About one weekend every month, my house empties out for the weekend. My wife, who is an Assistant Scoutmaster, and our two kids go off on a camping adventure. I stay home to take care of the dogs. That is my story and I will stick to it ThankYouVeryMuch! In any case, I usually take…
16th place in the Single Operator – Single Radio – Low Power – In A Park category with 1,053 points. That’s how it shook out. That category is always very competitive. Or maybe I should say that it’s got a lot of entries. It’s the most fun way to run the contest and single operator,…
The forecast for the week was just too good. It was warm and the sun was out. Friday was set to be in the 70s with mostly blue skies and light breezes and that’s exactly what it was. I took the day off and decided that, after getting a haircut, I’d head out to the…
Almost Too Good To Be True The ending days of October in Ohio come with unpredictable weather. Last weekend it was in the 30s and 40s with high winds and rain. Suddenly, the sun returned and temperatures bounced up into the 70s. Never had a Tuesday screamed for a little time out in The Big…
Ah That Beautiful Autumn Weather It’s that time of the year where Northeast Ohio reminds us that it’s going to be cold and miserable for a bit. There was a good amount of rain on Saturday and that combined with a myriad of family activities made getting out for an activation impossible. Sunday was a…
One of the first ham radio specific kits that I built was a dummy load from QRP Guys. I keep it on my desk. It’s two PCBs with a shedload of resistors sandwiched between. It is simple. It is brutally effective. And the other day, it was invisible. I have no idea how it wound…
My last couple of activations have been at West Branch State Park – K-1999. I mentioned back in January of this year that one week there were restrooms and picnic shelters and the next weekend they were all gone. As someone who frequents a park, it began to kind of eat at me. There had…
Bachelor Weekend! This past weekend was one where my son and I were living the bachelor life as the ladies were off camping. Given that my son is a big time sleep in kind of guy, I took the opportunity to go to West Branch State Park – K-1999 for an activation. Why West Branch?…
A Perfect Day To Activate The First of October was a truly beautiful Sunday. The sky was clear and it was in the mid-60dF range. There was a light breeze and I didn’t care what the solar weather was looking like because it was a day I had to be outside. My family was running…
The Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park has always been a special place. I spent a good amount of time in my youth at Camp Manatoc which is inside of the park borders. I also hiked and hung around in Virginia Kendall Park which contains The Octagon and Ledges areas where I did most of my…