This really is a hobby made up of hobbies. And as is almost always the case, I have found ways to complicate things and tread on ground that either is seldom traveled or more easily avoided for most. See, I used to do a lot of audio editing and recording on GNU/Linux based systems back…
As is often the case, my dad sent me a text message as I was sitting around with my radio and put an idea in my head. It was a fairly simple idea and he was just trying to be helpful. But there went 90 minutes of poking at various bits of tech. I’ve been…
Not for nothing, but I assembled a sunclock with a Raspberry Pi and a touchscreen. It’s not particularly complex, but it makes for a nice piece on my desk. I also use the Pi for serving files and other odd jobs. It’s great piece of tech and I’m not sure why any self-respecting nerd would…
A few good things happened over the Thanksgiving holiday. One of them was that my dad came to visit. Not really a surprise as that’s how it goes every year. But this year, he brought his antenna analyzer and we got down to business with my 20m/40m dipole. It’s the same antenna I had some…
Ham radio really is a hobby made up of hobbies. It’s an onion and the more one peels, the more there is to peel. And there is no shortage of areas to explore. I got my license just about a year ago – I took my Technician exam on my dad’s birthday – and an…
This is the story of a novice, rather than that of an amateur. I think I mentioned at one point that I had a dipole in the attic that runs both 20m and 40m with coils. I’ve been listening in and a little shy with the mic. The few times that I did reach out,…
This weekend, a couple of things came across my feed that were pretty cool when it comes to learning Morse Code. I will readily admit that I’ve been slacking on that because life is busy and I wasn’t able to plug in for 15 minutes a day while my mind was fresh. It’s an excuse,…
Well, this is better late than never, I guess. Back when I got my ticket, I decided that I’d take a trip to Hamvention out in Dayton (sorry, Xenia). Being an Ohio native with a dad who is into this stuff, I was well aware of the magnitude of the event and how big the…
No matter what else you learn to do, if you’re going to mess around with building kits, learn to unsolder components. You’re gonna read that resistor code wrong eventually. It uh…happened to a friend of mine this weekend.