Hams Over IP VOIP Network (they style it Ham‘s Over IP VOIP Network) is out there. https://hamsoverip.com/ Not much written about the background on the HoIP website and wiki (linked from the...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/27/more-voip-for-hams-hoip-network/
Jeff KE9V has made an long-term archive of his “Cornbread Road” audio series. Cornbread Road. Again. 25 March 2024 https://ke9v.net/2024/03/25/cornbread-road-again.html I recently uploaded th...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/26/archived-cornbread-road-audio-series-by-jeff-ke9v/
http://www.mrca.ar88.net/Old%20Pages/Net/MandS.html One my pals mention “ The Moose and Squirrel Cold-War Clandestine and Long-Range-Reconnaissance-Patrol Net (A place to actually use your mili...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/24/the-moose-and-squirrel-net/
Recently ran into where there were Unintended Consequences when encouraging someone to become active in amateur radio backfired. Some background: This licensee had tested to Extra Class level, bu...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/22/examples-of-ham-oppression-by-example/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_on_the_Wall Taken from the Wiki article about the song (bold added): Kurt Vonnegut quotes the song’s complete lyrics in his 1981 book Palm Sunday, callin...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/19/flowers-on-the-wall-saga-of-ft8/
As this posts I’ll be in transit home. An absolutely packed ten days split between Lisbon Portugal and the Cotswolds in England. Portugal was a conference which also largely was a sales ince...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/17/non-radio-heading-home/
Master storyteller and wordsmith Jeff KE9V started posting episodes of another of his ham radio “centric” tales. He is posting “The Zombie Apocalypse” at his blog: https://ke9v.net/ I typ...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/15/pull-up-a-chair-jeff-ke9v-has-another-radio-tale-for-us/
Wishing you a happy Pi Day!! Pi Day comes from 3.14 aka March 14th. https://www.piday.org/ Also March 14th is Einstein’s birthday. 73 SteveK9ZW
Churning and Burning through the Bands vs a Zen-like single QSO operating style? Commodity vs Exclusive Operating Styles are some of the different ways people get on the air. Commodity or “volu...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/09/commodity-vs-exclusive-operating-styles/
What data remains on our old & defunct gear? Recently replaced a couple more work computers, one for family with a new machine and one of my odds & ends machines. I had no idea what was on the re...
Call it a case of writer’s block, combined with other pressing tasks demanding attention to their finite timeframes, blog postings will need to spread out. Posts will happen with more time betw...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/short-pause-in-blog-postings/
Heard this morning that Bob Heil, K9EID, is now a Silent Key. Cancer is mentioned as the illness that he died from. I’d last exchanged emails with Bob K9EID at the beginning of this year, whe...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/a-tip-of-the-hat-to-bob-heil-k9eid-sk/
Hams seem to predominantly have either Linear-Productivity or Non-linear Productivity. Linear is where they start a ham project and like going around a board game, they have to do each step in se...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/03/01/linear-or-non-linear-productivity-ham-style/
February 28th 2024 hit another thousand-round logged QSO number, 51K this time. I have been pondering how many QSOs I would log if I didn’t have the remote capability of FlexRadio’s SmartLink...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/another-thousand-qsos-51000-logged-and-counting/
Stalled due to limited time availability. Turing RK1 Neural Processing Unit arrived. Waiting for the dedicated ITX case to be released. Honestly not exactly certain what to do with the cluster. I...
Both of my PACTOR projects have had some progress, but neither is up and running. Jeff KE9V was the most recent fellow ham to ask how I was coming, and adapted from what I emailed back to him: ...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/27/pactor-pmon-and-dr7800-project-updates/
Friday I brought home a pharmacy refill of the inhaler prescribed to counter the after effects of the flu. In the pharmacy bag, in a box, surrounded by lots of paperwork it wasn’t an object one...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/26/small-mistakes-with-big-consequences/
My Go-Kit HF antenna system is a SteppIR CrankIR https://consumer.steppir.com/shop/vertical-antennas/crankir-80m-2m-vertical-antenna-package/which is an awsome antenna, but is over 14 Lbs and tak...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/24/adding-a-rez-antenna-systems-setup-to-my-hf-go-kit/
Saw this discussion at the FlexRadio community: https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8029744/halikey-remote-ptt-fob-and-cw-for-mac/ The little device certain looks very useful. HaliKey is a...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/23/halikey-usb-ptt-cw-dongle-for-smartsdr/
Recently had a surreal conversation where someone I had configured and given some ham radio related gear gave away that gear to a non-ham. That happens, and “re-gifting” is a person’s right...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/23/permissive-generosity-dont-think-so/
Planning a couple sets of US Islands activations (https://usislands.org/) I’ve done some promotion with the Lakeshore Amateur Radio Service Club but no takers so far. Usually club members like...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/planning-a-few-us-island-activations/
Ham radio’s “next big thing” events seem pretty far apart these days. Transceivers all continue to was to do what FlexRadio did with the FPGA SDR transceivers, often with an overlay of knob...
