#Radio

Coffee, kitties and CW

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Yup, a nice Autumn day. It is 18C outside and overcast. A good afternoon to sit here sending CQs to the world. I started out on 10M on the frequency of 28.050MHz and worked a station in Arizona. I changed to the 12M band on 24.910. Nothing. That is the way it goes. I sought a lower frequency to work. I went to 18.085MHz to try my luck. The 17M band can be a good on at times, lots of DX or West Coast. I did have a ham tell me he could hear my signal down in Alabama very strongly. I am also seeing spots on the RBN and other spotting pages. Things may be looking up as I go down in frequency. I worked a station in Colorado. Not too shabby. I refilled my coffee and gave vittles to the livestock (my fish, my hermit krabs and my kitties). Sent out another series of calls on 18.085 MHz. Then I worked a ham from Texas who I had last worked back in 2007. Tempus fugit. Went to my old standby band, 40M. I can always find someone to work on 40M. Sent a series of calls on 7.113MHz. It is in the old Novice portion of 40 but I often find people on here. Of course when I am the FIST Sprints I tend to hang around on 7.059 to 7.062 if I am not on 20M. I am glad they started the Sprints back up and I hope they become popular again.

Well it has been an interesting couple of hours but I am going to take a break from radioing. I think I will design my next batch of been.

Namaste, kidlets

There’s a cat chewing on my arm!

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Bet that got your attention. 🙂 I am sitting by the window watching a beautiful day go by. My cats are nearby including Mayhem, my little sweet girl who was chewing on me a minute ago. My big motional sports cat, Marley, is laying down by my feet and taking up a shitload of floor space. Basically I am chilling. I just finished 3 days in a row at work and only have tonight off before I have to work another 2 days. It is no biggie. I am used to it. I also have to look at my work sched and figure out when to schedule a dentist appointment, a doctor appointment and a routine blood draw. Lots of fun. I also have to consider when I am next going to brew some beer. That is not a chore, it is fun. I have some kveik yeast in my fridge (Lutra strain) and I will make a starter before I brew. In a few minutes I am going to go upstairs and ride my exorcise bike while killing stuff on my PS4. It is a way of distracting myself from the fact that I am exorcising. Tonight I will get on my radio for a few. I will try to make some SKCC and FISTS contacts. What are those? Well SKCC is Straight Key Century Club and FISTS is the international Morse Code Preservation Society, both fun groups to belong to. I will include links to their web pages below. Here is a link to a page which tells me what propagation conditions are like on the ham bands: https://hamradiofornontechies.com/current-ham-radio-conditions/

It explains very nicely what the numbers mean. SKCC page is: https://www.skccgroup.com which describes the group and FISTS is: https://fistsna.org

Well enough for now. I am going to pet Mayhem and let her chew on me before I go exorcise.

Namaste y’all

Ahhhh …. Autumn

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Well it is Autumn again. I just got done beating Satan’s Putting Green back into submission and I am looking forward to the seasonal die-back. In any event, running a lawn mower reminds me of safety. Thinking of safety reminds me of the annual Simulated Emergency Test. What is that, you might ask? Well :

The annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is a training exercise involving the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the National Traffic System (NTS), a message-handling service of amateur radio. The American Radio Relay League is a prime mover in this event, which is organized somewhat like a contest. Its primary purposes are to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in emergency preparedness and communications, and to demonstrate amateur radio to the public.

During the first full weekend of October of every year in the United States, a nationwide radio communications network is set up that links every major city and most of the geography of the country. This technological infrastructure is set up from scratch within a few hours at locations that vary from state and local government Emergency Operations Centers to isolated areas without utilities of any kind. Every mode of radio communications is utilized including analog, digital, voice, data, simplex, duplex, satellites and even automated relay stations launched on aircraft and with weather balloons. For no more than 48 continuous hours, this nationwide radio communications network is exercised with the primary objective of proving the system’s readiness and capabilities. Then as quickly as it was set up, the system is dismantled and stored in preparation for when it is needed. The system has demonstrated its value time after time during earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires, terrorist attacks and other disasters. All of this capability is provided by volunteers who continuously hone their technical skills and acquire, build, and maintain their own equipment. These radio engineers and operators, along with their equipment, combine into an important resource for emergency communications.

