Welcome to my amateur radio page on the net. My name is Ben Holcomb, and I am an Amateur Radio operator located in Lansing, MI. My callsign is WX8BEN, and I have been a HAM Radio operator since I passed the technician license test on 5/14/2005. I am a certified R.A.C.E.S. member for Ingham County and enjoy donating my time to public service-related events. My biggest interest is in SKYWARN, however. I have been a SKYWARN trained spotter since April 2005, and have been in charge of the Ingham County Skywarn Group since April 2007.

When I am out in the field chasing, you can watch my live ChaseCam below!

Latest Entry: May 2, 2008 - Turrell, AR Tornado

What looked to possibly be a bust of April 10 proportions turned into a very good day including my first daytime tornado near Turrell, AR. Read More in my chase log.

I guess the biggest question you may have at this point is why did I choose WX8BEN, and what does the stuff in the header mean? My original callsign was KD8BOO. My dad changed his callsign to be WA8KZY in honor of his father. I originally changed mine to WA8BEN because W8BEN was taken. At the end of 2007 I decided I wanted to change my callsign. I had seen some other WX calls, and decided I wanted to be WX8BEN. I found it more fitting, and that is what a vanity call is for, right?

I put in my application for a callsign change at the end of 2007. I added the quote above from the cartoon series Futurama. Bender, the drunken robot which is one of the main characters of Futurama states in one episode "Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer exortion! The X makes it sound cool." So now you know where I picked up the quote on the banner.

On Saturday January 19, 2008 I successfully passed the Element 3 General test to become a General Class Amateur Radio Operator. My first day on HF as a Temporary AG I have made contacts with Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, California, Florida, Saskatchewan, Texas, Tennessee and Washington State.


Here's a picture of me holding my CSCE signed by W8ERV, KD8BD and KB8RAD.

As of April 2007, I am the AEC (Assistant Emergency Coordinator) in charge of Skywarn for Ingham County. On top of that, I also participate in the R.A.C.E.S. program. I enjoy volunteering for the walk-a-thons and other public service events we participate in throughout the year.

I also am responsible for three websites for local Amateur Radio clubs. My favorite web site is for the Lansing Amateur Radio Public Service Corp. I also put together the website for Central Michigan Amateur Radio Club, although most of the content and updates are done by other members. The third group site I've worked on is the Lansing Civil Defense Repeater Association site.

As I mentioned before, SKYWARN and storm chasing are my biggest interests in the hobby. I am apart of Severe Studios, but mostly chase for fun and to help warn people in areas which might be in danger from a storm along with being the eyes and ears of the National Weather Service.

My Grandpa was the City of Lansing emergency manager, and severe weather has always been apart of my fathers life. My father passed this on to me by taking me storm chasing when I was a kid. Of course, storm chasing when I was a kid was much different than it is now. In 2005, I told my dad I was going to get my Amateur Radio license and attend SKYWARN training. He went with me to SKYWARN training and we both passed our Technician class licenses on the same day. Storm chasing is pretty much in my blood at this point.

2008 marks the first year I will be really serious about storm chasing, and plan to chase more into Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and possibly as far as Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky, etc. I plan on attending Chaser Con in February in Denver, CO.

You can track me via APRS at http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=WX8BEN. Whenever I have my Kenwood 710A on in the truck, it should have my current position listed with the little truck icon.