I'm experimenting with a new service called "Odiogo" which produces an audio feed (a.k.a. Podcast) automatically from each blog entry. You can hear the audio directly at my blog (that's http://k2dbk.blogspot.com) or you can subscribe to it using a variety of RSS readers and even iTunes by clicking on this here. (That link is also available on the blog site.) I'd be curious to hear from any readers (or perhaps they should be called "listeners") who find this useful.
If you're reading this directly on the website or get it emailed to you, you can ignore the following: One other change is that the URL for the RSS feed has changed. It's now http://feedproxy.google.com/K2DBKsHamRadioBlog. This was done as part of integration into Google (who owns Feedburner), but you shouldn't have to change anything as the feed will automatically redirect itself. If you run into any problems, please let me know.
Showing posts with label off-topic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label off-topic. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
VOTE!!!!
I'm going to go totally off-topic for a quick posting: If you're a registered voter in the United States, please make sure you vote today. Voting is how you participate in democracy, and if you're eligible to vote and you don't, you're saying that you don't care. I'll bet you do care, and even if you aren't thrilled with your choices in the election, it's not only your right, its is your responsibility as a citizen to do so.
Please participate in the democratic process and make your voice heard.
Please participate in the democratic process and make your voice heard.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Mailling list for ham blog authors
Just a quick post to let everyone know that Jeff, KE9V, has retired his "hamblogs" mailing list (aka reflector). Jeff started it a while back as a sort of email watering hole for authors of ham radio related blogs to discuss anything and everything related to blogging and to some extent, to other similar technologies (like twitter, friendfeed, etc.).
With Jeff's blessing, I've started up a new version of the list. To subscribe, send subscribe hamblogs to majordomo [a t] k2dbk.com. (Humans know how to convert that to a real email address ... hopefully!).
Keep in mind that the target for this list is for authors of ham radio-related blogs, it's not a general ham discussion list.
I hope to see you there.
With Jeff's blessing, I've started up a new version of the list. To subscribe, send subscribe hamblogs to majordomo [a t] k2dbk.com. (Humans know how to convert that to a real email address ... hopefully!).
Keep in mind that the target for this list is for authors of ham radio-related blogs, it's not a general ham discussion list.
I hope to see you there.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Writer's block?
I haven't published an update in a few weeks, and I can only plead a mild case of writer's block. There are a few things that I though about, but I couldn't seem to get around to actually writing an entry. I figured that I'd just mention a few things quickly for now.
As a follow-up to my QSL Followup posting, I'm sad to report that my emails had a fairly poor result. I sent out about a dozen emails reminding folks of the cards that I'd sent and asking if they'd received my card. Of the dozen, a little more than half of those "bounced" because of an invalid email address. (For the most part, the addresses I found were from qrz.com, though quite a number of people didn't have any email listed at all.) From the remaining half, I got exactly three replies: I got two from folks in the US, who both pleaded "busy life" (perfectly understandable) and who did indeed have my card (and SASE) and promised to send out a card in reply promptly. I've gotten one back from those two. The other response was from a fairly well-known Italian DXer to whom I'd requested cards from two DX entities (TY, Benin, and ZP, Paraguy) for new band or mode contacts. He did confirm that he'd received my card and said he would send the requested cards out promptly. I received those two a week or so later, though interestingly they weren't in the Self-Addressed envelope that I'd sent. That's OK, at least he followed though.
I had hoped for a better response, and I must say that I'm pretty disappointed about the lack of response. I don't know if some of the recipients just don't QSL or perhaps have lost interest in the hobby, but I've always felt that even if for whatever reason you don't want to respond with a QSL card, it would be courteous to at least return my card (which won't cost anything; I've already paid the postage) and tell me why.
On another note, I still have not gotten my 6m beam up on the roof yet. I did do a bit more preliminary work, which involved getting some extra feedline up to the attic from my shack on the ground floor of my house, and making sure that I had all the parts and cables that I need. I just sort of never seem to get around to actually getting up on the roof. Hopefully I'll get around to it before it actually starts getting cold.
As for actually using the radio, I haven't made many contacts lately, but despite the just plain awful band conditions, I have managed to pick up some countries on new bands or modes. The most notable is my CW contact with Bruce, XW1B. Bruce and I chat fairly often via an instant messenger on the Internet, and as I mentioned a while back we'd been trying to work on CW for quite some time. Finally, a couple of weeks ago there was some good morning (my time) propagation to that part of the world, and we were able to make a (somewhat shaky, but definitely "good") CW contact. I'll finally get my CW and RTTY confirmation from Laos via Bruce, and I want to say publicly that I really appreciate his patience and help in making those contacts work.
