Something a bit more amateur for this week’s Music Monday

| December 27, 2021

Social media is filled with nastiness and ugly news … but it is also a place for upbeat positive news, scripture, prayer requests and a shared love of song and some heartwarming father-daughter bonding.  I’m not sure who these “smiling” amateur singers are that appeared on my Twitter feed, but it made my day and […]

Music Monday: The Foundations – “Build Me Up Buttercup”

| April 26, 2021

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Music Monday: Not my taste, but definitely Bluegrass talent

| April 19, 2021

This past weekend I saw what looked like an amateur musician in a college dorm or apartment video roll across my Twitter feed and thought, “this young man has talent.” It reminded me of a post from 2014 when Jacob Tolliver sat down at a piano in a Portsmouth, Ohio hardware store. This kind of […]

Music Monday: R.Dean Taylor – Indiana Wants Me (1970)

| March 25, 2019

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Good times and memories with a great friend for #TBT

| March 21, 2019

My friend Jeff Pitts has been my closest friend ever since our college years at Ohio Northern University (also the only guest blogger so far). Besides college, he was on my bachelor party trip, years and years of hiking and camping … including a great trip to the Canadian Rockies with my son Taylor, who has […]

New amateur radio plates for the MB 300D Turbodiesel

| April 12, 2018

Since I needed to replace the “metal” plates on the old 1982 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel this year, I’ve opted for the amateur radio registration. It did require submitting my General Class K4RDC call license, and $20 (??) extra, but figure it was a nice way to support both ham radio and my love for […]

R is for Robert, or is it Roger … or maybe Romeo?

| November 7, 2016

A learning game we played while traveling by car was to spell things out using the NATO phonetic alphabet. Both Katelyn and Taylor did a great job learning it … and I think to this day they remember it. Give it a try if you need a way to pass the time AND practice for […]

HAMing it up with HF radio and Winlink Pactor connections

| October 7, 2014

Summer has passed without giving much of a thought to turning on my HF rig or making any amateur radio contacts. The recent Last Man Standing amateur radio event had me firing my ICOM IC-718 and connecting my upgraded SCS PTC-IIe Pactor modem. Obviously using it for “slow” Winlink email is not a priority when […]

Why amateur radio operators say “73”

| January 18, 2014

Those who spend any amount of time listening to amateur radio hear operators closing their exchanges with a polite and concise “73” … meaning “best regards” … but where did it come from? From what I’ve read, it goes back to a convention in 1859 where telegraph operators discussed saving “line time” by devising a […]

A few amateur radio updates including my new call: K4RDC

| December 14, 2013

My older SCS PTC-IIe Pactor modem came back from Farallon Electronics after being updated with a new electronic serial number and Pactor III update – faster speeds using the HF radio (still very slow by modern Internet standards). A Winlink account is now active and seems to be working over Telnet, so the step is […]

Playing with our Baofeng UV-5Rs and contemplating antennas

| November 30, 2013

My friend Jeff and I had a chance to get today Friday afternoon and catch up on life. We enjoyed our semi-regular Mexican lunch and talked about work, church, family and our mutual amateur radio hobby. He’s been a Ham (N4XKJ) since we went to our first HamCation back when he was living in Orlando […]

Catch all catch up weekend post and Amateur Radio

| November 24, 2013

It has been a semi-busy and semi-cold weekend for yard chores, but I’m tackling them just the same since waiting for a dry “warm” Saturday and Sunday doesn’t look promising. I started Saturday early and started to tick off the simple indoor items on my chores list thinking that it might warm up, but I […]

My first amateur radio emergency Tactical Net

| November 16, 2013

This morning was spent working on the leaves again, but I took a break this afternoon to be part of the Butler Country Amateur Radio Association’s (BCARA) emergency communications network (W8WRK). One of my “senior” contacts in the amateur radio club asked if I could do some volunteer community service and represent the Middletown area […]

Powering up a Yaesu FT-2900 on a dark and dreary night

| October 31, 2013

This Halloween evening is indeed dark and dreary as the wind is whistling and blowing rain nearly sideways. The garage door was left open (by me) and has puddled to the point Tootsie’s cushions (bed) is damp … which makes the entire garage smell like wet dog. But that’s not the point of this evening […]

The shutdown is over and the FCC issued my Call Sign – KD8VSB

| October 17, 2013

The good news from my end is that the FCC is back in business and processed some of their backlog today. One of those items was my new amateur radio call sign … KD8VSB. I’m legal to be on the air. Woohoo!

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog