Words I never thought I’d hear myself say, “I remember fifty years ago like it was yesterday”. My goodness, but I’m getting old! Fifty years ago I was a junior in high school and incredibly excited because it was 1976, America’s bicentennial and celebrations of that major milestone were everywhere to be seen. It felt as though I was living in a very special moment. Though it would still be one more year before I would receive my ham radio license, I was preparing for that day. I had worked Field Day with the local club (hand logging in the...
Twelve years have passed since the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship took place in the woods of Massachusetts in the United States. That event became the basis for one of the more interesting amateur radio books written in the 21st century, Contact Sport, by author and radio amateur J.K. George. “Pairs of contestants huddle in tents filled with communications equipment. Their voices soar through the air, riding waves into the atmosphere, as they comb through static and noise for a response from the other side of the world. They’re searching for loot in the form of other voices in the...
Another season has changed and another month has come and gone. July is bringing an oppressive heat wave here in the Heartland so I’m certain to spend more time indoors this month. The crops in the field will enjoy this burst of 90+F weather for awhile, but with July and August ahead, I believe we are in for an abundance of oppressive heat. There are 83 days to the start of autumn… Most read posts during the month of June: Introducing FacilisQSO - in this satirical short story set in 2029, a booming new service promises hams DXCC Honor Roll...
Cale, K4HCK noted in his latest edition of Amateur Radio Weekly the availability of an online archive of CQ Magazine. This is some sort of mash-up between the publication owner and the old Buckmaster International, LLC. who now runs HamCall.net. What they are offering includes a few different ways to get at the goods. Being a ham radio history buff who has promised to stop bringing piles of old books and magazines into our home, an online archive of this history is highly valued. I quickly sent them the sixty-bucks they wanted for year-long access to the magazines, all the...
Richard “Dick” Sherwood Smith, W4RSS, 84, passed away peacefully on March 1, 2026, at Ball Memorial Hospital after a very short illness. Dick and I became friends about eight years ago when he and his wife, Liz, moved to nearby New Castle, Indiana, to be closer to their kids. His granddaughter attended Ball State University so he was acquainted with the area, was a radio amateur, and one day happened across my blog. He told me he wanted us to get together sometime. I told him my wife and I were planning to attend a talk at the University that...