You Can’t Lose If You Aren’t Trying to Win

This past weekend was the ARRL DX CW contest.  I have been attending the CWOps’ CW Academy and have been steadily progressing in CW skill and speed.  One of the tools used in the class is RufzXP which provides practice copying calls at high speed.  Another tool, MorseRunner, similarly provides contest-like practice.  After using both… Read More »

WWV on Wrist

I recently purchased a new watch. I needed a utility watch that is affordable and wanted the ability to easily display local time and UTC. In my research I came across Casio’s Waveceptor WV200A. (originally released in 2012). These watches have a built in receiver that synchs to WWV for accurate timekeeping. It’s pretty slick.… Read More »

CW Haiku

I’ve been working on my CW skills and am enrolled in the CWOps’ Intermediate CW Academy. As part of the class, in addition to the official CWOps assignments, we get extra ‘super secret’ assignments. One of the assignments was to compose a CW-related Haiku and be ready to send in class. We are working on… Read More »

ARRL Field Day 2020

I decided to try to operate during Field Day this year. My two goals, in keeping with the spirit of firld day, were: Operate to simulate real-world disaster conditions (Under emergency power, outdoors, minimal equipment, field expedient antenna deployment) To demonstrate and generate interest in amateur radio to my nephews. Set-up In keeping with my… Read More »

Replacing the G5RV

One aspect of this hobby that I enjoy is antenna design and experimentation.  I’ve written before about my plan to build and off-center fed dipole (OCFD) which I may build in the future.  However, I am currently looking at a different antenna design to replace my current G5RV when I finish cutting down trees on… Read More »