N5LZX- Mike's Ham Radio Page

Welcome to Mike's ham radio page!

My Callsign: N5LZX

Yes, it's true. I'm a "ham", or amateur radio operator! I started in radio by talking on CB in north Dallas in the early 1980's. I went by the handle "Moon Man" because when I actually made a solid contact the person asked who I was and it caught me off guard so I just said the Man in the Moon. Well I met a lot of good people over CB (channel 12 almost exclusively). I gained antenna experience and got a good feel for radio by using CB for about 7 years. I also got exposed to a lot of ham equipment by going to the Dallas swap meet that met the first Saturday of the month downtown under a long elevated highway. In the latter part of the 1980's this event hosted more computer than radio stuff and seemed to go downhill.

In college at UT Austin I saw the radio club W5EHM (now N5XU) set up at a table on campus at an event one day, demonstrating amateur radio. I bought the ARRL Novice book, studied for several weeks, then passed the test. I got my Novice license in 1988 with call KB5CSU. I spent about 3 years operating HF, VHF, and packet from the shack on top of Woolrich labs (WRW) on campus. My favorite thing about ham radio was operating mobile in the car, or on foot while walking around campus. There was this really cool repeater on top of Dobie Mall that had a digital S-meter that would tell you how strong your signal was, and would record your voice and play it back so you can hear how good or bad your audio was. This seemed very advanced for 1988!

In 1991, after I graduated college and moved back to Dallas, I upgraded to Technician and got my current callsign of N5LZX. I had my 5 wpm code from when I studied for my Novice so I became a Tech Plus when the rules changed. I worked several MS-150 events while living in the Dallas area. That was great getting out on the highway in Oklahoma and using ham radio in the middle of nowhere. It was a great system we had set up. Communications for the event was usually coordinated by the Garland Amateur Radio Club, which I joined. I went to Hamcom several times, and even Dayton in 1995. Man, Dayton is overwhelming! You could spend several days looking everything over.

In 2000 I moved to Houston and joined the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club, then the Galveston County Emergency Communications Group (GCECG) shortly after. I became the Director of the GCECG in 2006. It helps the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management with communicating emergency traffic if other forms of communications are lost. We are almost always activated if a hurricane looks like it's coming our way. I upgraded to General class in September of 2007, but still have the callsign N5LZX.

My current ham equipment consists of a Kenwood TM-G707A dual-bander which I use in my car, and a Kantronics KPC-3 connected to a Kenwood TM-241A VHF radio on the desk in my office. I have an Icom T-22A handie talkie for foot-mobile operations. My packet station is on the air 24 hrs/day on 145.050 going into my dual-band J-Pole on the roof. I have a Discone in the attic, which covers everything above 30 MHz for my scanners, or a transciever if I need another antenna on which to transmit.

These are my good friends whom I have met through CB and ham radio:

Aubrey Hawkins	KC5USI (deceased)
Daniel Rutledge	not licensed
Dan Burget	N5NCA
Army Curtis	AE5P
Joe Wileman	AA5OP
Louis Petit	WB5BMB

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