Personal Ham Radio Milestones and History

Achievements and firsts, most recent first. Sourced directly from real X posts where marked with a link — dates, distances, and callsigns are as posted at the time.

• 2026-06-28 — New ham’s first satellite contact at N4MZ Summer Field Day (2A AL EM60), Camp Silvercreek, Silverhill, AL: W5LFL (Margaret) made her first-ever satellite contact, logging Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s K4BFT (296 mi away) via AO-7. A Field Day highlight, not Matthew’s own first — dad N4WBF and brother were there too, CW practice happening alongside.
• 2026-06-19 — ISS ARISS pass, received live from South Alabama (EM60): receive-only reception of the YOTA Camp 2026 ARISS contact with astronaut Chris Williams, KJ5GEW, followed by a full-pass livestream. Not a two-way QSO — a successful RX catch of a rare scheduled school contact.
• 2026-06-07 — First set of CW paddles , and learning to call CQ in Morse code at 15 WPM.
• 2026-05-18 — CW as a lifestyle : daily Morse practice and POTA hunting, working toward being fully conversational on CW.
• 2026-05-09 — First QSO through a new 6m bandpass filter , via MSK144 Meteor Scatter with KA6U in Florida (379 mi), while testing the new filter.
• 2026-05-03 — 3,000th POTA QSO , logged at US-3711 (Weeks Bay) — plus the first two Meteor Scatter POTA QSOs ever, during the same activation. One of those two is confirmed as W9VHF via W9VHF’s own public ClubLog record (AE4JC, 2026-05-03, 6m, MSK144); the second station isn’t identified in the post text, only visible in the attached WSJT-X screenshots — not claiming more precision than that.
• 2026-05-03 — MSK144 Meteor Scatter POTA QSO with W9VHF (Indiana), from US-3711 (Weeks Bay) during the Eta Aquarids period — confirmed as one of the “first two” MS POTA QSOs logged that day via W9VHF’s own public ClubLog record.
• 2026-04-19 — 6m MSK144 Meteor Scatter contact with W5LDA (Oklahoma, grid EM15XU, 598.5 mi) — a standalone meteor scatter contact, not part of a POTA activation.
• 2026-04-06 — RaDAR Rally : man-pack portable HF using a Xeigu G90 and Buddistick Pro. Finished 2nd/3rd with KQ4TPD (chose fresh grilled food over an earlier start). Also worked 5 QSOs on 52 simplex during the event.
• 2026-03-22 — 2m SSB POTA activation with an Elk Antenna from US-3711 (Weeks Bay), rigged on a portable mast during good VHF conditions: 10 stations worked.
• 2026-03-08 — DX to New Zealand and the Mariana Islands on 10m SSB: ZM4T (New Zealand, IOTA OC-036, grid RF80LF, ~7,780 mi) and KH0/KC0W (Mariana Islands, IOTA OC-086, grid QK25VF, ~7,672 mi).
• 2026-02-27 — N4MZ Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club finished 1st out of 53 entries in Alabama, and 13th out of 2,537 entries overall, in the 2026 Winter Field Day event. Already planning improvements for next year.
• 2026-01-29 — Winter Field Day 2026 recap : a strong turnout of campers and overnighters (Jarrod, Henry, Mike, Ken, Matthew, and others), 9 of 12 Band Bonus achieved, solid VHF & Up efforts, new antenna deployments, coordination with Westminster Village Club (AB4WV), and roving contacts with K4JOM. Weather challenges were overcome with good HF representation. Lessons learned for next year: a 160m antenna, 220/900/1.2 GHz improvements, and better portability.
• 2026-01-23 — First load-out of mostly AMSAT satellite gear for Winter Field Day 2026 — multiple antennas and radios dedicated to portable satellite operating.
• 2025-12-10 — Shifted CW practice strategy toward head copy , aiming to master copying Morse in the head rather than writing it down.
• 2025-10-12 — First-ever EME moonbounce decodes , with NC1I doing the heavy lifting and HB9Q also decoded on 23cm the night before. A feedline connection issue was fixed along the way; decodes came via a WSJT-X-style digital mode.
• 2025-10-10 — First attempt at EME “moonbounce,” with a lot of help from W3IPA — a 1296 MHz (23cm) loop antenna setup, barefoot IC-9700, no decodes yet. More detail from a later recap : only one or two big-gun stations were receivable with this antenna, and a full QSO wasn’t possible with it — a folding dish came later, with an amplifier planned next for more power and gain.
