Circumlocution seems the order of the day when it comes to bad-mouthing ARRL. Or more correctly, the ARRL Board of Directors. I have a solution that will go a long way toward fixing it. Never vote for an incumbent. Always vote for someone who is not currently a Director. You can’t change the BoD by always electing the same idiot. If every single ARRL member would vote in their next election for the guy who is not currently in that role, in a few years there would be a completely new slate of Directors. Maybe just as bad, maybe worse. But it’s all you can do. Only a moron would believe that dropping their membership will “help”. You want to fix it, you have to be a member. If you’re not a member, STFU, you have no say.
My guess, few will choose this path. According to most polls 80% or more Americans think the government is lousy. Yet they continue to re-elect the same politicians over and over. Your congressman could rape babies in Times Square yet you and everyone in your district will vote for him again. About 90% of incumbents are re-elected, it’s their super power. Once they get in they never get out – unless they can find a better way to steal from the till.
No, voters in America believe every political problem is due to YOUR representatives, not THEIR representatives. Same goes for ARRL Directors. Mine is good, yours is the turd in the punchbowl. Why? People are basically stupid.
Monday, January 13, 2025
A fellow on one of the QRP mailing lists was asking if anyone had a TR-45L CW transceiver they would like to part with. This due to the fact that John, WA3RNC went QRT on radio production last year when he retired. You can’t buy them new from the factory anymore. I happen to have one that I purchased in April of 2024. Mine being the skinny version. One option for the standard version is a built-in tuner making it a little bigger.
I didn’t need the built-in tuner since I outsource all my auto-tuning in the field to a little Elecraft T1, don’t tell President MuskTrump!
I have another transceiver, the TR-25, from the same source and have been happy enough with it though now that I mention it, I haven’t seen it in awhile… Anyway, not long after getting the TR25 John announced the TR-45L and teased it out with a few photos of what would be coming “soon”. The retro look, all the controls on the front panel, the simplicity. Better still, no SDR. I’m genuinely sick of SDRs. Those tiny little transceivers that cover all bands and modes with even tinier displays that can’t be read in sunlight and is the only interface to the 2000+ functions buried deep in a labyrinth of touches, taps and long presses. And the more marvelous the SDR, the larger the market for specialty “how-to” manuals that are always an order of magnitude larger than the radio itself.
Seriously, if I was stranded on a Pacific island with only an SDR to call for help I’d just learn to love coconut and body surfing with the sharks.
So I ordered a TR-45L and when it arrived I used it to make a dozen or so contacts then promptly put it on the shelf with a collection of other QRP transceivers all begging to be used. So when I saw the email I thought maybe I would sell mine. I replied to the guy on the mailing list and turns out he really wanted a “fat” boy model. But he told me he would get back to me if he doesn’t find one. No problem, I’m in no hurry to move it out of here. Our email interaction did cause me to fire it up this morning, just to make sure all is still well with the little rig. Powered it up for the first time in months, set the power to five watts on 20 meters and used the CHA-MPAS Lite ground mounted vertical so no tuner required.
Then I called CQ…
No replies. Even spotted myself on QRPSpots, nada. But the RF was being pretty evenly distributed around North America. With nothing more to show for it than ReverseBeacon hits I went hunting POTA. Bingo! Three fast contacts bagged in no time. I expect to work ten today using the TR-45L.
This transceiver is really sweet and it would be okay by me if that guy lets me know he doesn’t want mine. There are worse things in life than owning a beautiful little CW transceiver. When I bought it I imagined using it out on a patio table on lazy, warm, summer days with pencil and paper for logging and a pitcher of ice-cold margaritas nearby. I can still see that.
After all, a retired guy has got to have a hobby, right?
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Last night, hours after local sundown, I decided to try to work a few stations in the NAQP. The juice had already drained from 20 meters and signals were right down in the noise. Slow-tuning, I heard an interesting call, just barely above the noise. You know how it is when the signal is copyable, yet so weak you just assume there’s no way he will hear you, but you call anyway and hear your own call sign come back to you. Maybe I’m amazed.
