Musings from the Shack

Operating HF during the bottom of the 11 year solar cycle can be frustrating. Even though my antenna is actually fairly decent (for a “compromise” wire antenna), the HF bands have been tough and pretty dead during the hours I can actually hop on the radio. Sometimes I only have 30 minutes where I can be alone in the shack between hanging with the kiddos or working. This is where D-STAR comes in.

I wrote in my previous post, Ham Radio During a Pandemic, how important those “random CQ moments” are in ham radio. It just so happens that on Sunday evening around 8PM, I was able to enjoy a great ragchew with my friend Dave W7UUU on 10m. I belong to the Radio Club of Tacoma and we used to have a somewhat unofficial 10m social net every Sunday at 8PM on 28.

I remember the moment in April when the whole weight of this COVID-19 pandemic started to sit with me. My two kids, one in kindergarten and the other in preschool, were both trying to do remote learning. Let me tell you that Microsoft Teams + children under 10 = chaos. There was a moment when I joked with a buddy of mine that “April was the longest year ever”. I recently received a promotion to manager at my company and was leading a team right when the pandemic hit.