As Penny and I have settled into our home in Sonoma I’ve taken on an increasing interest in getting more active in Amateur Radio once again. Getting a station back on the air was a critical step. This new site is also part of that effort. I’ve never had an impressive personal station and that […]
After much contemplation, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a stand-up desk for my home office/station. For years I owned a simple desk with a crisscrossing tubular frame that was fine, but presented some problems. Because the frame ran parallel to the desk on the ground it meant a rolling chair could not get […]
I operated Field Day this year with the Valley of the Moon Amateur Radio Club. We set up a 3 station emergency power operation at Sonoma Skypark. Power was supplied by batteries and solar panels. Field Day for the club is a very laid back affair. Everyone learns a little bit about something. Everyone operates […]
I just received my newest certificate, this time for the All Countries 15 Zone Award (AC15Z). The Polish Amateur Radio Union (PZK) is the sponsor of the award. Poland lies with the 15th CQ Zone, which is termed the “central European zone”. As the name implies, to earn the award one must make a number […]
Thanks to a big favor from fellow University of Texas ARC alum George Fremin (K5TR) I have a working 2M multi-mode radio once again. Some years ago I purchased a used Kenwood TR-751A that output 25W on the 2M band. The real selling point was that it also has SSB support. It worked great for […]
Procrastination. when done well, is worth doing again and again. After years of working DX and having worked over 100 countries, I finally got around to applying for the DX Century Club award (DXCC)! Then, I allowed the certificate to sit around for months or maybe more than a year. Just recently I got it […]
There is no shortage of acronyms in Amateur Radio. That applies to the sub-hobby of Amateur Radio Awards Hunting. Here is an incomplete list of acronyms you might come across when hunting for wallpaper. AJD – All Japan Districts DXCC – DX Century Club GCR – General Certification Rules JCC – Japanese Century-Cities JCG – […]
Flash: Hold off on sending in your outgoing QSL cards to the ARRL, at least until May 15th. When I got more active in Amateur Radio recently I was a bit taken aback by the much higher rates for the ARRL Outgoing QSL Service. Having been licensed in 1985 I’m getting old enough to wax […]
I just got my second award from Grupo DX Cuba, this time the Diploma America. This award is earned by confirming Amateur Radio contacts with Hams in countries throughout North and South America. There are several classes of awards, making it easy to get started on this one as you work your way up. Diploma […]
The Japan Amateur Radio League sponsors the All Japan Districts (AJD) award. This was one of my earlier Amateur Radio awards and I think a pretty sharp looking one as well. Given the issue date I almost certainly made all of the required contacts from the University of Texas ARC station (W5EHM at the time, […]
I think the Rag Chewers Club (RCC) was the first Amateur Radio award I qualified for. To qualify, one need only provide evidence of having made a single QSO that lasted more than 30 minutes. The implication being that such a contact involves interacting with another Ham to cover more than the abbreviated signal report […]