In addition to working Bruce, the only really notable contact was A71A which I worked this afternoon on 20m CW, with CW being a new mode for Qatar for me.
One final note for today: I've had a few folks ask how my son Justin was doing with his recovery from spinal fusion surgery about six weeks ago. I'm happy to say that he's continued to improved, and now no longer needs the cane that he'd been using for almost two years to help him walk. He's got about another six weeks to go until he can stop wearing his back brace, but he's now walking around the neighborhood on a regular basis, which is something that the doctor said was the most important thing he could do for now. Thanks to those of you who've been asking.
As a follow-up to my QSL Followup posting, I'm sad to report that my emails had a fairly poor result. I sent out about a dozen emails reminding folks of the cards that I'd sent and asking if they'd received my card. Of the dozen, a little more than half of those "bounced" because of an invalid email address. (For the most part, the addresses I found were from qrz.com, though quite a number of people didn't have any email listed at all.) From the remaining half, I got exactly three replies: I got two from folks in the US, who both pleaded "busy life" (perfectly understandable) and who did indeed have my card (and SASE) and promised to send out a card in reply promptly. I've gotten one back from those two. The other response was from a fairly well-known Italian DXer to whom I'd requested cards from two DX entities (TY, Benin, and ZP, Paraguy) for new band or mode contacts. He did confirm that he'd received my card and said he would send the requested cards out promptly. I received those two a week or so later, though interestingly they weren't in the Self-Addressed envelope that I'd sent. That's OK, at least he followed though.
I had hoped for a better response, and I must say that I'm pretty disappointed about the lack of response. I don't know if some of the recipients just don't QSL or perhaps have lost interest in the hobby, but I've always felt that even if for whatever reason you don't want to respond with a QSL card, it would be courteous to at least return my card (which won't cost anything; I've already paid the postage) and tell me why.
On another note, I still have not gotten my 6m beam up on the roof yet. I did do a bit more preliminary work, which involved getting some extra feedline up to the attic from my shack on the ground floor of my house, and making sure that I had all the parts and cables that I need. I just sort of never seem to get around to actually getting up on the roof. Hopefully I'll get around to it before it actually starts getting cold.
As for actually using the radio, I haven't made many contacts lately, but despite the just plain awful band conditions, I have managed to pick up some countries on new bands or modes. The most notable is my CW contact with Bruce, XW1B. Bruce and I chat fairly often via an instant messenger on the Internet, and as I mentioned a while back we'd been trying to work on CW for quite some time. Finally, a couple of weeks ago there was some good morning (my time) propagation to that part of the world, and we were able to make a (somewhat shaky, but definitely "good") CW contact. I'll finally get my CW and RTTY confirmation from Laos via Bruce, and I want to say publicly that I really appreciate his patience and help in making those contacts work.
In addition to working Bruce, the only really notable contact was A71A which I worked this afternoon on 20m CW, with CW being a new mode for Qatar for me.
One final note for today: I've had a few folks ask how my son Justin was doing with his recovery from spinal fusion surgery about six weeks ago. I'm happy to say that he's continued to improved, and now no longer needs the cane that he'd been using for almost two years to help him walk. He's got about another six weeks to go until he can stop wearing his back brace, but he's now walking around the neighborhood on a regular basis, which is something that the doctor said was the most important thing he could do for now. Thanks to those of you who've been asking.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Catching up, again
I've gotten a bit behind after my burst with the three-part series about the ARRL June VHF QSO party. Things have been a bit quiet in radioland for me, and in fact, a quick look at my log shows very few contacts at all after the aforementioned contest. The most exciting contact I had was with TO5E in St. Bart's on July 3, which was a new DXCC entity on 6m for me. Unfortunately, unless a miracle happens at some point over the next few hours, I won't be able to work CY0X on Sable Island. St. Bart's is a relatively new DXCC entity, and I'd previously worked them on some other bands so working them on 6m is nice, but folks live there and it's pretty easy to get to and operate from. I was a little disappointed about missing CY0X on 6m, since although it's existed as a DXCC entity for a long time, I've never managed to work it on 6m. This time, I only heard it once, very weakly, when I was at the radio, so I'll have to wait for the next time.
