Rosemary, You already did the hard part, now you are off in search of the fun part... After you passed your test the volunteer examiner sent your application with their endorsement to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). Within about 2 to 4 weeks you will receive a letter from the FCC with your actual license. Your call sign will be printed on the license form. When you get the letter from the FCC you will see that is has both a Station License, which should be framed and hung in your radio shack, and a wallet size that you must have on your person when operating ham radio transmitters. Now to answer your question on how to find an Elmer. Contact the ARRL via email and tell they you just passed your test, still awaiting your "Ticket" and you would like ot meet an elmer or get info on the local radio club in your area. Contact the volunteer examiner who gave you your exam. He/she will be able to set you up with somebody or at least tell you when & where your local Ham Radio Club meets. Stop by your local Red Cross chapter house and talk to their emergency service director. Whenever a major disaster occurs generally the local electrical service and commercial commnunications systems are knocked out so the Red Cross works very close with hams to be able to get a commincations network up and running immediately. In addition to home stations most hams have radio equipment in their vehicles so if a disaster occurs a ham could drive up and provide world wide commnunications within moments. In fact, after most major disasters the only news we get for the first day or two is via ham radio. Now to answer your question, where do you get the equipment? Sadly, due to the high cost of the equipment and the limited market ham radio dealers are few and far beteen. When the FCC issues your license they will also notify a number of dealers who will be sending you catalogs, but I would strongly advise you to hold off buying anything until you meet someone who can help you select what you need. For the moment I would encourage you to look for a 2meter Hand Held Transceiver. With that you could add a mobile cigarette light cord and a mobile antenna, then you could use that radio both as a hand held portable or a mobile in your car. You could also get a small 12volt power supply and a base antenna and use that radio at home. You can find brand new 2meter handheld transceivers on Ebay for about $150 to $200 and that would be all you need to get started. (I would not encourage you to buy a used radio on Ebay until you know a bit more about them, but if you meet someone in your local club who has a used rig they will sell cheap ask them to give you a working demonstration and if it works grab it.) When you contact the ARRL you should also order a copy of the ARRL Repeater Directory. The ARRL Repeater Directory is a small vest pocket sized book that lists all the VHF & UHF repeaters in the USA. You can then look up locations near where you live, or along your route when traveling and find the operating frequencies of the repeater towers. VHF & UHF is what is called "line of sight" communications, which means your range is to the optical horizon plus about 20%. In order to extend the range we have a newtwork of repeaters set up on high elevations or towers which will allow you an average of 75miles or more with a simple hand held radio. Keep in mind that is 75miles from you to the tower but you could also be talking to someone that is 75miles from the opposite side for a total of 150miles (In open terraine such as Texas, Oklahoma or the southwestern desert the range is sometimes 300 miles or more.) Actually hams started using repeaters back in the late 50's and it took ma bell well into the 80's before they copied the technology to give us cell phones. In fact, nearly all ham repeaters have a "Phone Patch". You key your transmitter and say...This is (your call sign) opening the patch, then hit the * on your radio keypad. Release your transmit button and you will hear a dialtone, now key your radio, punch in a phone number for a phone that is within the local dialing range of the tower and you make a phone call, then when finished you announce you are closing the patch and hit the # key, the patch is off. The limitation is that the number you call must be a local number from the repeater tower and it must be a personal phone. You may not call a business, but the up side is, the call is free.. Actually it is not exactly free. In ham radio it is considered a matter of respect to be a member of your local "Repeater Association" at about $30/yr (the ham radio club) and it is an unwritten rule that when your traveling you may use another clubs repeater.

OMG I'm so excited you have no idea. We've been eating burgers, pizza, and chinese for 8 weeks. If I never see another grilled "anything" it will be too soon. We cooked tonight on the cooktop even without the hood in and used the oven. We went to the grocery and I only bought meals for this week that don't normally use a deep fryer or microwave or grill. I got ingredients for chicken n dumplings, spaghetti and meatballs, a really good potroast, and meatloaf with brown beans, collards with ham, and cornbread. lol It was soooo cool to be able to spread out and work. I am also going to make biscuits in the morning, and country ham and sausage gravy. And omelets maybe.. I dunno, depends on who I can wake up and entice to the table. I need to take a class in order to learn how to operate the appliances.

What a beautiful little girl Joan....those are some killer eyes shes got there..... ~Kathy~

For ham-wrapped asparagus bundles, those slices in the pics above are too thick. Very thin sliced ham, even shaved, is a better foil for asparagus even if you have to use several of thinner slices. IMO tavern ham is the best, nothing sweet or "honey" flavored. Asparagus, ham and poached egg makes a lovely first course.