Welcome to 2025! It’s been a longggg year. A lot has really happened and if I’m being honest, I’m actually looking forward to what 2025 will bring. Upgrades around the shack There isn’t too much to write home about the shack. I did manage a few upgrades, installations. The shack has been a painfully slow progress project for years now. I haven’t really covered the shack much on this site, I should start to include it here maybe. ...

Another activation is in the logs. This was a rather rainy experience but worked out just as well. Below are some of the highlights of the area. Area overview The drive in was quite nice. Winding and hilly with sharp curves at times, it was quite a nice drive in. On entry to the park, there are a few places to park right near the road. There wasn’t much else to see at this park. It was quite small of a park and as you can imagine from the name, there are a few fields for tree growing. ...

This was a bit of a rough one. I landed in Missouri today and since our goal is to activate as many states as we possibly can, we decided to head over to Oklahoma to activate a park and get another state in the log. The drive was pretty relaxed but it was a fair bit away and took us slightly out of the way on our way to our hotel for this work trip but it was well worth the drive. ...

Well, another activation is in books. This was an amazing trip. The weather was a near perfect 45 to 50 degress (okay, maybe that’s perfect for me), the area was quiet, and the views. This trip I took a bit of a detor from my usual setup. Ordinarily, I’d be operating with my Icom 705 and EFHW, however, I’m actually on a longer trip that includes an island destination (I swear, I’ll finish that article eventually). ** Okay, future me here. I never got around to that article but the after article is coming… soon. ...

I’ve recently noticed an uptick in emails from concerning former contacts that are interested in Worked All States. Most of these emails are asking me to confirm a contact we’ve had so they can achieve WAS or whatever award they’re targeting. I’m not one to disagree with chasing awards. I do it quite a bit myself but I thought it important to explain my operations here and why you might not see my state as confirmed in LOTW. ...

Another trip and another two park activations attempted Equipment updates I decided to pull the plug on the Xiegu g90. The 857D is a great radio and served me well when doing RV POTA type activations but with my primary mode of travel being airlines these days. I thought the investment into the g90 would be a great options. Truthfully, I really wanted to pickup a KX2, but with supply limitations there, I figured I’d just grab the g90 and wait and see how it all flushes out. So far I’m fairly happy with this setup. ...

I won’t say that I’ve been “out” of radio, I’ve just been distracted recently. Being busy is life and it happens but recently I’ve had a few thoughts of getting back at it again. My rig has sat for quite a while collecting dust, and I’m down to 1 antenna at the QTH, the two others being down for some bothersome issues I still need to investigate. Truthfully, the shack is kind of a mess. The “shack” is really a converted garage and while it’s half insulated, it’s still subjected to the outside temperature quite a bit. ...

I told you it wasn’t wise to talk about politics, obviously that didn’t last long. The FCC has released a Public Notice DA 18-980. The short version of this notice is that VHF/UHF radios can not be imported, sold, advertised, or operated in the US without first being authorized by the FCC. Meaning, unless the FCC has not approved these radios, they must not be sold in the US. The primary target of this notice seems to be the popular Baofeng radios and other cheaper similar radios from China. If you’re not aware. These radios are an cost effective option for many ham radio operators. Most handheld VHF/UHF radios are still very expensive. Most are over the $100 mark and some can be over $300 or $400! ...