As I'm sure most of you know, last weekend was ARRL Field Day, but for the first time since I became a ham, I didn't participate at all. We were in Florida to celebrate my mother-in-law's upcoming 90th birthday, and while I did consider taking the small radio with me and attempting to make a few contacts, I realized that we weren't going to have much spare time (I did have about 90 minutes free, which I spent getting a little bit of a suntan while lying around the hotel pool) but more importantly, since we were trying to avoid checking our bags (our trip to Florida was Friday to Sunday), I realized that there was just no way that I'd get the radio and even the smallest antenna I have (the Buddistick) into the carry-on bag I was taking. The past two trips that I've gone down I've taking the radio and operated from Lido Key, which is IOTA NA-034, but unfortunately it didn't work out this time. The closest I got to operating was when I happened to drive past what I realized was the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club's Field Day site. I'd looked it up prior to going to Florida, but never had a chance to stop by. By pure chance, a route back to the hotel from one of the family functions took me right by there. The next morning, there was a blurb about them on TV, and I'm really sorry that I didn't have a little more spare time to at least stop by.
Despite the fact that I've managed to get a five-day weekend out of the Fourth of July holiday (with the holiday falling on a Friday and my company giving me Monday off as well, I took Thursday the third off to give myself even more time), I haven't really gotten much done on the radio. 6m has been open to at least somewhere every day, but I've had enough things to do that I never seemed to have managed to gotten on the radio as much as I'd like.
As a follow-up, about a month ago I posted a poll asking how folks read this blog. I got 25 responses of which 11 were via an RSS feed and the rest were pretty evenly split between those of you who visit here directly, people who get the feed via email (if you'd like to do that, there's a link right on the main page at the blog website where you can sign up), people who read this via another website (I'd be curious to hear from those of you who do that rather than come here directly; either leave a comment or email me directly) and those of you who read it via the N0HR tool bar. Thanks to those of you who participated.
On a personal note, some of you know that my son, Justin (KC2MCS) has been suffering with a rather serious back problem for well over 2 years. After trying everything else, he's scheduled to have spinal fusion surgery in a little over a week. We are, as they say, cautiously optimistic that this will allow him to get back to a normal life.
As I'm sure most of you know, last weekend was ARRL Field Day, but for the first time since I became a ham, I didn't participate at all. We were in Florida to celebrate my mother-in-law's upcoming 90th birthday, and while I did consider taking the small radio with me and attempting to make a few contacts, I realized that we weren't going to have much spare time (I did have about 90 minutes free, which I spent getting a little bit of a suntan while lying around the hotel pool) but more importantly, since we were trying to avoid checking our bags (our trip to Florida was Friday to Sunday), I realized that there was just no way that I'd get the radio and even the smallest antenna I have (the Buddistick) into the carry-on bag I was taking. The past two trips that I've gone down I've taking the radio and operated from Lido Key, which is IOTA NA-034, but unfortunately it didn't work out this time. The closest I got to operating was when I happened to drive past what I realized was the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club's Field Day site. I'd looked it up prior to going to Florida, but never had a chance to stop by. By pure chance, a route back to the hotel from one of the family functions took me right by there. The next morning, there was a blurb about them on TV, and I'm really sorry that I didn't have a little more spare time to at least stop by.
Despite the fact that I've managed to get a five-day weekend out of the Fourth of July holiday (with the holiday falling on a Friday and my company giving me Monday off as well, I took Thursday the third off to give myself even more time), I haven't really gotten much done on the radio. 6m has been open to at least somewhere every day, but I've had enough things to do that I never seemed to have managed to gotten on the radio as much as I'd like.
As a follow-up, about a month ago I posted a poll asking how folks read this blog. I got 25 responses of which 11 were via an RSS feed and the rest were pretty evenly split between those of you who visit here directly, people who get the feed via email (if you'd like to do that, there's a link right on the main page at the blog website where you can sign up), people who read this via another website (I'd be curious to hear from those of you who do that rather than come here directly; either leave a comment or email me directly) and those of you who read it via the N0HR tool bar. Thanks to those of you who participated.
On a personal note, some of you know that my son, Justin (KC2MCS) has been suffering with a rather serious back problem for well over 2 years. After trying everything else, he's scheduled to have spinal fusion surgery in a little over a week. We are, as they say, cautiously optimistic that this will allow him to get back to a normal life.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Survey says ...
