Well, March has been a really busy month for me. I was ill, so I had more time to #occupyhamshack. I’m feeling much better now, thank you, and I’m dying to get out for a road trip or two. With a day left in the month, I’ve have 881 contacts so far. That, of course, includes the ARRL International DX contest and the CQ WPX contest, but still that’s too much time on the radio.
I blame JT65HF. I’m a “multitasker” by nature, and I find that I can watch the news, keep up with Twitter, play Microsoft Hearts, and never miss a contact on JT65. It’s just my wife and I, and I have the radio shack/man cave at one end of the house, and she has her craft room at the other end and neither of us watches much television. At first I thought I would quickly run out of unique contacts on JT65. After all, how many people are going to use such a limited means of communications? It’s only thirteen characters and it takes minutes to make a contact. And yet, here they come. From the Falklands to the North Pole, they’ll piling up on 14.076, 21.076, etc., and I work ‘em all.
And then there is Twitter. I really enjoy my Hamtwit friends. These are the hams I follow and who follow me on Twitter. I’m always interested to see where @wb0lcw is lurking on the bands. I see him turning up on 40 or 20 in the evenings. Along with all our friends, we went through the ordeal when @NR4CB lost her mother. The outpouring of love was fantastic. I find myself wondering if @ke7jtu is getting enough to eat. It seems like he forgets to eat when he’s busy. I’ve never met these people, but I feel like I know them. And yes, I’ve worked a few of them on the air. If you’re not on twitter, go there and look for the hashtags #hamradio or #hamr and join in the conversation.
After working two of the spring contests, I vowed I’d never work another contest without a decent headset. The Heil Proset 6 arrived via UPS from HRO this afternoon. I ordered the cable for the TS-480 and setup was a snap. I didn’t order the footswitch because I already have two. Some twenty-five years ago, I picked up two footswitches out the bargain bin at the RatShack. I paid .50 for each and I’ve had them in my stash, unused, since then. I remember thinking that while I didn’t have a use for them at the time, I probably would someday! Of course, the bands are down today, and I haven’t had a chance to burn through the ether with my new toy yet, but I’m looking forward to giving then a try.
1 comment:
I ordered some Heil stuff too, but not the headset, the PR20, foot switch and boom. So good to know the cable will work well, but it is between here and HamCity in LA presently. I've got a few good pairs of headphones already (CW will do that to you!), so I thought the boom was the way to go.
I've run into you a few places on the bands John, I feel like your shadow sometimes. I still can't believe that one day I just happened to pop onto 14.230 and see you send a CQ SSTV pic (nice one too).
Glad you're feeling better!
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