It’s been raining all morning, nice and gentle, so far. Made sleeping-in an extra hour too easy. The parched lawn is soaking every bit of it up right now. I’ve got a couple of windows open here in the shack and the sound of falling rain is better than music to my ears. While writing this I received a text message from my son who is taking one his daughters to school this morning that said, “People who cut in school drop off line deserve the death penalty” so I have an idea how his morning is going and I’m grateful to be home, near the coffee pot, with no particular place to go.

When I received shipping confirmation for the new Elecraft K4 a few days ago I started reconfiguring the shack as it will arrive on Monday. The first thing was to remove all the big iron to make way for the new equipment. While waiting, I’ve put the KX3 into service and have powered it these last few days with a battery. I logged more than thirty POTA activators using QRP CW this week. I’m up to 745 unique parks worked on my way to a thousand which is where I’ll stop POTA hunting.

Sprat 200 arrived in the Heartland mail yesterday, another good edition that will give me a few weeks of enjoyment as I like to do a quick scan on the first pass, then really hone in on several subsequent passes. I’ve ordered the latest and greatest Sprat on a stick from HQ in England. I buy one of these every three or four years as a “backup” for the printed versions. It’s not likely I’ll lose a Sprat magazine as these are highly valued around here, but you never know…

I ordered a 20 meter version of the Old Friend transceiver kit yesterday too. The first production run sold out in less than 24 hours, but now I’m on the list to get one, whenever it is again available. Funny note, support for that transceiver comes via the chat with the designers groups list where one fellow chimed in that the use of OF (Old Friend) might have been a poor choice as “OF” means something different and spam filters might snag these emails. I believe he will eventually come round to see the humor in it. Maybe. :-)