Happy New Year 2025 - On Hiatus

-




 

I hope everyone had an enjoyable and wonderful Christmas. We'll be back sometime in early 2025.

Here are a  couple of Blog Posts we are working on.



I don't need 1.21 Gigawatts, a Flux Capacitor or Plutonium to make a QSO






Confessions from a Wanna-Be Engineer












Comments

Post a Comment

What Everyone Else is Reading

The CW Mouse "Cover Two"

-
Image
  If  any of you follow "LIVE" broadcast of American Football you may have heard the announcers refer to a defense scheme called "Cover Two".  It is a defensive setup that uses two deep safeties to protect the two deep halves of the field.   This is what I use to describe the "CW MOUSE COVER" for the QRP LABS QCX Mini and QMX QRP Transceivers.  Why do I call it the "COVER TWO"?  Because it protects the two knobs and two buttons on top of these two QRP radios, The developer of the CW Mouse Paddle and now this cover asked me to test ride his CW Mouse Cover. There are a few of these covers out within our community but this is the only one I've had an opportunity to use.  I am not able to compare it with any of the others so the opinions I give are strictly based on my use and how it works for me.  The first thing I observed with my test model was it is made from 3D PLA printed material. (PETG material is available upon request).  My cover i...
Read more

There's One Line I Don't Mind Waiting In. "THE GRAY-LINE or GREY-LINE"

-
Image
  Drive Thru Lines, School pick-up Lines, Bank Lines, Grocery Store Lines, Airport Lines and the lists of lines can seem almost endless.  Recently I've come to enjoy standing and waiting in what's called  "THE GRAY-LINE" or "GREY-LINE". Since I'm in the U.S., I'll use the Gray-Line spelling. What is "THE GRAY-LINE"?  For those new to Ham Radio or have not move that far along in their journey of the hobby; it can be defined this way.  "THE GRAY-LINE" is a band around the Earth which separates daylight from darkness.  Propagation along the gray line is very efficient.  The main reason is the D layer of the ionosphere, which absorbs HF signals, disappears rapidly on the sunset side of the gray line and it has not yet built upon the sunrise side.  In the YouTube below Dave Casler explains.  I've worked "The Gray-Line" on many occasions over the years but not in the last few years.  Here it is August 2025 and August is ty...
Read more

The MOST IMPORTANT part of your Ham Station is NOT your RIG!

-
Image
  Over the last few weeks all over the planet Mother Nature has been rearing her ugly head with rounds and rounds of different types of devastating effects of Terrestrial Weather.  For some of us in the Amateur Radio community Space Weather has not been a bed of Roses either. How does this play into my Amateur Radio operating?  It leads me to an ADAGE most of you may have read about in that the MOST IMPORTANT part of your Ham Radio Station is NOT your RIG. IT IS YOUR ANTENNA. I've spent the better part of this summer checking all of my antenna for wear and tear, repairing those that needed and putting each one through their paces on my Nano NVA. Due to unpredictable Terrestrial and Space Weather conditions, my HF operating and Parks on the Air operating have been somewhat diminished during the last few weeks. That has lead me to understand that in the waning period of Solar Cycle 25, I can likely expect the unexpected as we journey on the downside of this cycle.  As ...
Read more