There are plenty of jokes about POTA devotees checking maps before going on vaction for new parks to activate along the way. In this case, my family decided that we’d spend spring break at Mammoth Cave National Park – K-0050 which meant that I didn’t even need to play any weird games to land a…
The day was just too nice. It was in the mid-50s and the skies were clear. There was a lot of wind, which isn’t always great, but staying inside simply wasn’t an option. Originally, I wasn’t going to play radio. This was going to be a day on the bike. But at the last minute,…
The Issue: In the world of ham radio, we have what I consider to be a bit of a problem. We have a very deep addiction to the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. Why is it a problem? Because Windows itself, in 2023, is not much better than windows 10 years ago. Which wasn’t that much better…
This past Sunday, the weather was supposed to be in the mid-40F range and clear with something call “The Sun” in the sky. I seemed to remember this yellow orb from my childhood and thought that it might be worth getting outside to check it out. It was a good call! I arrived at Cuyahoga…
A few months back, I hit a real snag in my Winlink setup. At some point, my Surface GO 2 – post Win11 update – created a situation with Winlink where I couldn’t get the window to open reliably when establishing a VARA HF connection. The symptom was that the entire menu system in the…
Sunday afternoon it got up into the mid-40sF and was bright and sunny. It’s the kind of sunlight that warms a person who is sitting in it. One might even be able to ditch the coat for a little while, if the breeze doesn’t pick up too much. Looking outside to The Big Blue Room,…
Right after I finished posting my last entry, I learned that my family was essentially going off in different directions. It was sunny out and the temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 40sF and there was only a touch of wind. Why not grab another activation? Why not, indeed! My gear was still packed up and…
With a long holiday weekend, I thought I would get to the park more than I did. The weather was not at all interested in cooperating. It was sitting in the 20s with some significant wind on Friday and Saturday. But when Sunday rolled around, the temperatures hit the mid-40s and the wind relaxed a…
Every year, PCARS hosts a club contest for QRP operations in February. Astute readers of the blog will note that the last one was in…November? Of 2022? Well, things happened back in February of 2022 and the club wasn’t ready, so it was delayed until winter set in. Which, traditionally, in NE Ohio is pretty…
Northeast Ohio has always been grey and nasty through the winter. At least that’s been the case as long as I’ve been here. There’s not really any point in being down about it. It’s the state of things. When the weekend rolls around, sitting in the house feels like the opposite of what I want…