The purpose of this blog is to share my ham radio activities with others who may find some of it entertaining or even useful.
I am a big fan of vacuum tube radios from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. As such you will see a lot of those kinds of radios being worked on and in service in my ham shack. Brands like Central Electronics, Collins, Hammarlund, Hallicrafters and E.F. Johnson for some examples.
I am also a fan of VHF/UHF FM repeater communications so there will be some of that, too.
Antennas and transmission lines are another major area of interest here despite the fact that I am not in a position to deploy anything of any size due to the size of our small city lot.
I got back into ham radio in early 2022 after a 20-plus year hiatus. That meant building a ham shack with operating positions and a test bench, unboxing and blowing the dust off of what radio/electronics items I had kept, acquiring the needed pieces of test equipment needed to service my radios and also acquiring a bunch more radios, in particular ones I’d wanted since I was a young SWL and later ham.
The limited size of my ham shack means that while I can’t have “one of everything” I can have a small number of radios that are “special” in some way. My collection of both radio equipment and test equipment is therefore curated to a specific set of criteria and designed to meet a defined need.
I hope you enjoy reading about my radio activities and perhaps even draw some inspiration for your own. If you’re an amateur radio operator get on the air in any way you can and use the bands. There is pressure from commercial interests targeting various chunks of our allocated spectrum and we need to use it or lose it. Get involved in a local club. Show the young folks what’s cool about our hobby.
If you’re not a ham but think you might like to be one, seek out a local club or national club that offers classes to prepare for the exams.