I’ve been distracted by other hobbies and waiting on the “perfect” time to make a dent in my amateur radio hobby. Well as they say, “Perfect is the enemy of good and I’ll spend the rest of my life waiting. So it’s time to stop waiting and start chipping away. I look forward to a lot of failures followed by impovements and learning. Along the way I’ll be exploring things like SSTV, ARDF, SDR. I used to live in an apartment in downtown Seattle and as such only operated VHF and UHF using an HT from the rooftop. (If you watch a Seahawks game on TV I was on the 23rd floor of that glass tower you see at the north end of the stadium.) These days I have a house with a small yard so I look forward to getting in on some HF action. Here are a few of the activities I’m planning in the future:

Last year I picked up a used FT-690R II at the Mike and Key Electronics Show & Swap Meet. I used to own an FT-290R II and had a lot of fun with that radio. Sadly the 290 was lost from theft and I’m still searching for another one. (If you know of a working one for a good price, hit me up and let’s make a deal!) As I write this we are mid-February and I want to make sure the radio works and get a portable 6M dipole and/or vertical antenna in time for the ARRL June VHF Contest as the solar cycle is heating up and I hear it’s a lot of fun to working the magic band.

I’m also pushing myself to study and pass the Element 4 exam and finally upgrade to an Amateur Extra class license. I have the ARRL book and a few others and they’re only good until the question pool changes in June 2024. Time is running out as I don’t want to buy another copy of these books. To pass the Technician and General exams I just crammed for the tests the days before. I was able to pass the test but I didn’t really learn the material. This time I want to understand the math and science behind how radios work because…

I enjoy building things and want to get into building my own station gear and experimenting some with radios and electronics. Maybe I didn’t get my license during a time when CW was a required portion of the exams but I’ll be damned if I end up as just an appliance operator. There’s just something very satisfying about the thought of filling in my log using gear I built myself. I’ll have to learn CW after all but this time it will be for fun and not a requirement.

73 de N0BML