Another lazy morning in the shack. It’s a little later than usual so I’m slurping tea instead of coffee. Earl Grey in a big mug, but the downside is I was out of loose leaf and had to make do with a tea bag. Something a friend says is akin to “instant coffee” and I don’t usually disagree, but this is going down easy.

The weather has been spectacular this week. Pure autumn. 70F during the days and 40F at night with endless blue skies. It’s nearly as good as the autumns of my youth except for the vagaries of (my) advancing age. Still, these days must be savored and adored as the Fall season seems to be only half as long as any of the other seasons. To that end we went for another hike in a nearby State Park yesterday and it was sublime.

Mounds State Park
On the trail at Mounds State Park US-2261

Reading more news about how AI continues to be embedded in everything, including new Apple silicon, and how that presents even more privacy problems. And you know not to get me started down that road. I already believe US citizens are surveilled more scrupulously than Chinese or Russian citizens. Yeah, our government spies on its people, let’s work that verse into the national anthem at the next Super Bowl. Given those privacy concerns, I came up with a solution. Linux. I’d just go back to what I did decades ago and lose the worry.

Until I read that Linus is now okay with AI getting all frisky with the kernel code. So now what, NetBSD? FreeBSD?

Here’s a weird one for you, but I need to preface it by saying I’ve been off the HF bands for a couple of months and my last logged contact took place on August 12th. So I’m watching some nature program a few days ago and it included mention of Baffin Island. I’ve always wanted to visit Baffin. The remoteness of it reverberates in my head and I thought that might be an interesting destination for me and my buddy Mitch. We often discuss visiting exotic locales but seldom get beyond the planning stage. Blame me. Leisure getaways are nearly impossible when you are the caregiver for your spouse.

But we have discussed Baffin Island before and that got me curious about radio activity from there. Turns out, even though it’s far away, it’s part of Canada so it’s not particularly “rare” DX. But there is activity on Baffin, including what seems to be an active club, the Iqaluit Amateur Radio Club VY0IRC.

I open the log to see if maybe I have ever worked anyone on Baffin Island. After all, VY0 is kinda rare. As it turns out I have worked someone from Baffin. One lone contact. VY0IRC. On August 12th. The very last entry in my station log. Not gonna lie boys, that gave me a chill and seemed a very odd coincidence and I’m not really sure what to make of it.

Maybe it’s a sign I need to get back on the bands?