Blogging is hard. It’s a medium that first surfaced decades ago and was routinely ignored. Then it went viral and soon everyone on the planet had a blog. Five years later (125 internet years), blogs were much too passé for the pretty people who migrated to other forms of social media. I read once that between Wordpress and Blogspot there are more than a billion abandoned blogs. Ghost towns. Crickets. Most failed to launch with hordes of bloggers having created less than a thousand total words before going silent.
What can I say? Writing content no one asked for isn’t easy and always a bit of a slippery slope. It’s even more difficult doing it for a specific genre, like ham radio. There’s a fairly tight circle of ham radio bloggers, maybe fifty in total. At least that’s what I regularly see in my feed reader. There are many more of course, but hundreds are hit and miss, posting only a couple times each year. Some go a decade between posts. Forgive me if my estimate of ham bloggers offends, it’s touchy-feely and not very scientific.
And that’s okay. Post frequency is no predictor of quality. One of my favorite blogs is curated by Dave, AA7EE, an artist constructing and restoring radio equipment that he chronicles online. But it’s a painstakingly meticulous process that results in much less frequent updates. Each of his posts includes photos and descriptions that capture the joy of hobby electronics in a way only a purist can. His ravenous readers, including me, can’t wait to devour the next project on his plate.
From another ham blogger comes a post that has become one of my recent favorites. In The Curious Challenge of FFMA Ron, VE3VN included several important details on a subject I knew little about (Fred Fish Memorial Award). I learned several somethings reading his post. Plus, he shared various nuggets of wisdom that provided illumination about that specific chase that I found refreshing and applicable elsewhere:
FFMA is one of those awards where you must work every entity. This is like reaching the top of the Honor Roll, a clean sweep in the Sweepstakes contest, all zones in CQ WW, or all counties in a QSO party… I have the needed (grid) list from one friend who is moderately serious about FFMA. If I hear what appears to be a rare grid I’ll check his list and contact him. He’s whittled down the number of remaining grids this way, moving him a few steps closer. I hope that he is eventually successful. The list isn’t long yet it will take him years to get there, if at all. You have to enjoy the chase since few reach the finish line… For everyone chasing FFMA or similar difficult awards, I salute you and sincerely wish you the best of luck. But I won’t join you in the chase…
Being a grizzled old storyteller whose ‘expires by’ date has long ago come and gone, I don’t know what I can still bring to the party. But at least I can continue pointing out and linking to other writers whose work I find scintillating. That is, after all, why we call it the web, right?
The Value of Social Media During a Crisis
Not a great morning to be a human. It’s just a good thing we have social media to help inform us and sort everything out:
Twitter: Kill, Kill, Kill. Game on. Pray for Israel.
Bluesky: Israel is bombing Gaza. Israel is bombing Beirut. Israel is bombing Tehran. Let me guess… it’s Biden’s fault?
Mastodon: Can someone help me gain root access to my roommates laptop?
Organic Challenges
I have said for the longest time that there is hidden joy in making up your own games using the radio. For instance, a determination to work fifty DX entities using only that small QRP CW transceiver you built ten years ago and a wire antenna won’t net you any wallpaper, but it can be a joyful diversion especially when the hobby is feeling a little… stale. The challenges you can invent for yourself are endless, but it’s fun too when others participate.
Chuck Adams, AA7FO has recently thrown down the gauntlet on just such a new quest. He wants to do a low-power, simple antenna, POTA chase using a fresh-brewed transceiver with the goal of working all states:
“My original interest was to work POTA activators from home with 1W and a simple antenna system… I’ve reset my counter. Gotta finish an SST and ADC before I can get serious. That’s the reason for my reset to July. I am making progress on both and getting ready to let the beasts out of the pen”.
Of course, you can earn wallpaper from the POTA folks for WAS, but I really like it when such efforts come up organically and are embraced by even a small community of like-minded radio adventurers.
