Author Archives: Bob Beatty

New Member of CWops

I was pleased to hear yesterday that I had been nominated and sponsored for membership in CWops.  I’m member 2903. I’ve been active for the past seven weeks in their CWT (mini contests that run every Wednesday at 1300, 1900 … Continue reading

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Cranking out those Qs in LotW

From time to time I will post my LotW counts as a record of what has been going on over time.  The last time I posted was in January of 2020, when I had reached 8,000 confirmations and August of … Continue reading

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Slowly improving at CWT

The CWOps group runs a mini contest called CW Test (CWT) on Wednesdays.  I’ve participated in the last five and have found a slow but steady improvement in my score.  So far I’ve been in the Search & Pounce mode, … Continue reading

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POTA Platinum Activator

After completing an activation of two new parks on April 13th, my RI park count increased to 40, earning the Platinum Activator Award With the advent of nice weather, the number of outdoor things that have been taking up time … Continue reading

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Added my FlexRadio 6600-M to DXLabs

I have been using DXLabs for my log for years (after giving up on HDR for many reasons).  My Elecraft K3s was the first radio I used (I love its full break-in on CW).  My Yaesu FTDX-101MP followed quickly (fairly … Continue reading

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Finally using Vibroplex Paddle

I decided to sign up for the CWops CW Academy.  They have small, instructor led classes that meet for an hour twice a week, for eight weeks.  In addition, there is an expectation of an hour of practice sending/receiving each … Continue reading

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Three more RI parks activated

This past Tuesday, my wife and I (and our lab Jaclyn) headed out to the three RI parks furthest from our house: Simmons Mill, Sapowet Marsh, and Haines State Park.  It was about an hour to the furthest one, and … Continue reading

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Light Travel Paddle from Ukraine

From time to time, some beautiful work or art, that is also a Morse key, catches my fancy.  I recently purchased a small dual-lever paddle from UR5CDX, for about $150 including shipping (surprisingly fast too — about a week via … Continue reading

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POTA Gold Activator

After completing 30 unique park activations yesterday, my “Gold Activator” certificate arrived today: I continue to gather metrics on activations.  I noted in doing three activations yesterday that my old Toughbook CF-30 laptop had used 30% of it’s battery capacity, … Continue reading

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POTA Hat Trick

Today was a glorious weather day here in Rhode Island, so my wife and our yellow lab piled into the van and headed out for three park activations (Lynn and Jaclyn walk the park trails while I jabber on the … Continue reading

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