When I lived in Wisconsin I belonged to a few different amateur radio groups at one time or another. They each met with different frequency (as well as on different frequencies, yes) as they had different approaches or concerns.

The Wisconsin Valley Radio Association met almost monthly, on the first Tuesday of the month. They skipped December ( Read more... )

There weren't any forums jmaynard had to be at on Saturday, though he wanted to go to (and did go to) the FCC forum in the morning. I didn't go to that, but explored a bit more of the convention space. I didn't expect to see everything and I likely didn't, but I got to see a good chunk of things and a couple minor purchases here and there. When we met ( Read more... )

Thursday was spent traveling to Dayton, OH so that jmaynard and I could spend the weekend at Dayton Hamvention. The hotel was having connectivity problems, but that would be fixed sometime Friday.

Friday was spent at Hamvention itself. I summed up the day with "I carried a radio in. I carried a radio out." But not the same radio. Jay had a UHF ( Read more... )

...do you remember when we
Stayed up all night to get
Pittsburgh on a crystal set? -- Dearie

I received a "Rocket Radio" crystal set as a gift some time ago and didn't do anything with it until recently. I'm not sure why I delayed so long. Anyway, I strung up the antenna wire and connected it, and was a bit surprised at the set not having a ( Read more... )

( Lyrics inside )

The WB television network and the UPN television will be combined into one network and renamed "The CW." I can almost hear the jokes already about the letters ought to be reversed. As an amateur radio operator, I do not think of television when I hear or see the letters CW. What I think of is something that uses far less bandwidth than ( Read more... )

I've had my car long enough now the state of Minnesota is issuing new license plates for it. This should be no big deal, other than I have a state-issued piece of paper taped in the rear window showing that I did pay the registration renewal fee and that I am awaiting the new plates while still driving with the old ones. Today the new plates ( Read more... )

I bought a small 6-meter sideband (well, SSB and CW) transceiver a couple years ago. A few weeks ago I finally uncovered it again and removed it from the box. Today I finally finished up the power cord (it's not a thing that just plugs into a wall socket). The radio powers up and seems to be doing what it should, though I don't have a 6-meter ( Read more... )

The Ashland, Wisconsin Daily Press has a story about the Navy ending operation of the Extremely Low Frequency transmitters in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. The transmitters were protested by some from the beginning. Some said that it made nuclear war (the ELF transmitters were used to transmit to submerged submarines) more likely. Others ( Read more... )

A lot of travel, but still good. Thursday afternoon we (jmaynard and I) started off, and hit the Twin Cities during the anything but a rush hour. Rather than wait in the car in traffic, we waited at Lindey's and had some great steak. Then back on the road. XM's old time radio channel again was good to have.

Friday was a bit of shopping (I got - and spent ( Read more... )