Launch Day

After a ton of work and a steep learning curve the site is now out in the wild. Sent the site address to a few email lists to start getting feedback. Once I can be sure the site does not have any major issues it will be time to share it more widely. Big milestone today!

2020 January VHF in the books

Sometimes simple is good, and today was one of those days.

With the covid shutdowns and fears of the virus keeping many activities offline it was good to get out and get on the air for a bit. Activity was down – we didn’t do our usual email blitz and other outreach ahead of the event this time. (With a POTA activation the weekend before and Winter Field Day next weekend things were busy enough.)

All the regulars were present and it was nice to connect on-air with old friends.

6 Meter Faceplant

Sometimes you’re the windshield . . . and sometimes you’re the bug. Today was a bug day. I had set up at a high point in preparation for doing some 6 M operating and ran into all kinds of trouble. I couldn’t contact anyone, no one could hear my transmissions, and SWR on the antenna was high. I definitely have some troubleshooting to do tomorrow.

That’s how it goes though. If you don’t try at things then you will be safe in never having to deal with failures. But then again, the days when you do a faceplant end up being good stories later on . . . .

SOTA Trips Posts

After going through a ton of old photos, trip maps, and handwritten logs the Summits on the Air Trips pages are just about completed. Within those pages there is a lot of useful information for the new SOTA activator, or just about any ham radio operator who is interested in doing portable work.

Finishing Touches

Most pages are up and running, with images throughout. I have decided to roll out the website with images only, for the most part. Videos will come in later once I have a sizeable body of work already posted. Hoping to launch the site to the public by next week.