In this case it was Stan, AH6KO on the Big Island of Hawaii. This was the fifth time I’ve worked him, all CW. Checking to be certain, I found 61 other contacts with the Hawaiian Islands since 2014 so it’s not really rare, but it’s always magical. I imagine RF signals floating high above the ocean from my QTH to a Pacific paradise where palm trees sway.
It never gets old and never ceases to be amazing to me…
Saturday, January 11, 2025
While I made no specific resolutions for this New Year, I have made a few decisions that sure look like resolutions given their timing. For example, I’m quitting on a lot of memberships and subscriptions in the coming year. Been meaning to do that since I retired but haven’t been able to pull the trigger.
With regrets and regards to all the ham radio clubs and specialty publishers with whom I’ve maintained a paid connection. I’ll begin my third year of retirement next month (time does fly) and I figure it’s time for our budget to begin looking more like that of retirees.
Nothing is immune and everything requiring a renewal will be dropped.
The same goes for kits. I’m done. I have more than a dozen radio kits that I built over the years that haven’t seen use in decades, with another two dozen waiting to be built. I keep lying to myself that I will get around to building them one of these days, but after two years of retirement the stack of kits waiting to be built continues to grow. This is just more nutty behavior that needs to end.
So no resolutions for 2025, just a few promises.
Friday, January 10, 2025
I’ve had a Bluesky account since the service launched. I’ve been loathe to mention it here because having fled Twitter a few years ago, I really haven’t wanted much to do with social media. Creating a Bluesky presence was more “let’s see what this is like” than a commitment to a platform.
Initially, there was so little traffic I generally ignored it. But since the election there has been a noticeable uptick in activity, refugees from the fallout no doubt. Bluesky continues to grow and today there’s a vibrant amateur radio population beginning to build a village there.
Maybe you’re there too? Give me a follow if your interest is ham radio. I don’t do politics.
Bluesky is a decentralized social app conceptualized by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and developed in parallel with Twitter. The social network has a Twitter-like user interface with algorithmic choice, a federated design and community-specific moderation.
Bluesky is using an open source framework built in-house, the AT Protocol, meaning people outside of the company have transparency into how it is built and what is being developed.
Dorsey introduced the Bluesky project back in 2019 while he was still Twitter CEO. At the time, he said Twitter would be funding a “small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with building a decentralized standard for social media, with the original goal that Twitter would adopt this standard itself. But that was before Elon Musk bought the platform, so Bluesky is completely divorced from X.
As of May 2024, Dorsey is no longer on Bluesky’s board. Bluesky is now an independent public benefit corporation led by CEO Jay Graber.
Thursday, January 09, 2025
Good morning. Here in the US, it’s a National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter, the first former president to live to 100. That means things won’t fully operate as normal today, and flags will fly at half-staff for the next 30 days.
NCDXF is pleased to announce its financial support for the February 2026 3Y0K Bouvet DXpedition. There will be two grants totaling up to $200,000. The first will be a downpayment of $100,000. The second will be a dollar for dollar match up to $100,000. The match will be a challenge to the clubs and hams that donate prior to the DXpedition.
The latest edition of the NCDXF newsletter (Winter 2024) is available for download and includes articles about: CY9C (St. Paul Is.); FT4GL (Glorioso Is.); XT2MD (Burkina Faso); 6O7T (Somaliland); A8OK (Liberia); “Better Low Band Reception” (AA7JV); and Cycle 25 Fund & Cycle 25 Society.
2,025,799,595 QSO records have been entered into the LoTW system.
Wednesday, January 08, 2025
Band conditions haven’t been great the last few days and my DX production has suffered because of it. Not helping is that my favorite DX cluster went down over the weekend, not a fatal problem, but another brick in the wall. I had things setup smooth as a perfect self-checkout transaction at the grocery for awhile here and now that’s gone wonky. Awww biscuits.
Still, I managed to work HH2K on 15 for another new one on CW. I have Haiti in the log a dozen times, all SSB and FT8, none via CW so I’ll take it. That was after I worked S01WS (Western Sahara) also on 15 CW, an ATNO. Huzzah!
