Straight Key Night

With New Years Eve in sight it is time to start thinking about the 2010 ARRL Straight Key Night.

This year I plan to set up a portable station in the family playroom and get out of the basement. This will also give me a chance to be with the family but also work the radio on the side.

My setup includes an Icom IC-718, a cool Junker Key, MFJ Mightylite power supply, and an inverted vee antenna in the yard.

A link from the ARRL is below.

http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2010/skn.html

Merry Christmas!

Sunday Afternoons

Sunday afternoon, 3ish with not much going on. We did the morning shoveling, I would guess 6-7 inches of the white stuff fell overnight, looks nice.

Going to motivate myself, set up the Buddi Pole in a upstairs bedroom and see if I can get out qrp style. Will keep the football game on in the back round and send out a few cqs.

If any thing exciting happens I will be sure to post them later. This is turning out to be a very lazy afternoon.

New Podcast Online

I ran across a new podcast for the amateur radio and home brewer, Low SWR, put together by Rich KDOBJT and Brady KDOBJS.

This father and son team exchange ideas, conversation, and some good radio talk. I like the way the podcast flows back and forth in a raw talk radio type forum. Rich and Brady received their ham radio licenses together and it makes for some entertaining and informative podcast listening.

Be sure to listen and enter the contest they have going!

http://www.lowswr.com/

Radio Shack Visit

During the afternoon Christmas shopping I stopped at a Radio Shack and took a look around.

I have not been to a Radio Shack store in a long time. When I was younger that was the source for all my components and soldering needs. Back in the day the selves were full of all sorts of neat stuff, LED's, buzzers, IC's, etc. To my surprise they have two cabinets full of various components and a wall of a few test meters, soldering irons, and a fan or two. I guess if you need an item ASAP and do not want to wait for your mail order delivery to arrive it's OK, but price wise mail order is the way to go.

I did pick up a wire wrap tool for my perf board circuit building. The tool is a neat and easy way to wire up your circuits.

Time to look for something to build!

Saturday Errands

A typical Saturday running around taking care of the usually stuff, haircut, bank, and some bills to pay.

Looking forward to an afternoon on the radio, PSK, SSB, or CW. Nothing planned just make some contacts and have fun. It is a cold cloudy day in the garden state with a forecast for some rain and wet snow tonight, perfect inside type weather.

I did not start Christmas shopping yet, how many days left?