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Ham Radio other thoughts

Equipment rack

[Saturday’s run: 5 miles; Monday: 2.5 treadmill miles]

Before Christmas I purchased an equipment rack from the govdeals.com website. It was over in Cedar Rapids, at the airport actually. We took the van over and picked it up.

It sat in the van while we were gone. New Year’s Day I got it out of the van and stripped off the doors and side panels and the easily removed stuff. Then we wrestled it down the stairs to the basement. This past weekend I built some shelves in it and got most of my larger test equipment installed. So now I have things a bit more organized in the radio room.

I’m pretty happy about that! I still need to find a couple of interconnecting cables for my spectrum analyzer. I have them here somewhere in one of these boxes. And I want to get an external GPS antenna working for the GPSDO.


My goal of reading through the Bible in 2019 was not completely successful. After moving house this summer it was challenging to find a pattern and get into it solidly. Nevertheless, I was able to get all of the OT and the four gospels nearly completed. I just completed the last few chapters of John since New Years, and started into Acts. I’m going to keep working on it and checking off the chapters as I slowly make my way to the end.


I’ve been listening to the QRP Fox Hunts most Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Our new location is definitely not as good for ham radio as it was living in a rural area on an acre of land. I have heard some of the activity, but have not been able to find the Fox(s) so far. Also we are at the solar minimum which is putting a big damper on all shortwave propagation.

And maybe it is just as well. I can tell that my hearing gets dinged if I am to aggressive in trying to find the weak signals in the noise. I plan on going down to the radio room soon and giving it a try for the Tuesday night 40 meter Fox Hunt. But after 30 minutes or so I’m usually starting to get some ringing and it’s time to stop. Louder signals that stand out better from the background noise are easier on my ears.

So maybe I should think about dialing back my morse code participation. There are other radio/electronics things I can do. I don’t know. It’s not a big deal.