• 2025-08-02 — Daily CW practice with the CW Studio app , working 10-20 WPM while hunting POTA activators.
• 2025-07-07 — Completed the 13 Colonies clean sweep by logging K2G. It was more difficult than expected — a real lesson in propagation, spotting, and antenna performance (switched from 17m FT8 to 40m SSB to finally land it). Plans to do it again next year.
• 2025-05-21 — QRP CW practice attempt during a Wyoming activation .
• 2025-05-03 — First confirmed POTA CW contact , after months of practice — three years earlier, working CW had seemed impossible.
• 2025-01-29 — Got a Quantum Spectrum DSP gadget and began dedicated daily CW transmit/receive practice.
• 2024-11-04 — Short trips to the park for digital ham radio practice , getting comfortable with modes and setups — noted as the first POTA QSO with JS8Call.
• 2025 — KQ4TPD worked ZL1CZ in New Zealand on 10 meters SSB via grayline propagation, 7,923 miles (12,751 km) radio to radio, during a POTA activation from the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. A friend’s contact, shared here — not Matthew’s own.
• 2024-09-24 — First-ever 10 meter FM contact : worked K5BLS (DM09OL), 1,890 miles away.
• 2024-06-23 — The N4MZ crew stayed after most had packed up to cheer on Joel (W2BJN) making his first-ever satellite QSO via CW on RS-44 — a few hiccups along the way, but it came together. One of the most enjoyable moments of Field Day, even though it didn’t count for score. Not Matthew’s own contact.
• 2024-05-10 — 63 contacts in 49 minutes on 20m SSB during a POTA activation of the USS Alabama Battleship Park, despite poor HF conditions — worked across the United States.
• 2024-04-28 — Unexpected DX during a morning POTA activation at US-3711 (Weeks Bay): worked VK3YV in Australia (QF31au, 9,360.6 mi) on 20m SSB.
• 2024-03-23 — First-time activation of Chewacla State Park (US-1038), during a visit to Auburn, Alabama.
• First HF contacts — Yaesu FT-891 with a Wolf River Coil, portable: worked 6 states and the Caribbean islands on the first test.
• 2023-09-08 — Beginnings of AMSAT for Matthew, linear satellites : after figuring out RIT on the IC-9700, a contact through RS-44 at the end of a pass, with a SAT device — thanks to WM3O for the QSO. Earliest linear-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not explicitly logged as a “first” at the time, so treated as the earliest on record rather than a confirmed first.
• 2024 — Mobile station upgraded to Yaesu FTM-300D and FT-891. First eBay project radio (ICOM IC-255A) brought online. VHF band opening reached stations in Alabama, Mississippi (246 mi), and Texas (621 mi) on 146.520 FM simplex.
• 2023-02-05 — Beginnings of AMSAT for Matthew, FM satellites : a QSO through the ISS FM repeater, 2/5/2023 UTC 15:34-15:45, copying WA0D (EM12) and KL4PDI (EL99) — logged at the time as his first successful AMSAT QSO. Earliest FM-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not independently confirmed as the literal first, but nothing earlier turned up.
• 2022-11-19 — Granted the vanity callsign AE4JC (Amateur Extra), replacing KQ4AWC.
• 2022-09-30 — First-ever Parks on the Air activation, as KQ4AWC, at Meaher State Park (US-1047) — 85 phone QSOs logged. Confirmed via pota.app activation history, sorted oldest-first.
• 2022-09-07 — Upgraded to Amateur Extra class, still under KQ4AWC, after about two months of study following the General upgrade.
• 2022-07-05 — Upgraded from Technician to General class, still under KQ4AWC.
• 2022-06-22 — First mobile ham radio QSOs , as KQ4AWC: worked KG4CAP, KN4DND, and NF4J using a Baofeng UV5R with an adhesive window-mount antenna.
• 2022-05-27 — Licensed by the FCC as KQ4AWC, Technician class — the original callsign, later upgraded through General and Amateur Extra before switching to AE4JC.

This page will keep growing as more comes in. The AMSAT FM and linear entries below are the earliest successes found in a 2026-07 X archive search, worded as ‘beginnings of’ rather than a flat ‘first’ — the FM one was actually logged as a first at the time, the linear one wasn’t, and ‘beginnings of’ covers both without overclaiming the second.