There you have it. The SET will be held this weekend, OCT 1 and 2. The SET is held this time of year because it is near the end of hurricane season and is a good way of evaluating performance under stressful conditions. Right now, Florida and other areas in the South are being pummeled by Hurricane Ian. There are traffic nets set up on the HF bands to pass health and welfare messages into and out of the affected areas. Ham radio has been a major part of emergency communications and will remain so.

“Of course you know this means war!”

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I have a weather station. One of the great topics to talk about on ham radio is the weather. I am also a NOAA Storm Spotter ( which doesn’t mean that I chase down tornadoes, it means that I report to the NOAA any unusual and or dangerous weather). So anyway I noticed yesterday that for 2 consecutive days my anemometer had registered no wind. I went out to check it and found a spider had built a web on my station and it was locking the wind cups in place. I brushed the spider web away and thought that that was it. NOOOOOOOOO! The frackin spider rebuilt the web. I had to clear it away today. I also took a yard broom to the weather station and hopefully evicted the spider. I think this whole thing was caused by me freeing a praying mantis from a spider web at my mum-in-law’s place. The poor thing was climbing the wall and the web kept pulling it back. I freed it and it flew off happily. I believe the spiders communicated with each other and decided to mess with me. I am waiting the next move. I hope I don’t have to exercise the nuclear option!

Namaste kidlets.

Slash and Chop

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Well yesterday I continued my perpetual war with Satan’s Putting Green. I finished the mowing and weedwacking and was trimming the white mulberry trees back to bonsai size when the first drops of rain fell. I was glad to get it all done and it does get unruly and I start to fear the demons inhabiting the tall grass.

I recently have started to get more active in one of the clubs I belong to. FISTS is a club dedicated to the preservation and use of Morse Code. The name of the club refers to the fact that every operator sending with a straight key has a distinctive style of “fist”. It is as distinctive and individual as a finger print. During WWII one indication that was used to determine that an operative was turned to a double agent was to listen for differences in their sending. A change could indicate the operator was under an unusual amount of stress. In any event, FISTS is a (free membership) club for promoting the use of Morse Code on the ham radio bands. They even have 4 mini-contests (sprints) during the year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. All information dealing with them can be found at http://www.fistsna.org

Again with the Namaste, folks

Nothing to grouse about

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Wow. Since my last entry I had a long work stretch … 5 consecutive days. Now I am in the middle of having 6 days off so it is balanced out. 🙂

Last night we went for a ride on the back roads looking for animals. I refer to this as going on recon. We enjoy just getting out and about and living in a rural area makes that easier. First off we were buzzed by 2 very large hawks about 2 miles apart. They both swooped down but the second one went about 50 feet to another tree and when we approached, went to another tree further on. This repeated 4 times before we passed him. About 3 more miles on, we came upon a female grouse walking down the road. I slowed the car and tried to ease past her without chasing her. As we drew near I started hearing some leaves rustling on the side of the road. I looked over and observed a male grouse displaying and making noise to distract us from his mate. All in all it was a very enjoyable recon. We sighted 8 ruminants, 6 turkeys, 3 hawks, 3 moggies, 2 grouse and 2 squirrels. Not bad. I did call on 146.52 several times and did not receive any replies. That is not surprising as we were out in the hills and away from civilization.

The other day we went on a bus tour in Gettysburg. We only live about an hour from there so we do go to the battlefield quite often. It was nice for a change to sit back and let the driver deal with the traffic, though we do like coming down there on our own.

Well enough for now. Namaste kidlets.

