Seems not so long ago on a chilly Feb Sunday morning in 2008 I wrote the following statements:
Radio can be an outdoor sport
February 10, 2008
I took my FT 817 backpack setup out to Hutton Park today for the OVMRC PotHole Net on 80m this morning. 3.760 at 10am EASTERN. The setup uses the 817, 80m hamstick along with a 60foot counterpoise and the battery is an 8ah sla. The band was not the best but local contacts were made and I got some fresh air….Sorry no Pics as my daughter did not show up with her digital camera….Maybe next time…..
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I’m here
February 10, 2008
Kicking and screaming I enter the world of new technology and now am the proud owner of a blog….
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And with those two posts I started into the world of blogging…
5 years, 1963 posts (counting this one), over 340,000 visitors (hits) and a lot of fun… I have tried to bring the hobby down to a level that everyone can understand…. tried to remind you that “Radio can be fun”… Its not “Rocket Science”… but its a fun hobby….
Not everyone needs a huge tower with an array of beams and kilowatts of power to make contacts… I proved that as you were riding along with me when I started working on my DXCC with 100w of power and a vertical antenna…. Granted the beams would of helped…. but I made it anyway….
Right now just to see if I can… I am now working on my DXCC for QRP…. I thought that 100w and a vertical was rough…. 5w and the same vertical is rougher but I am making a couple of DX contacts a day and the country list is slowly climbing. I am looking forward to the nicer weather when I can get a wire antenna stretched out in the park with a lower noise floor to assist me in adding to the list…
Above- From the Maple Island DXPedition- The beginning
You have been with me for 5 years of my life… The good (DXCC/ SOTA Activations/ Local DXPeditions) and the bad…. Which I don’t feel like re-living here but…
After 5 years of telling you how great this hobby of ours is…. I think I am running out of things to tell you….
If I wanted to take a more political line in the blog I could talk for a couple of years about RAC, but for years I said that if you are not a member you have no right to complain and this year I no longer have any right to complain…I can only hope that others do speak up as we need more than a strong national association and right now although they are doing “OK” with what they have to work with…. There is a long way to go…. Perhaps that once they realize this…. I will have the right to complain again….
I’m not sure what “My Next 5 Years” will be like… but I do know that Amateur Radio will be a big part of it in the ongoing saga of what is known as “My Life”:
Thanks for being part of the last 5 years…. AND lets see where the next 5 years take us
73bob
Tags: amateur radio
February 11, 2013 at 7:53 pm |
Congrats on keeping your blog going for so long — that certainly takes perseverance – not to mention working those DX stations QRP
73, Dan ve4drk
February 11, 2013 at 8:02 pm |
Thanks for the comments and the visit…
The goal for the next 5 years is to spend more time on the radio than on the blog… But I do want to tell you what I do on the radio… Lets see how much luck I have with that….
The QRP DXCC quest will take time especially as I am trying it SSB which makes it even harder… As of today’s date there are 38 DXCC in the log so only 62 to go….
CU on the bands…
73bob
February 11, 2013 at 10:06 pm |
A good goal Bob. Blogging is a nice thing, but it’s all about radio that’s most important. I only discovered your blog a year or so ago. And I enjoy reading it once and a while. Good luck with hunting DXCC and QRP, hope to read all about it here. 73, Bas
February 12, 2013 at 12:51 am |
Thanks for riding along Bas….
73bob