Time to Get Serious!

Well, Field Day is over and I had a blast operating from home as a “1E” on solar charged batteries. I made quite a few contacts, but my operating time was limited by life events like Church and Birthday parties. I love Ham Radio, but IRL I'm a Christian and a Grandfather and that takes precedence. The bands have been very good lately and I've made a lot of contacts. I was working 20 meters into Europe last night at midnight, and that's generally a very good sign that solar conditions are pretty good. This morning has been gangbusters on both 20 and 10 meters.


But, alas, I'm starting to feel unfulfilled. I thought that my Advanced Ticket would be enough for me, after all why worry about a few kilocycles (there I said it and it felt good!) at the bottom of the bands. I've never been very good at math and that's what's been holding me back from trying for the E-Ticket. I got to thinking about why it took me so long to get my Novice Ticket back in the day, and it was because I thought I would never be able to copy 5WPM. I just shrugged it off until I came back from Europe and my brother-in-law, AG4AF (then WA4IGL) encouraged me and I really put some effort into it. I bought an old receiver and listened to the hams having CW QSO's.


I bought a ham call sign book from the Heathkit store in Baltimore (now, if that doesn't tell my age, nothing else will!) and listened for a while every day. I found out that CW was easier than I thought, and I kicked myself for letting it get in my way.


Now, I'm in the same position with the math, and I'm going to lick this and get my ticket. After all, I'm retired and I have almost all the time in the world! Wish me luck, I'm diving in!

Things Are starting to Look Up Here in the Shack

I have no idea why my Ts-480SAT stopped communicating with the computer, but I have tried everything I can to re-establish the RS-232 link, but to no avail.  I have two different null modems and neither one of them works.  I also had a problem with working PSK-31 on the rig.  The internal digital interface would not operate properly, but I finally figured out that it was operator error. I got it working today using my UCA202 sound card and made a few contacts including a Peruvian Special Event station from Machu Pichu.  I hate to have to ship off this radio for repair, but it looks like that may be the final solution to the problem.  I'm heading down to Myrtle Beach for a week in July and I hope to use the Ts-480 portable and mobile on that trip.  We'll see.  In the meantime I have the TS-440SAT up and running fine.  The new 135 ft OCF dipole is working like a champ even though it needs to be clipped just a little bit.  The bands are a little better today; I made a few contacts on 20 and 30 meters.

It's A Small World After All

The bands have been terrible lately.  Mr. Sun is simply not pulling his weight, and I'm starting to get all my equipment ready for sale on QRZ.  I have made a few contacts today on 20 and 30 meters, but it's not easy to cut through the serious QSB.  But you know, just when you start to lose heart, something always pops up to bring you back from the edge.  I was on 10 meters the other day during the 10-10 contest and I heard a call from K5FBS and when the name Clifford A. Taylor popped up in the log, I just had to know if it was the Cliff Taylor I knew from my Army days in Germany.  Sure enough it was him and we had a marvelous chat about our time on the border back in the old cold war days.  I remembered at the time he was studying for his license and building a Heathkit SB-101 to operate from Germany.  He finally passed his exam and got a German call sign.  It tests my memory a bit, but I think it was DL4BO.  Cliff, let me know if that's wrong.