Days of Our Lives

Life continues it’s march to some conclusion here. We are past the leaf-peeping season in this area. Nothing but dark oranges and browns left to see and these breezy days and gravity are conspiring to bring a lot of them to the ground. We’ve only picked up a few bags of leaves so far, mulching them with the push mower is much easier. For now, but we have a really large soft maple tree in the front yards that is hanging on for dear life and when those finally do fall, it’s gonna be a big project getting them picked up.

I’ve been kicking around for a pristine pre-World War II Junker straight key. No easy task. I’ve seen lots of beat-up hardware, but I’d prefer to pay good money for a collector’s piece than to take on another restoration project.

The high temperature here today is supposed to be near 80F which makes it difficult to believe Halloween is just around the corner. There are a lot more trick-or-treaters in our new neighborhood and we enjoy the extra doorbell traffic. The day after Halloween we will travel 150 miles to Columbus, Ohio (250km) to see the Winnipeg Jets take on the Blue Jackets. Should be a fun night as we stay downtown, within walking distance of the Arena, and our favorite German eatery.

Sometime between now and Thanksgiving I intend to take on a big backyard project. We have a really nice wood utility building out back (tool shed) whose foundation has collapsed in a couple places. I’ve removed the old flooring and now intend to jack it up enough to replace the crumbling foundation. Once that’s complete and the building is resting on a solid, level foundation, I’ll install a new floor in it. That’s the plan anyway. In the event the whole thing topples over during the lifting phase the effort will morph into a demolition project.

And then a week from today we will stand in line to vote for the first time from this address. I understand they convert a little Presbyterian church around the corner into a voting center for the nearby neighborhoods. I expect to walk in, pull a lever, then retreat home where the outcome of the election will doubtless be debated for months. How could it be anything but chaos when you have a world class whiner (“they’re eating the dogs!”) and thousands of lawyers ready to jump into the fray?

Reminds me of the old joke, “you know what you call a thousand lawyers standing neck-deep in wet cement? Not enough cement…”


Letting Go

Amateur radio is imbued with hundreds and hundreds of organizations representing the many varied interests of its adherents. These seem to grow like weeds in springtime and some of them are as old as the hobby itself. Local clubs, contest clubs, DX organizations, service organizations, etc. A LOT of busy work takes place between the lines in our hobby whether you see it or not. But there are more than a handful of legacy organizations who no longer add value to the body politic and at some point, should be terminated.

That rarely happens.

These may have become unnecessary and irrelevant due to the passage of time and technology and are often supported by good folks, exhausting themselves in a vain attempt to provide palliative care as they seem unable or unwilling to permit the organization to simply die with dignity. No one wants to be the one to pull the plug, especially if the moribund organization has been around a long time.

Tell-tale signs of these zombie organizations include declining membership and the inability to execute tasks that were once considered ‘normal’ (publishing newsletters, conducting conventions, etc.) either because of inadequate funding or due to a lack of volunteers. Failing clubs and organizations often must conscript members into service in leadership roles because no one will volunteer for such positions. The inability to articulate future goals and missions is certainly another sign of fatal atrophy.

Organizations that once had a purpose, performed well, but no longer add value should be permitted to die with dignity. It’s like putting your dog down when that time comes. It’s a kindness, and the least you can do for a faithful old friend.


SolderSmoke and the vagaries of life

Chatting with a friend yesterday when the subject of the SolderSmoke podcast came up. It seems there is some possibility of that long-running program going QRT. While I enjoy it, it isn’t published on any sort of regular basis so I’m usually always behind a few episodes, only checking for a new one when something reminds me of it. Following up on the blog, I see where Bill has mentioned a large drop-off in listeners and blog traffic and he wonders if maybe it’s time has come and gone.

Our blogs and the podcast are in danger! Pete is already on a permanent blog hiatus. I have seen a big decline in readership. Frankly, if no one is reading or listening, we just may decide not to do it anymore. We don’t want to do this. So please, link to the blogs. Talk up the blog and podcast on your own blogs and social media. []

I frequently think the same thing about writing here. Having toiled away at this for more than two decades, I’ve found a solid, yet slowly declining audience that makes me wonder if my site stats aren’t a direct reflection of the aging slug of ham radio enthusiasts born in the 1950’s slowly winding our way to senior citizenship. It stands to reason, I write about what tickles my fancy and I seem to have become more ticklish to older things. That readers of a similar age would share similar interests seems logical and it’s inevitable the number of those readers would decline over time.

Is it surprising, in the case of SolderSmoke, that an audience of hams still interested in (mostly) analog radio design and development might be in decline simply due to aging out? N2CQR and I are the same age and we enjoyed radio as kids during a bygone era. Can a ham radio blog or a podcast produced by a 65 year-old man still attract a growing audience? Probably not, but you never know. If Bill requires some minimum threshold of listeners and readers to keep SolderSmoke going then there could be real cause for concern from fans of that program.