Hamshack Hotline commits suicide. Out of the blue the team has decided to purge anyone who isn’t regularly using their extension. Received by email: Hamshack Hotline Notice of Abandoned Extensi...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/18/hamshack-hotline-weirds-out-quick-purging/
While recovering from the Flu, I watch the NOVA show on building the Eiffel Tower. What a neat show! One thing that jumped out was that the original tower had a 20 year lease, and was supposed to...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/17/how-radio-saved-the-eiffel-tower/
Happy BBS Day! For a full background, see: https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2023/02/16/february-16th-is-bbs-day-1978-to-2023-online/ or http://bbsday.org Remembering kit-built home computers, 10MB driv...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/happy-bbs-day-februrary-16th/
Getting over the flu precluded my personally delivering a valentine treat to my mother, who is in a nursing home. I wasn’t even fit enough to venture out to buy my usual chocolate box for her e...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/a-valentines-unexpected-treat/
In an online chat that was really about VPN/ISP companies, discussion of the investment portion vs the discount of Life Time Subscriptions/Memberships ensued. Is it really good for the organizati...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/14/ham-radio-clubs-about-life-memberships/
Despite being banished to the master bedroom sick with the flu, I was able to work enough FT8 and FT4 contacts to cross the fifty thousand in the log mark. As I really didn’t keep logs and i...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/crossed-that-50000-logged-qsos-count/
Seems the meds are helping, not like any instant cure. Rather much symptom relief and helping the natural process along. At the stage where fever comes and goes. The harshest parts of high fever,...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/11/on-the-mend-and-on-the-air-a-bit/
My earlier plans to catch Hamcation at the end of attending another trade show for work, got kiboshed. First two strikes were one of the work team staying behind unexpectedly away from work, foll...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/10/no-hamcation-home-sick/
Recently I was invited to a vendor hosted fancy dinner, top shelf steakhouse sort of place in Las Vegas. The noise was painful (I’m not calling half of the stuff played “music” on its la...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/02/09/non-radio-restaurant-noise-and-pain/
If this posts it means there will be a brief hiatus while I am tied up away from connectivity. If I can I’ll finish off a few drafts and get them to post. 73 Steve K9ZW
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/dont-touch-that-dial-a-brief-hiatus-2/
Thought I would see how quickly I could get the ten main HF bands I work (160, 80, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10m) by working two stations each band. We I did one extra, as the Saba station ...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/29/ten-bands-in-21-qsos-monday-morning-start-to-the-week/
Are we experiencing Ham Radio Stagflation? It seems that “prices for capabilities” have risen while demand seems to have tapered off. Quick qualified pricing examples: Power Amps – 1.5kW of...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/ham-radio-stagflation/
The K9ZW Turing Pi Cluster computer is getting an upgrade, and the upgrade features Neural Processing Unit (NPU) capabilities. I’ve been puttering with a homelab Pi cluster – see: https://...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/25/adding-a-turing-rk1-to-the-turing-pi/
When I moved to England in 1984, ceefax and teletext was everywhere. They send short codes which locally your TV would change into the graphics. The teletext was the online version. It was quite ...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/ceefax-recreation-a-blast-from-the-past/
You also might enjoy the alerts and news from spaceweather.com As an example today I received an alert: A CME IS HEADING FOR EARTH: Yesterday, a magnetic filament on the sun erupted, hurling a CM...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/21/space-weather-in-route/
On my lunch hour Thursday January 18th my QRZ.com logged QSO counter hit 49k. While I am adding QSOs, my overall Country Count seem to go up by 1 per each thousand QSOs worked. My 47k and 48k blo...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/19/crossing-49k-logged-at-qrz/
Though having SmartSDR for macOS on one iMac or another since its launch in 2020, I am not consistent in using it. Coming this weekend (Aug 15th, 2020) – SmartSDR for Mac Marcus DL8MRE did an ...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/18/smartsdr-for-macos-flex-6700-garnished-with-apple/
I was less than surprised to hear of yet another boat anchor station being sold locally. Seems the ham’s downsizing is an excuse for his reluctance to pick up these old rigs to service them. Ha...
https://k9zw.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/are-we-fossils-yet-age-and-continuity/