My name is Daniel Sanchez. I became a ham because I wanted to be ready. For years I have lived thinking that nothing will ever happen to me. I lived day by day doing the normal things that people do. Then 911 happened. I started to think about what I would be able to do in an emergency, I had no idea. So that’s when I started to do some planning and figure out what I needed to be ready.
Due to the economy in early 2009 I was unemployed and was not able to find work for about 3 years. During this time I went back to school and study a few other topics and programming languages. On October 11, 2009 I received my Technician Class license. I joined a local radio club (WPBARC) and starting playing with the new hobby.
When you live in Florida where you have a hurricane season for 6 month out of the year, you need to always be ready. When a Skywarn Class was being offered I decided it was time to become a certified skywarn storm spotter. I received my spotter ID on June 12, 2010. Less than a month later a Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) course was being offered. After completing the required classes I received my C.E.R.T. on July 28, 2010.
Along the way I built and tested many different antennas from a standard ground planes to a 3 element yagi. I have participated in a few events like the March of Dimes and the CROSWalk. I enjoy playing with D-Star and now HSMM, I hope to get the two modes connected to provide digital data in the case of an emergency.
Between August 2010 and late July 2011 I was the Net Control Station (NCS) for the WPBARC Ragchew Net. This was an open net and was held every Tuesday night, 7:30pm – 8pm. Along the way I started studying for my General License. I was not in a real hurry to get it until I soon found out that the ARRL was changing the questions for the General test in the beginning of 2012. Not wanting to repurchase a new book I decided to find a class and take my General test. I passed with one wrong on May 8, 2012.
- Technician License 10/11/2009
- Skywarn 6/12/2010
- Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) 7/28/2010
- WPBARC Ragchew Net (Net Control Station) August 2010 – August 2011
- General License 5/8/2011