As for me, I have developed my own exit strategy, I hope to not be maintaining this blog right up to them closing my casket. I retired from working in 2022 and in the same way I plan to retire from blogging, that date just hasn’t yet been chiseled into the headstone. After all, Doc Searls is still going strong at 77. Still, a pop-up health issue or serious family matter seems to perpetually lurk outside the door of those living in their golden years. You never know. I guess that keeps life interesting?


Spiced Cider

My ham shack exists in what was touted to be a “sunroom” when the realtor showed the house to us. It’s a new addition to the back-end of the house and is a very nice, modern space with seven windows to the backyard. With just a few of those opened I enjoy a nice breeze through here this time of year. Yesterday I heard an unusual rustling outside and finally realized it was fallen leaves. Lots of them, shuffling across the patio, and given how dry it has been these last few months, they are of the extra-crunchy variety.

Fall has arrived in all it’s glory and no one is happier about it than me!

I’m ready for the the crisp air, sweatshirts, and long pants. I revel in the colors, the browns and the golds, getting under the blankets, and Linus waiting for the pumpkin. I’m ready to be comforted by bourbon and that new energy the fall brings. I broke out the pine-scented candles, apple cider, and I’m turning my oven on again. Fall has better food, better holidays, even better movies…

Vibroplex ⁍ “Bill Holly’s (K1BH) book “The Vibroplex Co., Inc.” used to be sold by Vibroplex but is now out of print. However, Tom French’s book, “Vibroplex Collectors Guide” is available at no charge on the Vibroplex website”. 36M PDF.

From the bureau ⁍ An envelope arrived from the bureau (thanks NIDXA!) containing about a half-dozen QSL cards. I haven’t had bureau cards in a long-time, but I always enjoy getting them. Nothing rare, but all beautiful.

Hockey Season ⁍ My wife and I are longtime Winnipeg Jets hockey fanatics. We’ve attended many of their games in the US and once traveled north of the border to spend a week in Winnipeg where we attended two home games. This season has just gotten underway, but it’s been a good start. Undefeated at this point. 6-0. We’ve got tickets for their game with the Blue Jackets in Columbus, Ohio next week.


Weekend Preparation

I took some time off from using the digital FT modes. 40 days and nights away from the keyboard. It was good to get time off from it, and that span seemed about right. I need to do this every year or more often when warranted. During that span I put 149 in the log using SSB and CW only. I broke the “fast” yesterday because I was getting anxious to see how the new K4 performed on the digital modes. Over the course of four hours I put another 71 in the log using FT8/FT4, most of those of the DX variety, and the new transceiver did an admirable job once I grokked the hardware and software configuration.

Now my attention has turned to the upcoming weekend and the CQWW DX Contest (SSB). Not that I’m planning a major effort, but phone is a weak link in my radio chain and I could use the practice and a DXCC Phone count boost. Not only will I be using a new transceiver this year, but for the first time ever I will be using an amplifier. The Mercury IIIs (KM3KM) and its matching high-power auto-tuner are ready to rumble and I really don’t know what to expect. In addition to getting the cabling and interface ready for the contest, I’m also moving my R6000 vertical from one end of the house to the other so there remains some mechanical and cable routing work to be done before the weekend. I also hope to have some time on Thursday and Friday to troll the bands looking for the big dawg operators who will be setting up in their exotic locations early.

The other bit of work that needs doing is setting up the logging software. N1MM+ might be the preferred logging app for serious contest ops, but I’m thinking of using N3FJP as I haven’t yet built any automation into the new station yet and I try to avoid the complexities of N1MM+ whenever I can. Either will produce a perfectly acceptable Cabrillo log file for submission so I’ll stick with it for this one. I’m glad when I purchased the package I did I paid a little more for all the optional modules though that was a few years ago.

Note to self: send a $50 donation to N3FJP for his continuing support. Done!


Another Wireless Pioneer

Walter Massie, a Remarkable Wireless Radio Pioneer

It was a cold, windswept February night in early 1905. Only a small amount of warmth made its way into the second floor room through a floor grate leading to the first floor where there was a Glenwood stove. Periodically, the operator would climb up a ladder to an observation tower and peer through a telescope searching for the appearance of the Fall River Line night boat SS Plymouth headed for New York.

Suddenly, the spark of an incoming message broke the silence. CQ-PJ-D-PX. The liner’s wireless operator, also a Massie employee, was signaling the Point Judith shore station call letters PJ with his call sign PX (the Morse code letters CQ signified an outgoing call and D identified the originating station). Incoming traffic meant revenue. A businessman aboard the ship had a telegram for a New York City client.


