Category Archives: From the OM

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Posted on October 16, 2024 by robert

This is seriously off topic, but there was good viewing of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS about an hour after local sunset here in Rhode Island tonight.  It was fairly easy to find using a smartphone camera, but I had to wait a … Continue reading →

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Still a bit under 100 new parks to go for 2024

Posted on June 25, 2024 by robert

One of my goals for 2024 is to have confirmed contacts with at least 1,500 unique POTA parks.  As of Saturday June 22, I had 1,401 confirmed. So 99 more parks to go.  Things have slowed down considerably as propagation … Continue reading →

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Difference in Standby Current Draw: Linear vs. Switching

Posted on August 4, 2022 by robert

When I restarted my hobby back in 2011, I had recalled the horror stories of folks using switching power supplies and having RFI all over the HF and VHF bands.  So I decided to use a traditional linear power supply … Continue reading →

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Silver Medal for CWT 2021

Posted on May 20, 2022 by robert

A few days ago I received a package in the mail from CWops.  It contained a Silver Medal Participation Award for 2021. CWops does a lot to further interest in Morse Code.  To begin with they offer a very comprehensive … Continue reading →

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Goal Review 2022

Posted on March 31, 2022 by robert

I started the year with 5 goals.  Two have been completed and two are underway: Teach a CW Academy Course – This goal has been completed after teaching 16 classes in January and March.  All seven students were advanced to … Continue reading →

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Yes you can get an Amateur Radio Plate on a EV in RI

Posted on December 9, 2021 by robert

I had obtained an Amateur Radio tag for my truck about a decade ago.  It was quite an ordeal due to a lack of documentation at DMV, and their inability to be able to enter the request in their computer … Continue reading →

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POTA Time!

Posted on October 1, 2021 by robert

I last did POTA Activations in March (although I’ve kept hunting since then).  With the coming of spring, the parks started getting full of people, cars, electrical noise, etc.  Not something I wanted to be doing during a COVID resurgence.  … Continue reading →

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Ouachita Mountain Good – Henri Bad

Posted on August 24, 2021 by robert

I did receive the 300 unique parks hunted award from Parks On The Air (POTA).  That was a good thing! Unfortunately RI took a big hit from Tropical Storm Henri.  We were without power for about a day and a … Continue reading →

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Nice Time During Field Day

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Bob Beatty

I was only able to attend part of Sunday.  During that time I worked 3 CW and 5 PHONE Satellite contacts for the bonus, ran the alternative power QSOS for the bonus, and assisted my friend Ryan KC1KUF for his … Continue reading →

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Where we wound up: ID-5100 Programming for the Blind

Posted on January 15, 2020 by robert

Over the past few days I’ve put in about 18 hours trying various methods of programming the ID-5100 so it would be useful for a blind ham.  I’ve discussed the problems with the radio and its very limited speech synthesizer … Continue reading →

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