Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I don’t know how it snuck up on me, but somewhere in the preparations for Field Day recently, I realized that it’s my Fortieth year as an Amateur Radio Operator.

There is no guarantee that it would be a life-long hobby, but in most cases it usually ends up being that way. Once you’re in, it’s easier to stay in than to let it lapse and start from scratch again. I’ve stayed licensed through dry spells where I have had no activity at all to times when I was very involved with the hobby. I always seem to be interested enough to follow what is going on, the politics and the technology of the hobby, both of which have changed a lot – and not all for the better – since 1969.

I really don’t remember when or how I got interested in Ham Radio. Somewhere about 5th-6th grade, I found a book in the library on electronics and built a crystal radio. I remember my father taking me to Buffalo to an area on Main Street that had several raqdio parts stores and we went from one to another with our list of parts. Little did I know that I would one day work in one of those stores. Continue Reading…

Many of you that know me, know I am a Ham Radio operator. You probably remember me being very active in it and doing lots of weird things that probably made little sense to you, but were very interesting to me. You’ve seen big antennas at my home and lots of radio equipment. You think I do this stuff all the time.

Well, truth be told, I haven’t done much with it lately. It’s still there to be done, in fact there are new challenges in Ham Radio that I haven’t even scratched the surface of. But it’s taken a back seat to other things, other hobbies, for the past few years.

I do enjoy one thing every year and try to, once a year, take advantage of an event in Amateur Radio I’ve always enjoyed: Field Day. This year (and last) I went to Webster NY and joined with a bunch of friends in a county park where we set up and operated radio equipment for 24 hours in the exercise called Field Day. Continue Reading…

What’s EME? E-Me? And who is Eve? And where is Adam in all this?

Ham Radio operators in Germany have announced that they have successfully bounced a radio signal off of the planet Venus and received the echo back on Earth. The round-trip that the radio waves made took about 5 minutes, which would make it hard to carry on a casual conversation!

Most people not familiar with Ham Radio don’t realize that Hams have been communicating by bouncing their signals off the moon since the 60’s. Recent contributions by computer software and digital signal processing techniques have made this even easier.
Continue Reading…

I recently ordered an item online. I do that every once in a while and have become pretty comfortable doing so. Usually, I get an email to confirm the order and they are usually pretty dry. This one, though, was great, so I thought I’d share it with you.

The merchandise I ordered was pretty mundane, but the place that I found with what I needed, at the best price, was one of those knife places that sell everything from tasers to nunchucks, to pepper spray, as well as knives. I was only ordering some replacement rubber bands for my wrist-rocket slingshot, which I use to put lines up into trees to hold up antennas. The slingshot has a fishing reel mounted on it and you shoot the sinker over a branch to pull up a rope.

Reading their site, I found out that my wrist-rocket slingshot is considered in New York State to be a dangerous weapon and is a misdemeanor to own! Well, I hope with the fishing reel attached, it is clearly a tool, not a weapon and I don’t intend to let that stop me.

Here’s the order confirmation I received. It’s a hoot. Sensitive information has been changed, but otherwise it is untouched. Continue Reading…