A fellow ham and I had an opportunity in April 2022 to give presentations on about Parks on the Air to two Ohio amateur radio clubs, the Warren County Amateur Radio Association (WCARA) and the Newark Amateur Radio Association (NARA). These presentations are attached below.
I stumbled across this article today and thought it would be worth sharing with anyone who is beginning to learn and use CW on the air. It’s pretty old but the content rings true today on proper use of prosigns (such as AR, SK, BT) and other aspects of this fun operating mode.
Enjoy!
I’ve recently posted some information on logging during amateur radio Parks on the Air activations, and developed a spreadsheet to accommodate efficient logging on the iPad. Please visit my POTA Logging page for more information.
Do you use Log4OM as your primary logbook? Are you regularly uploading your QSOs to services such as the ARRL’s Logbook of the World (LoTW), eQSL, or QRZ.com? Have you discovered the new digital mode JS8 and need to accurately log your contacts? If this applies to you, read on!
I can’t believe I has been nearly 10 years since my last woodworking blog post. We’ve moved three times in that period (such is the life of a military member!) and have settled into a new home that is again conducive to having a decent wood shop in our basement.
My first big project in this new home is to reconfigure the garage for convenient, orderly access to tools and other supplies. This will entail using a French cleat system and customized hangers, shelves, and totes for placing most items on the wall of the garage. I will write more about this later.
For now, I am discovering a lack of having the right precision tools and jigs in the wood shop itself. One key item is missing from my table saw: a crosscut sled. Of note, attempting to execute a precision, 90-degree crosscut on a board is difficult using only a miter gauge. Those things tend to slip, rack, and otherwise mess up the cut.
This past weekend I decided to build a sturdy crosscut sled that would ride smoothly in the miter grooves of my portable Craftsman table saw. The sled, pictured below, is made of a 36”x 24” piece of 1/2” plywood, reinforced on the front and rear with a 1.5” thick rail of plywood (two 3/4” pieces glued together). I placed an additional block of the same at the front of the sled to reinforce the structure and to remind me to keep my hands away from the blade. The runners are made of hardwood, glued to the bottom of the slide, and fit nicely into the grooves of the accessory table mounted on the left-hand side of the saw.
It works exceptionally well! The sled is sturdy, perfectly square to the kerf of the Saw, doesn’t “rack,” and glides smoothly across the table saw. This will come in handy as I continue constructing hangers and shelves for the garage storage system and pursue other projects.
Military members serving on active duty occasionally need to show proof of active duty military service to a private vendor or another government organization in order to qualify for protections offered by the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
The SCRA, enacted in 2003 as an update/replacement to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940 (SSCRA), is a federal law that ensures active duty military members are given protection rights in certain areas such as rental agreements, security deposits, rent, contracts, civil proceedings, and income taxes. Other protections are offered as well.
