Hello ukram, it's been a while!

My NIN sub lapsed in 2021 and I didn't notice for a couple of months, I
just assumed the groups in my subs were dead. When I did finally realise
they were dead because my account was dead, I figured "hey, I've done
without Usenet for a while quite happily, I'll retire gracefully."

Well, I came back to Usenet a while ago but with my radio gear all packed
away still following a house move I decided to give the radio groups a
wide berth. But I have been giving serious consideration lately to getting
back on to HF - I understand that we are still in solar maximum, right?

How are the conditions, in general? 20 and 40m SSB voice is all I'm
thinking of dipping my toe back into - main motivation is my youngest son
has shown increasing interest (and talent) in making and tinkering;
started off with scale models a few years ago and he got into that, then dabbled in some basic electronics and he loved that, then got a 3D printer
and he has taken to that and 3D design like a duck to water. Now, he's
champing at the bit to do more electronics building - and I think
introducing him to amateur radio might be a nice compliment to it.

Early days (he's 10...), but I think we have an engineer in the making!
All I can do as a parent is try and nurture his latent skills and see if
any of it sticks and helps him decide where he wants to take his life. We
did it with our elder son, he showed early athletic promise so we had him training jiu jitsu from the age of 6 and he's now, 11 years later,
studying sports diploma at college with various possible university paths
lined up after that, and teaching the sport while he trains to be a semi-pro/pro cage fighter! Life's short, and you should spend it doing the things you love - a lesson I learned too late, and a lesson I'm trying to
get my kids to learn it early.

My thinking is, then, if there's currently the chance for some good and
easy global HF contacts, then it'd be a shame to miss taking advantage of
it to share with our youngest and see if it ignites an interest that could spiral outwards.

Would be interested to hear how the bands are before I clamber up on to
the roof to install an antenna... :)

STC

PS: Hope you have all been well and happy the last few years!

PPS: /offtopic - Also, I finally managed to create a newsgroup! free.3d-printing, so was unencumbered by those pesky RFDs and votes... Is
dead as a doornail lol. If any of y'all are 3D printers, would be great to
see you there!


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <vintageapplemac-3011250926120001@pmg3>,
vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) wrote:

<snip>

My thinking is, then, if there's currently the chance for some good and
easy global HF contacts, then it'd be a shame to miss taking advantage of
it to share with our youngest and see if it ignites an interest that could spiral outwards.

Would be interested to hear how the bands are before I clamber up on to
the roof to install an antenna... :)

Well, I'm several steps closer to launching my first waves in some years
than I was when I made the above post - radio gear dug out of storage, off-centre fed dipole and some co-ax purchased - am just waiting on a replacement cable to connect my rig and ATU (no clue what happened to the original one - it wasn't in the Amateur Radio Box in my garage, is likely
in my Big Bag Of Cables (which is a giant Sports Direct zip-up sack) and
I'm not hunting through that godawful rat's nest of wires for it...). When
that arrives I'll go up on the roof and put the antenna up and then hit
the airwaves! Keep your ears peeled!

I'm quite excited tbh, I've got the radio* sitting next to me ready to go
and it looks awesome - I'd forgot how cool this stuff is. And my little
boy has shown an interest - he came over and had a look at it yesterday as
I was setting it up and asked what it was, so I explained and he said
"Like what Dustin uses in Stranger Things?" (the character is a nerd and
in the school ham radio club... skills that are later used to fight the monsters from the Upside Down) - so there's my in with it for him,
leverage the cultural reference.

Kinda related - I also dug out my electronics box so I could practice my soldering on the various Velleman and Maplins kits I picked up years ago
and never built. Me and the boy made three kits yesterday - a Christmas
Tree with flashing LEDs, a digital clock, and a Flashing Lights kit (it's totally pointless, just two LEDs that flash continually and you can
control the rate they stay lit with a pair of trimmers), and I made a
Sound To Light kit this morning. I'm still as bad at soldering as I always
was, but the kid picked it up quickly and was doing neater work than I was before he was halfway through the first kit. 10 years old, an engineer in
the making - mark my words.

*Rig is an Alinco DX77, ATU is an MFJ-993 - both sold to me by Brian R.,
and looking at them with fresh eyes after these years away from it I'm
reminded what a good deal he gave me. So, if you're reading this Brian,
thanks again!


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <vintageapplemac-2112251242010001@pmg3>,
vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) wrote:

In article <vintageapplemac-3011250926120001@pmg3>,
vintageapplemac@gmail.com (scole) wrote:

<snip>

My thinking is, then, if there's currently the chance for some good and easy global HF contacts, then it'd be a shame to miss taking advantage of it to share with our youngest and see if it ignites an interest that could spiral outwards.

Would be interested to hear how the bands are before I clamber up on to
the roof to install an antenna... :)

Well, I'm several steps closer to launching my first waves in some years
than I was when I made the above post - radio gear dug out of storage, off-centre fed dipole and some co-ax purchased - am just waiting on a replacement cable to connect my rig and ATU (no clue what happened to the original one - it wasn't in the Amateur Radio Box in my garage, is likely
in my Big Bag Of Cables (which is a giant Sports Direct zip-up sack) and
I'm not hunting through that godawful rat's nest of wires for it...). When that arrives I'll go up on the roof and put the antenna up and then hit
the airwaves! Keep your ears peeled!

<snip>

The ATU cable arrived nice and promptly so today I set up the antenna -
only strung low across the garden at the moment, 6 foot off the ground,
figured I'd do some testing to make sure everything still works before
getting onto the roof to put it up properly.

Well, everything works! First contact was John G8MNY in Croydon, and then Federico IK4JPK in Italy, both on 40m. Lovely stuff! Might leave it like
this for a couple of weeks while I dust off my procedures, relearn how to
use this radio properly, and do some more practicing. Need to put some
thinking into grounding, too.

So, I am back on the air! Hooray!


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)