I just joined a couple days ago and wanted to say "Hi!"

I'm ScritchWuff, or just "Scritch' from Albuquerque, NM.  Last month I finally decided to go get my ham license, so I studied my behind off and drove up to Pueblo, CO to take the exams.  Somehow I managed to pass the Tech, General, and Extra exams on the same day.  The extra exam was quite difficult -- I had to study hard even though I have an engineering background.

At this point, I haven't done anything on HF, but I plan on getting started on that side of things after AC.  Eventually I'll learn morse as well.  There is a nice empty field just over the wall from my house where I could sneak some ground radials and a mounting pipe for temporary antennas.  HOA CC&Rs aren't an impediment to me.  I see them more as a challenge to be overcome.  I'll just sling a feed line over the wall and take my antenna down when not in use.  That saves me from (1) having to deal with the HOA rules, and (2) having to deal with lightning and beefing up my home's electrical grounding system for now.   I simply won't have any antennas up during a storm.  Anyhow, it seems the solar cycle is on the upswing so this is probably as good a time as any to get started on the HF bands.

For now, I just have my Yaesu VX8R handheld, which is serving me quite well.  I'll be bringing it to AC, and am wondering what repeaters and/or simplex frequencies are typically used by the local furs out there.  I also saw the previous post about the portable repeater at the hotel.  Out here in NM we have a bunch of repeaters linked statewide into the "MegaLink" (NM5ML) system..  It's pretty cool, you can get onto the system from pretty much anywhere in the state, and they are all open repeaters.  Is there something similar to that in the Pittsburgh area?

Anyhow, just checking in and saying Hi!

73 AE5ML SK