This Is The Hard Part Some time ago, I wrote a post about the mechanics of getting your license. I got a little ping from a fellow operator mentioning that it was probably time to talk a little...

Why? If there is one good reason to put down some goals for the coming arbitrary time period, it's to give a list of things one might do when one has time for the hobby but isn't really inspire...

First, Goals for 2024 First, a review of the goals I set for 2024 and how I did. Kilo at US-1999 - This goal was completed in April of 2024. That felt pretty good and it went quickly. Given t...

Circumstances It's mid-November and that happens to coincide with my birthday. In my semi-retired state, I have most days to myself after the kids are off to school. Sure, I have chores to do a...

Ah, The TR-45L... The TR-45L next to the Begali Traveler on a tarp. I will go out on a limb and say that if we were to poll every person who purchased the Penntek TR-45L and those operators...

The Deep Thoughts Documentary films are my favorite form of visual entertainment. There is nothing better than settling in to watch a deep dive on something like a particular ecosystem or conce...

On Being Invisible Late last week, I was made aware of some concerns that the POTA team were having relayed to them by various official agencies about the poor behavior of activators in parks a...

Radio Goals for 2024 Laying out radio goals last year seemed to work really well. It provided a place for me to look as I moved through the year to compare what I said I wanted to do with what ...

2023: The Year In Radio 2023 was a really, really great year for me with Ham Radio. I was able to get on the air and spend time investing in the hobby. It was a continual source of rejuvenation...

How Did That Happen? There were a lot of things stacked against doing an activation on the 27th. First and foremost, it's my wife's birthday so she sets the tone for the day. Having a birthday ...

Peace and Quiet in Deceptive Weather Saturday, December 09 was not what was promised by all of my various weather apps. On a day when the sun was supposed to make an appearance and it was suppo...

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 th...

There are as many ways to enjoy this hobby as there are people enjoying it. Plenty of categories for one to assign to one's self. There are contesters. There are DXers. There are experimenters an...

Learning The Code Learning CW is, like most most skill acquisition processes, a journey. It reminds me a great deal of learning a musical instrument. There are times when it's nothing but a gri...

Ham radio is a hobby that has some requirements. The most significant of these is a license to operate. In order to get that license, one must take a test. And in order for there to be a test, th...

2022 is in the rearview mirror. Seems like the right time to look back at the year in ham radio for KC8JC. Let's do that, shall we? 2022 GOALS At the end of 2021, I was looking for some Stupi...

While logging into the POTA site to get the park numbers for some potential weekend targets, something caught my attention. There was a little rectangle under the header block of my profile. It w...

I'm not a New Years Resolutions kind of a guy, but I do keep a running list of goals that I review every month. It's a habit I got into years ago, and while it's rather silly, I do it anyway. So ...

On 02-Oct-2021 I sat for the Amateur Extra exam. I passed! 49/50 for those keeping score (I was). I'm not sure why I waited this long (aside from managing life and work through a pandemic that ha...

As a newbie to the world of ham radio, some things have been pretty obvious to me that might be missed by those who are steeped in its traditions. One of those is the love/hate relationship betwe...

I'm taking a lot of notes on the IC-705 as I get acquainted with it. I did this when I got my TH-D74 and it served me well. I keep a little notebook around or throw bits and pieces into my noteta...