in 1979, my uncle Jim (AA6JJ) came to Puerto Rico to visit the family and officially completed the K6YES intro to amateur radio. It was fascinating to watch him make contacts with his fancy radio and a vertical antenna in the backyard – his mini-DXpedition. It was exciting to see him make contacts with amateur radio operators all over the world. Thank you, Jim (AA6JJ) for introducing me to this wonderful hobby!
I saved money from my chores and was able to finally buy my first CB radio at age 12 – a Craig with 23 channels. I can still remember the new smell. I loved my little Craig but I soon found out there were more channels to play with…so, I saved again and bought a Cobra 148 GTL. I built many antennas for the Cobra throughout my teens…some performed decent like my dipole made of EMT conduit…while others failed miserably. Many were made from whatever metallic tubing and materials I could find…and many simply broke on the way up or shortly after.
The hobby was placed on hold as I graduated high school, got married, and raised a family. I returned many years later to tinker with radios and antennas – this time with my own FCC-issued amateur radio operator license and a Kenwood TS-440 radio. But it would not last. The hobby was placed on hold for years at a time – returning with an Icom 746 Pro at one time and currently with an Elecraft K3S – my best radio thus far. My kids are grown and I am no longer raising a family…so, I am hoping to finally operate at a time other than the bottom of the solar cycle. Yes, as life would have it, I have always missed the top of the solar cycle.
These days you will find me almost exclusively in the FT-8 mode. The perfect mode for the bottom of the solar cycle. I enjoy FT-8 but can’t wait to finally make some contacts during the top of the cycle…sometime between 2023 and 2026. Must not move…
73s, K6YES.