'All comfy in the chair here, glasses on, oh-hey there! W4BNQ, Peggy Roland here. Welcome to my little corner of Ham Radio Heaven- hee hee- That is amateur radio, one of my favourite hobbies and passtimes. I'm a techie-hee hee!' Great to have you with us. How did you find us? 'Well when I got word that one of my all-time favourite YouTubers, Fran Blance, had made an appearance or two here in the gallery I just had to stop in and introduce myself to you all. Great people here! Fran's one of my all-time favourite techies.' We love Fran as well and are so glad she came along. How long have you been in the Ham radio hobby? 'Got my ticket back when I was just barely a teenager and old enough to vote and I've always loved the hobby. In fact my husband and I have always been in the hobby, this here is my simplified, howsewive version of a ham radio rig. Simplified for the living room's sake and just general, quick and easy acces to the ham bands, general DX-ing and making contact with the occasional CQ from halfway around the world. Hope ya like.' What was your first rig that got you introduced to the hobby? 'An old Halicrafters S... 40, I believe, RX unit, received exceptionally well with just a straightware and good ground. The bands were really active back then, much-much more so than these days.' What-chya got there for a rig? 'This transciever along with the antenna and signal strength/SWR metre unit here are from Cofleck. I got an old CW key stowed away back here kinda to the right of the TXcvr, kinda tucked away for the time being but occasionally and as a ham I do CW.' What's the significance of the amateur radio hobby that people should know? 'Amateur radio is the original, electronic Social Media. It's a way people can connect and communicate, share news, ideas and important information. The ham bands, and shortwave radio in general, are still the old standby when other modes of communications fail, thereby could and has served to save lives. That's the power of radio.' Huge. What's a good way anyone interested could get started to the hobby? 'Grab a fairly good shortwave receive unit, even many of the portable RX units out there do well for general DX-ing and scanning the band, tuning into, literally, the World. There's a vast world of entertainment and fascination available to the SWL'er, or ShortWave Listener. Hours of fun and a world of airwaves to be explored. Remember though, whle many of the better shortwave receivers do well on their own with thust the built-in antenna they have but a simple, exterior antenna and good Earth ground will undoubtedly make that receiver come right alive.' What do you have for an antenna on your rig? 'Well since I TX, I have an Isotron ISO 30 antenna, built for the 30 metre band since that's the part of the spectrum I TX on but the ISO is good for RX on all frequencies.' Fascinating. Well, Peggy, we'll be scanning the SW bands now that you've piqued our curiosity and we'll no doubt be listening for you out there as well. 73's. '73s and 88s. Glad we've made this connection.'