Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I’ve noticed a lot of people who used to write in their blogs are now abandoning them and concentrating on things like Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been sucked into that myself to some extent.

I don’t think it’s always a good thing, though. Maybe for some people. Some should be limited to 130 characters. But for anyone who really has something to say, Twitter is just too short. Facebook is better, but it’s so transient, that no matter how good what you have to say is, it’s soon lost and fades away among all the other clutter.

Even old, passé MySpace was a better blogging platform. It actually had a blog section for every account. Most people never used it, or only tried it once or twice. Most people never read the blog postings of other people there either because it wasn’t on the profile page.

But anyone who had a real blog, like a Blogger or Blogspot page, usually had something to say. You can do anything, get any point across with a real blog. You can add photos, embed videos, music, whatever it takes. Sure, you can do that on Facebook, but not as well.

Yet many people confess to blogging less and using things like Twitter and Facebook more. I guess it’s instant gratification at work.

But to all those who still take the effort to write in a real blog, Thank You! Thanks for taking the time, for being eloquent enough to make your case, even if it doesn’t fit into 130 characters. There’s till a place for Twitter and Facebook. They’re a great place to announce that you’ve written a new article in your blog. That’s what I’m going to do from now on. (actually have been doing for a while, when I remembered.) Give it a try. Just announce new posts on Twitter and Facebook and let them point people to your blog. And keep writing. We’ll be reading.

Most people think that Ham Radio is an expensive hobby, requiring multi-thousand-dollar radios, big antennas on tall towers and high power. Well, a yacht is a great way to enjoy the seas too, but that shouldn’t stop someone who can’t afford a yacht from enjoying boating in a smaller vessel.

While catching up on my organizing, I came across three small radios that I acquired just a few years ago. Each one cost roughly $150 or less. Each one is a self-contained station, ready to go on one Ham band. They are all QRP, less than 5 watts power and only operate CW – Morse Code.

QRP operation is not the easiest way to go and may not be the best way to start out unless you really like the challenge, but after many years of experience, I can enjoy the minimalist experience of making contacts with just a few watts. They are the perfect radios to take along camping, or just to get outside for an afternoon and play radio from a picnic bench. Continue Reading…

As I’ve been cleaning up the ‘shack’ and playing around with some of the stuff I’ve collected over the years, I found myself marveling at the advancement a common piece of Ham equipment has gone through.

I recently added a K1EL Winkey USB keyer to my arsenal of contesting tools. It came as a kit and I built it in a matter of a couple hours. It’s a keyer, but it also couples the computer to the Morse Code sending process.

What’s a ‘keyer?’ It’s a device that helps you send Morse Code, especially faster than you would be able to do with a manual or ‘straight’ key. The common interface to a keyer is a set of ‘paddles’ which are just like a straight key, except two of them are placed back to back and a horizontal motion is used to operate them. Press one paddle, you get dots. Press the other, you get dashes. The keyer generates the stream of dots or dashes as long as you hold the paddle, so you can see a lot less effort is needed. I won’t get into the fine points here of ‘iambic’ operation or differe3nt paddle types. Let’s just say paddles are as collectible as any other key or ‘bug’ and vary widely in quality and price. They’re quite a status symbol to many Hams and preferences of which is best are very much a personal choice.

I have a number of keyers of various sizes and complexity. I plugged in a set of paddles, which I also have quite a few types, into the WinkeyUSB for testing. It performs perfectly, but the whole point of the Winkey is to NOT plug in a paddle! The reason I bought it is so that I can let the computer do the sending during contests. The contest logging software sends the information – callsign, exchange, my call, etc. – to the Winkeyer and it keys the radio just as if I had done it manually. No, better, actually. Continue Reading…

Life went on and things changed. I moved out on my own, eventually got married and Ham Radio went along. It wasn’t always a top priority, but kept coming back when time allowed.

Ham Radio was changing too. Incentive licensing came along and now that I had my General Class license, there was more to do. Now there were Advanced and Extra classes. The new licenses added more frequencies – privileges – frequencies that used to belong to the General class. It actually happened before I got my license, but now that I had upgraded, there was more to do. The Advanced license gave some more frequencies for voice work, but no big changes on CW. It was a lot of theory and probably the toughest test of them all. I think I took two tries, but eventually I got it. Continue Reading…