Chasing Bigfoot

I worked W7T yesterday who was calling “CQ BF” on 20 meters which got me just curious enough to call him back - and then figure out the “BF” was BIGFOOT…

National Sasquatch Awareness Day Special Event Station Oct 15 - Oct 21

The Radio Club of Tacoma cordially invites all amateur radio operators around the world to seek out the elusive “BIGFOOT” to celebrate National Sasquatch Awareness Day on October 20th! We are sure there will be multiple sightings of the BIGFOOT special event stations, but the challenge will be to contact ALL the special event stations W7B, W7I, W7G, W7F, W7O, (stations must work W7O at least twice on 2 different modes, bands, or Zulu days) and W7T to claim the coveted BIG STOMP on the BIGFOOT Certificate! ANYONE can apply for the certificate - even if you only worked one of the stations.


Radio as Art

I’ve been a ham forever. I thought I’d lost interest in radio, but it turned out that I’d only lost interest in post-modern radio. It’s all boring chitchat on over designed, mass-produced toys that are obsolete every 9 months. It’s fun to keep inventing new modes, but a bit of the cutting edge is losing out to cellular phones, which nowadays can do just about anything except slice bread. Radio romance must inevitably shift from the mere doing of radio to doing it as art. It’s already starting, as witness the sudden rush to own any kind of tube radios at all. Hugh’s Ominous Valve Works


Freeze Warning

Enjoying a steaming cup of Earl Grey with a splash of milk along with a bowl of danish cherry tobacco in a Peterson free-hand pipe this morning. I’ve made an appointment to have the furnace people out for annual maintenance. They can’t get here until November 20th which is okay, the furnace is only two years old. I just like to stay on top of routine maintenance in hopes of avoiding surprises during cold weather. Speaking of, there is a freeze warning here for tonight as the prognosticators are talking about 33F for a low temp. In the meantime, it was only 41F when I got up this morning so the furnace is running.

I failed to mention that among the handful of AZQP contacts made this weekend was one with K7UGA. Senator Goldwater’s call sign is managed by the Central Arizona DX Association (CADXA) and is on the air frequently. This wasn’t the first time I’ve put K7UGA into the log, but I’m always pleased to help keep it alive. By the way, there is a 50th Anniversary K7UGA Special Event scheduled to take place the week of Wednesday, January 1, 2025 through Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Watch the QRZ page for specific details as we get closer to the date.

One particular goal of mine has been working 1,000 unique parks in the POTA program before I quit hunting POTA activators. I mean, enough is enough, right? I’m up to 783 as of today, nearly all of those via CW and I’m getting a little bored with that chase and might not make it to 1,000 after all. Activating parks has become as popular as FT8. Ask any CW op and they will tell you that these park activators and hunters signals comprise at least half of all the Morse on our airwaves. Given that there are so many activators coupled with the wham, bam, thank-you Ma’am nature of the contacts, the fun is quickly fading.

Needing a diversion from that, I’m going back to SKCC for more straight key action. I’d like to be more involved with QRP activities, but these are increasingly few and far between and, do you mind if I whine for a moment? Most QRP clubs have their own mailing lists and I subscribe to several of them, and the increase in traffic about things other than traditional QRP discussions are depressing to me. I die a little inside each time I see a message about a net via DMR and how to set that up, or FT8, FT4, or JS8… I’m a longtime member of one of these clubs and love it dearly, but I muted all messages with any one of those topics and now very rarely receive mail from that list…

That’s why I’m going back to the watering holes where there are still a hundred things yet to be accomplished with manually generated Morse. One of my New Year’s resolutions for ‘25 is going to be learning to use a bug. I have a beautifully restored old Vibroplex bug that’s begging to be put into service, but all previous efforts to master it have failed. To be fair, I never gave it much effort.

Next year will be different.


Columbus Day

Happy Columbus Day - chilly in the Heartland this morning, 44F now headed up to 58F for a high today. Autumn has arrived. Plenty of lawn work left to be done along with gathering of leaves that have been falling rapidly.

I’ve had a hankering for boiled peanuts lately, so this weekend I boiled a pound of goober peas. It’s the only way to get them here in the north country. I was a carpetbagger in a previous life, working all over the south land where boiled peanuts was an easy to find treat sold at endless roadside stands this time of year. I took away an affection for them as well as cheese grits and can’t get either one in Indiana so I make my own. The boiled peanuts were pretty good. Note to self, more salt next batch.

I played around a little in several State QP’s this weekend. Mostly in the AZQP as propagation was best there though I also worked a few in the SDQP and the NVQP, a mix of CW and SSB on 20, 15, and even 10 meters. The classic modes are my refuge as I shun sound card amateur radio and am now 37 day free of FT8.

This is getting embarrassing - it happened again. Confusion over what time a ham radio event was to begin spawned copious amounts of mailing list madness. You would think licensed radio enthusiasts could figure out what time it is, but no, this seems a to have become a mystery around the time we got rid of hands on the clock face. The problem is the conversion from UTC, a problem that wouldn’t exist if we used UTC and nothing else. Many hams have a difficult time grasping the concept that UTC Thursday starts on Wednesday evening EST. And with daylight savings time set to end soon, it’s only gonna get worse. I’ve long said that “time” conversion questions should appear on all amateur radio tests because hams generally underperform when it comes to knowing what time it is. Good grief!


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