Tax Day And Other Woes!

April 15, 2026 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Rather ominous, don’t you think? Today is April 15th, Tax Day. My taxes were filed months ago so it is just another day unless you take into account I am off.

We are being visited by some early season heat. Currently the temperature is 33.5C (about 93F for those who use that system) and it is on the edge of uncomfortable. The sky is sorta hazy, that light blue mixed with off-white clouds that you see on hot and humid day. No animals are stirring and the only bird I heard on my activation was the American Goldfinch, a rather pleasant and unassuming little bird.

I am sitting on my gaming chair which I won in a local fire department raffle. The Landisburg Fire Department garners funds through online raffles. They switched to this when the carnivals went away due to the pandemic a few years back. They seem to do well. I have won things like a generator, a 6-man tent, a set of Yeti mugs and a cooler and now a chair which SWMBO and I were able to assemble with a minimum of profanity and no noted injuries. Now the challenge is keeping the cats off of it.

This afternoon I activated Big Spring State Park US-4355 again. I logged 16 contacts in about 40 minutes. The 40M band was noisy with a lot of static being caused by thunderstorms in the distance. You can hear the crashes from lightening hundreds of miles away on the radio. That is one of the fun things about radio: learning about weather and other scientific things. ( Yea! Science!) Anyway, there were actually a couple of people in the park. They stayed on the other side of the park from where I was located.

When I got home, SWMBO helped me enter my logs into the POTA log upload app. Now I am waiting for the log to be approved. The server may be busy, I don’t know. No hurry, though, it is too hot to be in a hurry. I am even thinking about putting the AC units in, though I will not look forward to the increased electric bill.

There is a relatively new ham who I am mentoring. He is eager to learn and is able to reason his way through issues rather well. I read a post the other day in one of the ham radio groups on Facebook where someone asked for advice on what to make for an antenna to use for activating parks. My protege gave him some good advice on a WRC (Wolf River Coil) and radials. It is good to see knowledge being passed forward. There are too many people who use the anonymity of the social media format to belittle and bully others because they can get away with it. I am happy to say that a lot of people that I know show patience and provide good advice whether the topic is radio or home-brewing related.

Well before I go, I would like to remind you that I do encourage comments on this blog. Input is always welcome. For now, namaste and as always, keep your stick on the ice.

Ollie peeping out between Moxie and Missie

A rotting log with an interesting texture

Steamy Windows, A Wet Owl, And A Milestone Reached

March 5, 2026 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Greetings and salutations, kidlets. It has been a good day in spite of the weather. Today was rainy then gloomy then rainy then drizzly and back to rainy. We were out this morning running some errands and, when we got back, I decided to do an activation. SWMBO decided to remain home.

When I arrived at Little Buffalo State Park US-1376, the temperature was around 7C (45 F) and remained so for my time at the park. During my activation it got very warm in the car and the windows fogged up. I had to take off my coat and finish in shirtsleeves. Holman Lake is the manmade lake occupying 88 acres of Little Buffalo State Park. The ice on Holman Lake was that gray color that old ice gets when it is thin and rotten. The fishing shacks are gone as are the homemade skating rinks. I pretty much had the park to myself.

It did not take long to set up, and I was soon on the air on 40M. I worked 26 contacts before switching bands. One thing that I thought was fortuitous was that my first contact was a park-to-park … this one from Ontario. So after 26 contacts the band seemed to dry up. I swapped antennae and started working 17M which is usually a good daytime band. It proved to be today. I was able to work Italy, Oregon, St Kitts, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, California and a lot of other stations. A good time was had. Part way through my operation I realized that I was getting close to my Kilo award for this park. This gave me incentive to keep working stations until I had reached a total of 76. I had started the day with a total of 928 so I had only need 72 contacts to reach 1000. This was exciting as it is my first Kilo award (hopefully not my last). I want to thank everybody who helped me achieve this.

I was able to hear and identify (with my app) the following birds: Ring Billed Gull, American Crow, Common Raven, American Herring Gull, Blue Jay, Wild Turkey and Sharp-shinned Hawk. I think the birds are getting sick of winter and are anticipating the return of Spring and nice weather.

Well, once again I am sitting near the pellet stove and enjoying some coffee. I hope all is well with my readers. Namaste

2 gnomes and a wet owl

Looking South across Holman Lake from the parking lot at the boat launch

Porter And A Park To Start The Month Off Right

February 4, 2026 / KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Hi kidlets. I know it has only been about 4 days since my last post but here we are.

On February 1st, I brewed a porter. Now it is in the fermenter with the yeast doing their thing. What is a porter, you might ask? Well, that may or may not be easy to answer. Porters were the first “industrial” beer, originating in the 17th century and becoming a staple in Great Britain. The actual origin of porter is lost in myth and anecdote, but it has its roots in brown ales. It was the drink of the laborers and was aged in huge vats. On 17 October 1814, Meux & Co’s Horse Shoe Brewery in London had a 22 foot high vat burst open, knock out the back wall of the brewery and flood the surrounding neighborhood. There were injuries and a few deaths as a result. After this they started using smaller vats to age beer. Stout beer is a direct offshoot of porter. Back in 1986 when my brother got me into brewing my first batch was a porter. I remember fondly using a 2.5 Kg can of malt extract and a 5lb bag of corn sugar. It came out good and started my interest in brewing.

So this batch is fermenting. Fermentation of beer goes through some stages. First the yeast prepares itself by absorbing nutrients and minerals that it needs to work. The second stage is when yeast is metabolizing the sugars in the wort (raw beer) and producing carbon dioxide, alcohol and flavor compounds which complement the flavor of the beer. The final stage is when the yeast re-absorbs some of the byproducts of the process and starts to go dormant. Below I have provided some videos I have uploaded to show these stages.

Today, I had some time, so I went back to Little Buffalo State Park US-1376 and activated. It is close to here and a nice park. It was a beautiful day, nice and sunny but the temperature was around -2C so SWMBO stayed home. I started out on 40M and soon had 10 contacts: enough to be a legitimate activation. I worked 3 more on 40M and then changed band to 17M which seemed to be open. I worked 12 more stations including some dx (Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Finland) along with Washington State, Oregon and other US states. Overall, I logged 25 contacts.

I think I have satisfied my need to blog for today so I will bid you all adieu and namaste.