I'm trying to get a little information about how folks actually read this blog. I know that I've got some folks who read via RSS, some who read it on the web, and others who access it through N0HR's Ham Radio toolbar, but it's difficult to tell exactly where folks are coming from.
If you've got a minute (it doesn't even take long), I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to visit my blog on the web at http://k2dbk.blogspot.com and answer the simple survey that appears a little bit down on the right side. I'll keep it running until the end of this month. Thanks!
(By the way, some of you may be wondering about the origins of the phrase that makes up the title of this post, particular if you're not located in the United States. The Wikipedia article about "Family Feud" explains it all!)
If you've got a minute (it doesn't even take long), I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to visit my blog on the web at http://k2dbk.blogspot.com and answer the simple survey that appears a little bit down on the right side. I'll keep it running until the end of this month. Thanks!
(By the way, some of you may be wondering about the origins of the phrase that makes up the title of this post, particular if you're not located in the United States. The Wikipedia article about "Family Feud" explains it all!)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Catching up
One of the hardest things about blogging is to keep going on a regular basis. For folks like me who aren't doing this to make a living (thank goodness!), I think it's important to post on some kind of a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, whatever) so that your audience knows roughly when to expect an update. Using an RSS reader can help, since the updates are "pushed", but even with that technology I believe that without regular updates you'll loose your audience. I'd been doing pretty well for quite a while, with my (normally) weekly updates, but I started slipping a bit and it's now been around 3 weeks or so since my last posting.
What I've found hard is to get myself back on track, feeling that I need to have something really outstanding to post about, since I've been "off duty" for so long. Tonight, I realized that I'd rather post a few miscellaneous items that post nothing at all, so here's a few items of interest (to me, anyway).
The Dayton Hamvention ® took place a few weeks ago, and I continued my 8 year streak as a ham by not attending again. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a kind of mega-hamfest/conference that takes place annually just outside of Dayton, OH. Most of the major commercial vendors are there, there are hundreds of flea market spots, and various conference tracks dealing with different aspects of ham radio. There's a lot that goes on that isn't officially part of the event, but has become a part of the experience, like gatherings of DXers, contesters, QRPers, etc. Long before I finally became a ham I'd heard about "Dayton", and it seemed like it was the place to go. However, from what I've read online and heard first hand from a few folks who were there this year, it seems that this really is a case of this no longer being "the good old days". Since I've never been there, I can't give a first-hand account, but the best writeup that I've seen that really gave me a good feeling for what it was like to be there was written by Steve, K9ZW in his blog post entitled "Dayton Hamvention 2008 Follow-Up Report No. 21 - Dayton the Unwashed". Be sure to read not only his post, but the comments that follow. There's some really good stuff in there that talks about why it might be time for this event to "move on".
A few weeks ago, I was inducted as a life member of the Ramsey Office of Emergency Management. I was recruited to join the organization shortly after I became a ham by Mike, WA2MWT, who is the coordinator there. At the time Mike was specifically looking for hams to join the staff, and a number of us all joined at the same time. Although I don't live in Ramsey, Mike's idea was that it made sense to have folks from outside of town to help out during events where folks who lived in-town would be busy dealing with their own problems likes localized flooding. Although I've helped out with numerous localized events that mostly just affected Ramsey, it's also where I went on 9/11 to help out on the radios. My proudest memories of amateur radio service is when I was able to relay a number of messages received at the Ramsey Emergency Operations Center to family members to let them know that their loved ones, who were in the affected areas, were safe. Ramsey OEM is the first place where I really learned the value of the public service side of Amateur Radio, and I'm proud to be associated with that organization, and truly honored to have been inducted as a life member there.
On a final note, I turned 50 last week, and my wife Sharon threw a surprise birthday party for me. Sharon not only expertly planned and executed the party, but she also came up with an idea for a group present: She somehow managed to not only explain to my friends (who, with very few exceptions, aren't hams) what a DXpedition is, but also figured out that an amazing present would be a "DXpedition trip fund", and got lots of the folks to contribute to that. It's not quite to the scale where I'll be heading off to someplace like Scarborough Reef (not that I'd actually want to go there myself), but it's a great start towards something a bit less exotic, but perhaps a lot more fun. I'm just starting to figure out where I can go, and you can be sure that you'll hear more about it here.
What I've found hard is to get myself back on track, feeling that I need to have something really outstanding to post about, since I've been "off duty" for so long. Tonight, I realized that I'd rather post a few miscellaneous items that post nothing at all, so here's a few items of interest (to me, anyway).