As for the weasel …

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All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun…
POP! Goes the weasel

Penny for a spool of thread
Penny for a needle
That’s the way the money goes…
POP! Goes the weasel

The painter needs a ladder and brush
The artist needs an easel;
The dancers need a fiddler’s tune…
POP! Goes the weasel


I’ve no time to where to sigh
Or to tell the reason why
Kiss me quick, I’m off, good-bye…
POP! Goes the weasel

Why did I post this? Well, today I beat Satan’s Putting Green into submission. I also decided on a compromise to a contention betwixt a White Mulberry (MORUS ALBA) and myself. The thing wants to take over. I didn’t plant it and I believe it was left as a gift by a passing bird. In any event, I have been trying to get rid of the thing for a few years now. I have cut and chopped and tugged and pulled and the damn thing keeps coming back. I reached a decision today. I am not going to try fighting it, I am going to trim it. I read that they can grow up to 15 meters (50 feet for the ones who don’t do metric) tall. Uhuh. Challenge accepted! I am going to keep it trimmed to a maximum of 3 feet (1 meter). Lets see how it likes being a shrubbery. The Knights Who Say Neigh would be proud!

Another thing I do when out in the yard is check over all my antennas. There are a few limbs I need to take down but on the whole they look ok. Enough for now.

Namaste, kiddos

Summer Musings

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It has been over a week since I posted. I am sitting here marveling at how fast the summer is going. Soon it will be that time of year when I get stuck behind school busses on my way home from work. Joy. I looked at Satan’s Putting Green today and realized it needs mowing. I won’t be able to do it until the weekend. Oh well, my neighbors won’t care. Usually my one neighbor mows his yard the day after I mow mine. Almost a symbiotic relationship.

I was able to work the final (of 3) special event station run by W9IMS. I qualify for their certificate. Every year they run 3 specail events: the Grand Prix, the INDY 500 and the Brickyard. You can get a qsl card for working any of these events and a certificate if you work all 3. Now I am looking forward to the Route 66 On The Air event which happens in the beginning of September.

Namaste y’all

Momento Mori

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So here I am, sitting down. I just finished kegging my blonde ale and now it is a matter of waiting for it to carbonate. One nice thing about brewing beer is that most of the work is done by yeasts. Once you make them a nice home they go to work procreating and when they have had their fill of procreation, they become factories. They take in sugar and other fermentables and process it into alcohol and gas (CO2). Wonderful little critters.

It is always a good thing to question your own motives. Why did I join a certain club? Better yet, what am I giving to the club to make things better? Clubs will die from lack of activity. When I first got into ham radio I joined a local club. On paper the club had over 50 members. I never saw more than a handful at meetings and the only activity the club did was a half-assed attempt at Field Day. The “leadership” of the club was content to do nothing and there was a sense of ennui throughout. Basically the club was dead. I am hoping that history does not repeat itself. I am currently in a new club that needs a boost. I realize that there are a lot of things in a persons life and priorities have to be set but a little time can be spent on a positive thing.

A Fine Summer Evening

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Here it is, the eve of St Swithin’s Day. We should all be hoping for a great weather forecast tomorrow! Satan’s Putting Green (my yard) is brown and crispy since I mowed it. We have not had much rain yet this month (about 5.56mm) but that doesn’t bother me much. I have been watering the EarthBox that my tomatoes are in every other day. They are about 1 meter high now and still growing. Looks like I might have a decent crop. I guess it is a bit strange that I grow tomatoes as I don’t eat them except in sketti sauce and catsup. I just like to grow them. I am considering making my own sauce as I also have growing oregano and thyme. It might be interesting. I also have some cayenne peppers growing and I might theow them into the sauce.

I was on the radio this evening and worked a couple of stations. Relaxing, it is. I send my signal out over the air and wait for a return. Sometimes I get several, sometimes I only get a few. Either way I enjoy it. I live next to the old bed of the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad (actually it runs down the border of my property) and I think that will legitimize me running a special event commemorating the railroad. I just have to work out a few details. Instead of a QSL card I will provide an e-mail address and will reply to contact information with a printable certificate.