Gumption Traps
No, this has nothing to do with hunting, golf, or multiband antennas. In his much-revered novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig wrote of “gumption traps”–those psychological pits into which one can fall in the steps between intention and completion. One’s gumption to move forward gets caught by sometimes-minor realities. Here’s three of my gumption traps. Not being able to find the tools I need to work on a project.
ARRL Field Days
Field Day is part educational event, part operating event, part public relations event – and ALL about FUN! The objective of Field Day is to contact as many amateur stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. For more information, see the ARRL Field Day page. For 2017, the Rogue Valley Amateur Radio Club (RVARC), the Cascade Amateur Radio Enthusiasts (CARE), and the Jackson County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (JCARES) will have a combined field day at ScienceWorks in Ashland.
Deoxit and My Wallet
Does size matter? Actually I’ve always found that saying (and its derivatives) to be bad taste, at least when used gratuitously. In this case though, it’s irresistible. In trolling the web for advice on how to resurrect an old rig, I read one glowing endorsement of Deoxit after another. Indispensable! Magic! A gift of the gods! And it could be had locally at Radio Shack! Yeah! Not so yeah as it turned out.
A New Old Rig
I thought I’d kick off this news section with the first installment of my account of troubleshooting, refurbishing, cleaning, and aligning my latest acquisition–a Yaesu FT-101EX. Yes, it was an eBay purchase. I paid a good but not fabulous price, and it looked to be in excellent shape. Relatively dust and dirt free inside, no rust, and no coating of cigarette tar. The outsides are in even better shape: the factory film covering the front panel was still protecting it after nearly four decades of .
January 2014 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Making Radio History On March 12, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to address the nation by radio. That was the bottom of the Great Depression, and neither Roosevelt nor anyone else knew what to do about it. In that “Fireside Chat,” he announced the guiding philosophy for the rest of his twelve years in office: “It is common sense to take an idea and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
February 2014 A Centennial Year In May 1914, Hiram Percy Maxim, polymath and inventor of the automobile muffler, founded the American Radio Relay League in Hartford, Connecticut. As the name suggests, Maxim and others sought to organize amateurs to relay messages between distant stations. The Navy claimed jurisdiction over radio frequencies, and they took a dim view of amateur-radio enthusiasts. So the ARRL added protection of Ham privileges to its portfolio.
March 2014 Crowd Sourcing A complex and multivaried pursuit such as amateur radio offers much to a wide variety of interests. Last month’s survey of club members revealed a notable interest in Ham radio as electronics among some, and more of an interest in operating among others. Here’s some numbers to back that up: 32% reported an interest in home-brewing and kit-building, 26% in radio theory, 21% in circuit design, and 18% in experimentation.