The Dayton Hamvention ® took place a few weeks ago, and I continued my 8 year streak as a ham by not attending again. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a kind of mega-hamfest/conference that takes place annually just outside of Dayton, OH. Most of the major commercial vendors are there, there are hundreds of flea market spots, and various conference tracks dealing with different aspects of ham radio. There's a lot that goes on that isn't officially part of the event, but has become a part of the experience, like gatherings of DXers, contesters, QRPers, etc. Long before I finally became a ham I'd heard about "Dayton", and it seemed like it was the place to go. However, from what I've read online and heard first hand from a few folks who were there this year, it seems that this really is a case of this no longer being "the good old days". Since I've never been there, I can't give a first-hand account, but the best writeup that I've seen that really gave me a good feeling for what it was like to be there was written by Steve, K9ZW in his blog post entitled "Dayton Hamvention 2008 Follow-Up Report No. 21 - Dayton the Unwashed". Be sure to read not only his post, but the comments that follow. There's some really good stuff in there that talks about why it might be time for this event to "move on".
A few weeks ago, I was inducted as a life member of the Ramsey Office of Emergency Management. I was recruited to join the organization shortly after I became a ham by Mike, WA2MWT, who is the coordinator there. At the time Mike was specifically looking for hams to join the staff, and a number of us all joined at the same time. Although I don't live in Ramsey, Mike's idea was that it made sense to have folks from outside of town to help out during events where folks who lived in-town would be busy dealing with their own problems likes localized flooding. Although I've helped out with numerous localized events that mostly just affected Ramsey, it's also where I went on 9/11 to help out on the radios. My proudest memories of amateur radio service is when I was able to relay a number of messages received at the Ramsey Emergency Operations Center to family members to let them know that their loved ones, who were in the affected areas, were safe. Ramsey OEM is the first place where I really learned the value of the public service side of Amateur Radio, and I'm proud to be associated with that organization, and truly honored to have been inducted as a life member there.
On a final note, I turned 50 last week, and my wife Sharon threw a surprise birthday party for me. Sharon not only expertly planned and executed the party, but she also came up with an idea for a group present: She somehow managed to not only explain to my friends (who, with very few exceptions, aren't hams) what a DXpedition is, but also figured out that an amazing present would be a "DXpedition trip fund", and got lots of the folks to contribute to that. It's not quite to the scale where I'll be heading off to someplace like Scarborough Reef (not that I'd actually want to go there myself), but it's a great start towards something a bit less exotic, but perhaps a lot more fun. I'm just starting to figure out where I can go, and you can be sure that you'll hear more about it here.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Totally off topic
Ok, this posting has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ham radio.
I just had to point folks to the story that I just got posted on The Consumerist. Here's there article which has all the details, but the short version is that it's a posting about how silly it was for Dell to package a small USB thumb drive in a fairly large box. By the way, the reason I bought a thumb drive from Dell was because they happened to have a really good deal on it; normally Amazon, Egghead, or scores of other places have better prices.
I just had to point folks to the story that I just got posted on The Consumerist. Here's there article which has all the details, but the short version is that it's a posting about how silly it was for Dell to package a small USB thumb drive in a fairly large box. By the way, the reason I bought a thumb drive from Dell was because they happened to have a really good deal on it; normally Amazon, Egghead, or scores of other places have better prices.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Twitter id change
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Getting the blog delivered to you
Just a quick note about a new feature I've added here. If you like, you can now sign up to have new blog entries mailed to you. Look for the box on the right of this website titled "Subscribe via email" and enter your email address. The email service is run by Feedburner, which is owned by Google. I trust their privacy policy (which basically says that your email address won't be used for anything other than emailing you updates), but if you're not comfortable with that, of course you're welcome to come back and visit the website the "old fashioned" way in your browser.
Personally, I read most blogs using an RSS Reader, which I find a lot more convenient, since it delivers updated info to me, I don't have to go get it. I currently use RSS Bandit, a standalone tool that sits on your PC, but there are many, many other choices, including online readers such as the Google Reader.
We now return your to your regularly scheduled blog topic.
Personally, I read most blogs using an RSS Reader, which I find a lot more convenient, since it delivers updated info to me, I don't have to go get it. I currently use RSS Bandit, a standalone tool that sits on your PC, but there are many, many other choices, including online readers such as the Google Reader.
We now return your to your regularly scheduled blog topic.
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