Fun times
Unlike last time, there seems to be lots going on again.
First, with RAC HQ being in the same city as our newly minted director, Craig, VE3OP/VE3KKU is taking an interest in the place. Step one is to clean out the storage space. In 30 years a certain amount of e-waste, old paper and miscellaneous “stuff” piles up, and has to be sorted, into categories: Keep, Toss, Recycle or otherwise dispose, Shred. Who knows what (who) we will find at the bottom of the last box.
Hamfestery
The Hamfest has probably been reported elsewhere, so I won’t repeat that news here, except to say I’m sure if I wasn’t tucked away doing exams all morning that yet more treasures would have followed me home. Just as well that I have a perfect excuse to stay off the sales floor. I get my share of fun launching new hams. In this case it also meant watching a performance I hadn’t seen before. One candidate managed a perfect score on the Basic, followed immediately with perfect Advanced test as well. It makes me think the future of this ham radio thing is in good hands.
Nets to you …
The nets that went to sleep over the summer are once again waking up. In particular, the Pot Lid CW net is back on 50.090 CW on Sundays at 7:30 PM. Last week someone mentioned that they were looking for something I had lying around, so after the net we arranged (on CW at a somewhat higher than “net” speed) a transfer to its new home. Nice to make regular use of 6m once again.
In-person meetings resume …
For how ever long it lasts, the OARC went back to in-person meetings, this time at Scout HQ. It great to see a few people for the first time in years. I’m not sure how to tell you this, but some of you look different from the last time I saw you. The YOTA presentation went well, despite some bandwidth issues. Roger was doing most of the talking via zoom on the big screen and Harrie filling in details in the room. Very informative. VERY impressive. If RAC allowed the amateur of the year to be split between two people, I’d nominate the YOTA brothers in an instant. I hope this is the start of a trend to hybrid meetings. It doesn’t hurt that the location is in my neck of the woods and on a pretty frequent bus line.
Park your radio here …
Earlier today was the OARC “Radio in the Park” day, a non-POTA event where some of us go out to the field and play radio. Over the past several years, where a typical solar flux value was somewhere in the low 80’s, I had given up on low power. My motto was “Life’s too short for QRP (when you are going into the field for an hour)” This year I left the “big rig” at home and brought out a QRP rig. The “old” bands were full of people looking for contest or some other particular type of rubber stamp QSO. I bailed from those bands and went to 30m where I was able to have a nice chat with a couple of stations. The art of the Rag Chew isn’t quite dead yet. I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to sit with your back leaning on a tree (or gazebo pillar in this case) and just yack on CW with just a simple antenna chucked in a tree. Being able to run QRP means the radio is smaller and lighter, and I can operate until I get tired, rather than when the battery does.
Now, let’s all hope the excellent weather we had for this event continues for at least a while longer
As I said at the top, busy times.
73
mk
VE3FFK
Last Updated on 2024-12-23 by AdminOARC