Tag: mars

Changes

Life is full of changes. Some are expected and some are not. Over the past couple of weeks I have had some changes for the good. One is that 2025 is shaping up to be a better year than 2024. My wife and I had some trials and tribulations which hampered my radio-activity. We had deaths, surgeries, and a few other health issues that slowed us down. This year, things have appeared to clear up and I am already enjoying more amateur radio activity.

To start off, I have had another shack shake-up. In a prior post I had my SPE Expert 1.5K FA up for sale or trade. It is a great amp but I needed an amp that would do MARS and SHARES frequencies so I ended up with an SPE 2.0 K FA. When I get back from Hamcation, I had a trade offer. My amp for a TS-890s. I have never owned a Kenwood HF radio so I thought I would give it a go. The trade went smoothly.

Before installing it in the shack I added the 270 Hz Roofing Filter and while I was inside, I did the MARS modification. I do not intend to use this radio for MARS, but in pinch, I am ready. My intention is to use the radio for fun and CW. I located it front and center on my desk. The IC-7610 was moved to the left which is where I set up for MARS operation. The 7610 plays very well for MARS.

As you can see in the above photo, I am using a Windows machine for radio control and logging. I really enjoy my Mac for everything else but when it comes to things radio, Windows machines are easier.

This weekend was the ARRL DX contest and the CW bands were crowded. this gave me a good opportunity to test the TS-890s. It performed very well.

The scale on the waterfall is 5 KHz on either side of the frequency. I had the 270 Hz Roofing Filter and a filter bandwidth of 250 Hz. The TS-890 easily blocked an adjacent S9+10 signal less than 500 Hz away. Even at less than 200 Hz away I could easily copy the target signal though there was some ringing. That is pretty impressive.

I am hoping to get back into CW this year. I made about 10 POTA contacts this morning with the TS-890s. It is a very pleasant experience. The TS-890s has more buttons and controls than my IC-7610 and even though I think the 7610’s ergonomics are great, The TS-890s’ is better. The 890 is a big radio and it is heavy. It’s built like a brick…

Tools of the trade for CW are my Begali Magnetic Signature and Sculpture Swing.

I joined SKCC last year but didn’t do much because of stuff. I hope to do better this year. A lofty goal I have in mind is to get my CW above 25 wpm. I think I am close. I need to practice. Hopefully this year will allow that to happen.

I hope everybody else is doing well and I hope to hear you on the air. I have a couple of camping trips coming up which should be me and the key trips. The IC-7300? It has gone back to being a field radio. Which is one arena it really shines. 73 – de Scott

What I ride!

“What a long, strange trip its been” a line from the Grateful Dead’s song Truckin’. This was one of those years for me. The beginning of 2024 started off normally — until Mary, my wife needed to have a hip replaced. Her recuperation went well, slow but well. That put a back log on things that needed to be done on the home and property.

November was my one year anniversary of retirement. I discovered that there were way more rabbit holes to go down and far too many “squirrels” that filled up my days. I was busy doing a lot of things, but this past month or so I started asking myself am I doing the right things?

I enjoy writing. In my professional life writing was a good part of it. Some of my work is published in a federal handbook. Writing is my creative outlet; I can’t draw (or cursive handwrite), and I am only a mediocre guitar player. I do sing solo — so low no one can hear me. In my retirement, I have done very little writing. I feel the pain. Work provided me with topics and content to write about, but in retirement, I was a ship without a rudder. Becalmed in a sea non-creative web-surfing, youtube sargasso, I was doomed to sink in the Bermuda Triangle of failure.

I can fix this; I can repair the rudder, start the motor, and navigate back to fair seas. I had to give myself a topic. I decided to write a book. I know in the movies, actors sit down behind a typewriter and bang out novel right before your eyes. For us mere mortals, it is not that easy. There is planning involved. Writing a book of 80,000 words is very different than writing a blog of 500.

This required some changes. I moved into a Mac machine. I have no qualms with Windows 11. The computer I use for radio is a windows machine. At issue are the apps in Windows. I find them clunky and disruptive when I am in a creative mood. The Mac environment and its asssociated apps are more elegant, they get out of your way and let you concentrate on content. Apple products are designed to work together. I can create on my Mac, iPhone and iPad, and easily switch between them. An analogy I use is a computer should be like a hammer. You pick it up, you use it — bang! If you have a hammer where you have to fiddle with the head each time you use it, you soon have a new hammer.

I am still setting things up to get ready to write. I have some reading to do, some new apps to get used to, but I am almost there. One issue I have is making sure I have enough time, and enough time at the right time of day to write. I need to introduce a little discipline back into my life. The current book I am reading is Getting Things Done by David Allen. It has been a big help in getting me back on track.

Where’s KK4Z? A question I often ask myself on this blog. I’m here and I am busy with radio, just a different busy. Living in Georgia, I was close to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. They affected friends. I have been involved in EmComm for 26 out of the almost 30 years of my involvment in amateur radio. In the past I have deployed to actual disasters, but as my wife and I age, going to a disaster is becoming less of a reality. I also took a look at POTA and what I was doing there. I have over 10,000 contacts in POTA and most of those are the same thing. I quick exchange and on to the next one. I need to do something else. I need to better serve my communities. I will still do POTA and some SOTA, it is fun, but I need to get back into public service. I have recently joined US Army MARS and SHARES (SHAed RESources HF radio program). Both are federal government sponsored programs. With both programs I keep my operations within FEMA Region 4 (Southeast United States). I also participate with my local ARES group. I maintain my position as an Official Emergency Station with the ARRL.

Retirement is a new world, a new beginning. You can either grab the bull by the horns, or lay down and die. I still want some adventure in my life, though it won’t be as hair raising as it was in my youth. If you still want a little gusto in your life you need to “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome” (US Marines). 73 – de Scott