Children of the Corn
I’ve lived around here nearly all my life yet I’m always amazed by the lifecycle of corn. It’s just popping through the dirt in neat rows right now, but in a few months it will be eight-feet tall and you couldn’t walk through this field if you tried. I don’t care much for warm weather, but the corn sure likes it…
Field Day - Where Will You Operate?
Field Day is fast approaching and we can expect to hear a lot about whether the event is an emergency preparedness exercise or a contest. Happens every year and there is no wrong answer. I figure it’s a contest, why else keep score? But that argument has been around so long it’s become part of the pageantry of the dance and it wouldn’t be Field Day without it being vigorously debated!
ARRL is encouraging all to participate, whether with your local club, in the field, backyard, or from your home station, read about the available categories for every style of operation:
2025 ARRL Field Day is just three weeks away! The excitement is building. Most clubs have their activations planned. In the last two weeks, 350 more sites have been added to the Field Day Site Locator, with a total of 886 listed as of June 5. ARRL Field Day is a great way to connect with your local amateur radio community, for Technician-class operators to get on lower HF bands, to shake down your portable operating gear, and to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of your fellow hams.
If you can’t make it out to an activation near you, or you’d just rather get on for a little bit from your home station – never fear: there’s an operating class for you.
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
UPDATE: I updated the links in this article because TACO Don and Musk have pulled their threatening tweets down. Maybe a little tonsil hockey is in store for these two as they try to fix the bromance…
When I earlier wrote that we just lost the moon, this is exactly what I had envisioned. The inevitable implosion of the Musk/Trump bromance. Two moronic narcissists with delusions of grandeur could never swap spit for long without it coming to this. We may soon witness the complete demise of Tesla and SpaceX. Trump threatened to pull government contracts from Musk while Musk replied he would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately. Then, to seal the breakup with a kiss, he lobbed in that Epstein grenade.
FYI - SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is a reusable spacecraft capable of carrying up to seven passengers and cargo to and from Earth orbit, according to SpaceX. NASA currently relies on the capsule to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), so canceling these government contracts effectively eliminates America’s ability to launch astronauts to space from American soil.
Who knows, perhaps some enchanted evening, with a bottle of perfectly chilled Dom Perignon for Musk and a Diet Coke for Trump, along with a magically prepared plastic tray of Big Mac’s and American fries out on the terrace of the White House - when the light and shadow of evening are perfect, and with a soft, tender serenade for the broken couple, the two largest egos in the observable universe might rekindle their bromance?
It’s the only thing that can keep hope alive for the US to get back to the Moon and maybe some day travel to Mars.
But all the Vegas money is on China. Radio hams need to cultivate more friends in China if we want to take part in the greatest adventure of the 21st century…
More Time Passages
The antenna work is still ongoing, adding ground rods and re-routing cables, etc. It’s sweaty work, especially now that it has warmed considerably. 88F was the high yesterday and similar temps are expected today before thunder arrives overnight. I’ve got the HVAC guy coming out this morning for the annual A/C service and checkup. The unit is only three years old, but I prefer not to suffer any mid-season problems in miserable weather if at all possible. I booked that a few months ago, the brilliant timing was purely coincidental.
⁍ Not sure what’s churning the amateur radio antenna business these days but it seems SteppIR has decided to step out of the market for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, WiMo acquired OptiBeam Antenna Technologies.
We often joke around with the kids about how the sands of time have shifted around certain phrases or terms that were once so common they never required explanation. For instance, “turn the channel” was understood to mean turning the knob on the television to another channel. TV’s haven’t had rotatable knobs for decades. Or something like a “record machine” or “juke box” are things that cause younger generations to scratch their heads. When Donna Summer once sung “turn up the old Victrola” we all knew what she meant. We could commiserate with Jim Croce when he talked to the “operator” on the phone. Most today have no reason to understand.
And now that the life of the penny, the one-cent piece, is coming to an end, more such anomalies will be created. Thirty years from now if someone plays the song “Pennies from Heaven” or other such ditties, only the old folks will get it.
