I recently rearranged my room. In the process, I left the maps and whiteboard where they were, so now there's a blank wall over my desk. The only color on that whole wall is my ARRL amateur radio band chart. It looks rather out of place amidst the green, nail-marked wall.

I decided to decorate the empty wall with QSL cards. These are the ( Read more... )

Since returning from PA, it's been a busy week and a half ( Read more... )

I splurged and got myself a new straight key last week. Well, it's not "new", as it's seen a few previous owners, but I am now the happy owner of this Nye Viking Master Key.


( Read more... )

Yesterday I got some good practice zero-beating. To zero-beat is to set the radio to transmit on the same frequency as the other station (the one whom you wish to contact). As you turn the dial to listen through the frequencies, CW signals sound sort of like passing traffic. As I come up to them they're very high pitched, and as I pass by them ( Read more... )

I've really been enjoying time with ham radio the past couple of weeks. My 20 wpm code copy is showing signs of improvement. In June, I was copying only pieces of words, but now I'm copying long phrases pretty consistently. (I'm getting tripped up over letters like s, z, h, and j.) Another sign of improvement is the fact that even when I get a ( Read more... )

spending time with the Lord
spending time with my roommates
working
listening around the 40 meter band for QSOs - heard a K2 (NY), AL7 (VA), WA2 (NC), W9 and NG9 (IL), W9 (IN), WA8 (TN)
practiced with the CW bug
cooked stir fry chicken and rice
chores
took a walk
bought two new stereo cables for my morse keys and connected them

( Read more... )

No, I don't mean the kind that invade the kitchen and carry away crumbs of food. I mean the semi-automatic morse code key they call a "bug"Today my friend kindly lent me a semi-automatic key so I could try my hand at it. This kind of a key sends a string of "dits" when you press the lever to the right, but you have to time out the "dahs" by hand ( Read more... )

I've been spending more time with ham radio these days. Yesterday I hooked a straight key into my radio to see if I could send code with it. I learned to send morse code on what they call a paddle.


( Read more... )

ARRL Field Day was this past weekend and I had a lovely time. I operated with my friends from the NoVA QRP club in Virginia using the club call WA4MM. My neighbor kindly gave me a ride to and from the event. On the drive over, I munched on a sausage & egg muffin and then armed myself with sunscreen. Before I knew it, we had arrived! ( Read more... )