With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings

The 2026 CQWW SSB is a bust for me, as you have to be able to talk. I’d planned a casual time as available, effort. An ongoing bug has me whispering and not hearing well. The doctor’s tablets for the last 19 days have greatly reduced it, with that return to normal still elusive. I’ll […]

My Spid RAK rotators came with the dedicated controllers. I haven’t taken a shining to these controllers, and playing with the version 1 RT-21D controller I refreshed how much I liked using a Greenheron controller suggested I sort out new units. https://www.greenheronengineering.com/product/rotator-controller-rt-21d/ I’ve selected the LAN port version, as station integration wi...

The UPS man just handed me a delivery of rotator parts I first ordered Monday October 19th at 7:30 PM my time (in the UK this order would be Tuesday October 20th – half an hour after midnight!) and Friday October 23rd at 3:30 PM my time, my order is in hand! Ninety-two hours order […]

A ham friend mentioned he had put up a new tower.  A 150 footer tower. A tower whose in-ground base took over 75 yards of concrete mix! (Like 60 cubic meters for the metric folks). Where I live the concrete would be around $15k just as a material.  You have to dig, form, rebar, build […]

https://www.w9smc.com/ Between my QTH move and medical distractions almost ten years back, I had been dropped to the ranks and communications of SMC.  No big deal, as it took a couple years to get my station back up and running and to get a handle on the health end of things. I’ve recently rejoined SMC, […]