AmateurRadio.com

I was sitting in our Board Meeting for the NI4CE repeater system – http://ni4ce.org and realized that I have not been playing radio in quite some time. There is more than one reason. I have been extremely busy at work and due to that I have had no time for anything else.

One of those other life factors besides work, kids, family, and other hobbies is school. For many of you this might sound odd, but for others you will completely understand.

At this point in my life, even though I have been in computer industry for over 25 years, I have never had a college degree. My wife was starting her MBA and I said with her going to be taking on the stress and challenge of that maybe it’s something I should consider. I looked into what my company would help pay for, I looked into the time commitments, and I landed on University of Phoenix.

Online works great for me – I am a computer geek and live online. I thought this would be a great time in life and then I would finally not be the only person around the table that couldn’t talk about having their degree. It was just something that always has been in the back of my mind.

Well, I started and finished week 1 with all A’s in my two classes and I’m on my way. I understand that this isn’t Ham Radio specific but if you ever read my story about how Ham Radio helped put me on a better path you will understand why this ties back together. Ham Radio helped me get my 15-year-old head on straight; many people in the hobby-helped push me into computers. I have worked for one of the largest software companies for the last 18 years and been pretty lucky to still know the two guys that did it.

I am sure my story of going back and getting my college education will bring more bliss to a great story they had impact on.

I won’t post all of my weeks progress, but I thought I would start with week one:

http://nicktoday.com/week-one-officially-books-university-phoenix/

I am still active on the Board of Directors for NI4CE and I am going to do my best to get back into radio further. I promise J for not if you want to find me it will most likely be in the library.

Series Six Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, North American report form Frank Howell (K4FMH) and Martin Butler (M1MRB) reviews the RSGB SSB Field Day 2013.

• Etherkit releases CRX1 - A new 40 meter receiver kit
• Radio hams to say 'HI' to Juno on 10m
• Are UK amateur radio licences really on the increase?
• Ham radio involvement in Colorado floods
• Ham radio operators lobby Poway council for changes
• Reciprocal licensing – Japan and New Zealand
• Inflatable antenna could give CubeSats greater reach
• Portugal takes action against illegal radio communications
• New UK 76GHz distance record
• Space Station Slow Scan TV active

Series Six Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. The latest news, North American report form Frank Howell (K4FMH) and Martin Butler (M1MRB) reviews the RSGB SSB Field Day 2013.

• Etherkit releases CRX1 - A new 40 meter receiver kit
• Radio hams to say 'HI' to Juno on 10m
• Are UK amateur radio licences really on the increase?
• Ham radio involvement in Colorado floods
• Ham radio operators lobby Poway council for changes
• Reciprocal licensing – Japan and New Zealand
• Inflatable antenna could give CubeSats greater reach
• Portugal takes action against illegal radio communications
• New UK 76GHz distance record
• Space Station Slow Scan TV active

Series Six Episode Nineteen of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has
been released. The latest news, North American report form Frank Howell
(K4FMH) and Martin Butler (M1MRB) reviews the RSGB SSB Field Day 2013.

• Etherkit releases CRX1 – A new 40 meter receiver kit
• Radio hams to say ‘HI’ to Juno on 10m
• Are UK amateur radio licences really on the increase?
• Ham radio involvement in Colorado floods
• Ham radio operators lobby Poway council for changes
• Reciprocal licensing – Japan and New Zealand
• Inflatable antenna could give CubeSats greater reach
• Portugal takes action against illegal radio communications
• New UK 76GHz distance record
• Space Station Slow Scan TV active

I recently found out that this site has had ‘malware’ on it. Kindly Google informed me that there was something there. After a frantic search I found what looked like some odd code in the header and immediately removed it. What the code did or does do to other peoples computers is a mystery to me but it’s safe to say it isn’t going to be giving out winning lottery tickets or anything nice. So, apologies to whoever it has affected and I’d love to say it won’t happen again but this is now the second site I know of that has been given some hooky code by some nefarious individuals for their own gain. Might be worth considering a change in platform.

I thought I might get skunked today!  The bands seemed pretty dead – and the wind was blowing 20-25 mph!

I finally did have two QSO’s….

IK2CIO – Vini was calling CQ from Italy.  Tried several times and got a 599 report from him – which I suspect was more of a contest style report – but still fun none the less!  I worked Vini on 17 meters.

I didn’t hear any other action, so I called CQ on 20 meters at 14.061.  A very weak station replied….

AJ8P – Jeff returned my CQ from Sherrodsville, OH.  He was very weak, and then someone started calling CQ really close to us.  If I cranked up the filter, I would lose him – so just had to suffer through it.  Jeff said he was running 2 watts.

After I got back to work, I had an email from Jeff.  He sent me this picture and said he was using the Mag Loop inside!  This just makes me want to get one of my loops working so I can start having some radio fun from the comfort of my home.

From checking out Jeff’s QRZ page, he has a couple nice QRP rigs on his page – worth a visit.