Just another throw-away phrase obviated by time passages…
Potpourri
2025 ARRL Field Day - FAQ with the Contest Program Manager
Friedrich Merz, DL7DQ - won lawmakers’ approval to become the next German chancellor on Tuesday in a second vote in parliament, hours after an unprecedented defeat in the first round.
The Yasme Foundation - is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has selected Mark Beckwith, N5OT, as its newest Director.
The Logger’s Bark - excellent online magazine [PDF] from the Radio Club of Tacoma.
2025 SK List read at the Dayton Contest Dinner - K9ZO, K3RR, K7BV, VE7AHA, W1FV, MU0FAL, K5QE, K3PP, K5XA, N3AO, K9NR, K8UT, K2SZ, W7UA, NE3F, KU7Y, KK9DX, WA6FGV, W3RFC, AA5BT, K8NA, WB2YQH, NP2B, K5KC, K2WR, EA5RM, OH2BAD, ZL3NB, NQ7R, FM5AN, YV1IF, G3HTA, N1MD, K4MM, N9UA, W9NGA, W3EP, W5OV, W4RJ, W8KEN, K5ZG, HA6PX, UW1M, W3KL, HK1A, AF3K, N6NB, KF6T, N9LB, W5KNE.
Riding the Storm Out
Some antenna work is underway here that I expect might take about three days to complete so I figured now was a good time for that given another solar storm is churning up the HF bands anyway. Seems odd to walk into the shack this morning with a cup of coffee and not be able listen to the radio, but the feed lines are all disconnected from the shack and this sudden transition from wizard to muggle is no fun. Do people really live like this?
End of the Month Rants
The weather has been perfect (for me) this last month, 70F for the highs and 52F for the lows. Those who dream about swimming pools and splash-pads may be disappointed, but the month of May was certainly a comfortable one here. I see that’s all going to change soon so I will just have to grin and bear it while the more typical heat waves begin roasting the Heartland. One thing that still hasn’t changed, the damn grass won’t quit growing. I’m still doing the dance twice a week like some old retired guy with nothing better to do. Put it this way, despite having a small, neighborhood lot (0.3 acres) I’ve decided to buy a riding mower as I don’t fancy spending the rest of my life pushing a lawn mower twice a week…
Having entered my “Old Man Maintenance” era I have discovered new ways for technology to piss me off. Being 66, my doctor has been sending me on various missions like for a heart scan and yesterday to a dermatologist for a skin cancer screening. Thankfully all is well, but now I’m interacting with more “offices” than ever and these enjoy sending me automated text messages. I knew giving any of them my phone number was a bad idea. Now I get messages a week before reminding me of the upcoming appointment. Then two days before I get another one requesting I send back a Y or N confirmation if I intend to keep the appointment. Then the day before there is another reminder. The day of the appointment there is a “see you soon!” text message. By the time I arrive I’m spitting fire and ready to kill, but that would be pointless. No one in the office is doing this. The service originates from a server farm in Mumbai. I hate this communication technology…
I regularly follow Tim Bray’s blog and note his recent gripe about two differently bad ways to compare numbers. I have a pet peeve about the frequent usage of “ton” to mean any large quantity of anything. If you write, “I had a ton of QRM last night” you will get your point across, but I will be secretly judging you. A ton is a measure of weight and you can’t “weigh” radio interference with a scale. Same goes for a “ton of money” or food, or whatever. In a similar manner, Bray inveighs against the overuse of the term “orders of magnitude” with good reason:
“Order of magnitude” - Typically sloppy usages: “AI increases productivity by an order of magnitude”, “Revenue from recorded music is orders of magnitude smaller than back in the Eighties”. Everyone reading this probably already knows that “order of magnitude” has a precise meeting: Multiply or divide by ten. But clearly, the people who write news stories and marketing spiels either don’t, or are consciously using the idioms to lie. In particular, they are trying to say “more than” or “less than” in a dramatic and impressive-sounding way. Perversely, I guess you could argue that these bad idioms are useful in helping you detect statements that are probably either ignorant or just lies. Anyhow, now you know that when I hear them, I hear patterns that make me inclined to disbelieve. And I bet I’m not the only one…
Word.