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
People keep saying the ARRL needs to do something to goose up it’s membership numbers. Problem is, few have good ideas for how they should do that, although from what I read most suggest that they throw open the floodgates in Newington and give everything away for free. Memberships, magazines, books, you name it. I suppose they could simply anoint all licensed radio amateurs in the US as official “members” and declare victory with 100 percent membership? Instead of that, the ARRL is going the decidedly more “American” route; a high value lottery.
The National Association for Amateur Radio® has introduced a sweepstakes, offering members the chance to win an Icom Dream Station including a limited-edition IC-7760 HF/50 MHz transceiver, IC-PW2 amplifier, and microphone, generously donated by Icom America. The ARRL Sweepstakes will run from January 3 to December 31, 2025. It is an exciting centerpiece of a year-long campaign to encourage new membership, and a fun way for current members to extend their support for ARRL.
There’s no way for me to tell if this will move the needle, but I think if they are headed down this road anyway, they should go the route American’s love more than life itself, gambling! It’s everywhere. America is one giant casino where you can gamble on everything. Sports, games, even the exact moment a traffic light changes! People are bleeding their retirement accounts to visit distant casinos and lose everything they have with a drink in their hand, the way Jesus and the Founding Father’s intended.
I know this to be true because winter weather has kept me indoors watching more television than usual where I’ve noticed every third commercial is another chance to gamble. (The 2nd most prevalent television advert is for boner pills while number one are those “all over” deodorant commercials. Apparently, women are sitting on a mountain of stink and there’s profit to be mined from it).
I figure the ARRL could integrate online betting in conjunction with the many contests it sponsors. They just make membership mandatory in order to enter a bet and away they would go. Increased membership, increased revenue, happy days are here again! Of course, they would have to spin off a new organization that would fit into the US gambling tax system, but that seems a tiny price to pay for such large rewards.
I’m not kidding about this. All other ideas for member growth are weak tea by comparison. You figure out a way to integrate gambling with amateur radio and the ARRL will be rolling arse over elbows in new members and their dollars…
Sunday, January 05, 2025
I refilled the bird feeders Saturday and enjoyed watching the little creatures eat their fill. My ham shack is located in a sun room addition to the house that protrudes into the backyard making it a perfect spot for me to keep tabs on the birds and the squirrels who visit. I wanted to make certain they had something to eat before the big winter storm arrives on Sunday. I hope I don’t jinx us by saying this, but it looks like the expected major winter storm continues to weaken. Expected snow fall totals has fallen from “more than 10 inches” to 3-4 inches. None has fallen yet so we will see as the day progresses.
Yesterday was another good DX day as I managed yet another new one on CW. IS0GQX in Sardinia was worked and confirmed via LoTW on 10 meters. A few more were worked, including a couple more in the WWA2025. I also received confirmation via LoTW yesterday for a couple of contacts (ATNO) made during the Cook Island DXpedition (E51SGC) in November. Yet another happy dance!
I’m making chicken and noodles for Sunday dinner, the chicken is already on the stove. This afternoon I plan to watch it snow out the window, puff on my pipe, and tune the bands with hope the lucky DX streak isn’t over just yet.
Saturday, January 04, 2025
Woke to 10F with clear skies this morning. The temperature in the shack had fallen to 45F, the coolest I’ve seen it in here. I fired up the heater before starting the first pot of coffee and things have warmed up to 60F in here now.
Not a bad start to the New Year in the DXCC department. I’m focusing primarily on CW in ‘25 and the early results have been good.
Included in those was an ATNO which always induces happy dancing like nobody is watching in the shack. That happened when I snagged 7Q2T on ten meters. Other DX worked included EG8WWA, FY5KE, and CE2JXO. Then I caught JM7OLW and we had a nice chat until the band began to sink rapidly. In and amongst these were several World Wide Award 2025 stations, an activity that runs the entire month of January.
There will be more time for radio tomorrow (Sunday) as we are bracing for the first serious winter storm of the season with 5-6 inches of snow preceded by sleet expected. Assuming the power stays on, I shouldn’t have anything better to do than enjoy radio from the warm side of the window.