Hello from N3VAR – November Three Victor Alpha Romeo. Welcome to my amateur radio (also known as “ham radio”) site. For those you directly visiting this page from my call sign domain name (N3VAR.com) – my name is Raven Zachary and I live in Portland, Oregon, USA (grid square CN85qn), and Oceanside, Oregon, USA (grid square CN85ak). The primary purpose of this section of my website is to provide more details concerning my amateur radio interests and background for those of you who may have made contact with me over the radio waves. For more information on amateur radio, select one of the sub-pages from the N3VAR menu at the top of this page.
If you haven’t figured it out already, my call sign is my first name backwards (R A V E N becomes N Ǝ V A R). I was initially given the call sign of KI7PRV. As soon as I was issued my Technician License from the FCC, I put in a request for this vanity call sign. The “3” would normally indicate that I am based in Delaware, Maryland, or Pennsylvania, although in the case of a vanity call sign, you can be anywhere. I have no direct connect to those three states. I grew up in Iowa (“0”) and now live in Oregon (“7”). The call sign N3VAR was previously held by Stephen E. Grant (b.1928 – d.2012) of Annapolis, Maryland. Other than his obituary posted online, I don’t have any details about his life or his interest in amateur radio. If you knew Stephen, please contact me.
Why did I become interested in amateur radio in the year 2017, when the Internet and mobile phones were so pervasive? I think it’s less to me about the notion of a (mostly) infrastructure-less communications medium than it is something more fundamental about the nature of radio waves and our ability to harness the building blocks of the universe to connect. Radio is deep stuff, whether that’s radio communications or radio astronomy.
My primary amateur radio interests (right now) are SDR, QRP, and Satellite – SDR because I am a software guy, QRP because I go back and forth between two homes and need a portable setup to travel with me (there is no shack, only a backpack), and Satellite because…well…SPACE!
I had a shortwave radio as a teenager growing up in Iowa and loved listening to radio from around the world. I’ve wanted to get an amateur radio license since then, but the morse code requirement was intimidating (at the time) and I never pursued it. Now, as an adult, I’m looking forward to learning morse code. About a decade ago, when the morse code requirement was lifted, I added amateur radio licensing to my list of things to do, but kids and work and everything else going on in life meant this didn’t happen right away. I received my Technician License in September 2017, my General License in October 2017, and my Amateur Extra License in December 2017.
If you come across the alias ‘N3VAR’ on the Internet, it’s probably not me unless the site is specific to amateur radio. It seems that this alias is already being used on various sites, and those are unrelated to me. I am N3VAR on QRZ.com and ARRL.org.