Minimalist:
QRP – primary rig: Penntek TR-45L – 5 bands, 5 watts, analog radio technology, all controls on the front panel, no menus. It appeals to me because it echos the 1970s when I used only one rig: the Oak Hills Research Spirit II – 1 band 5 watts – kit built
CW – in perpetual rehab
HF bands – 40M, 30M, 20M, 17M (coming soon: 15M, 10M)
Every day is a lanai* field day. – Wire antennas and stealth verticals. (*A screened-in back porch in Florida is called a lanai.)
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This blog is mostly a personal diary of my ham radio adventure, mostly antenna experimentation, with a lot of CW rehab. I have zero interest in being a ham celeb or making money via affiliate sales. Note well: When I link to products, I do not use affiliate links. This is just a place to record observations and experiences.
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My introduction to HAM radio was from a Benedictine monk / science teacher, Fr. Kevin, who had a stack of Collins gear (full KW) and an HF Yagi on a 40 foot tower, atop a hill (isn’t that where all monasteries are) in southern Indiana. His daily QSO, AM phone, with a fellow monk in South Dakota sounded like they were in the same room.
Down the hill, a few of us students had a rickety “shack,” yeah actually a separate small building, where we refurbished WWII ARC-5 radio sets and interspersed the glow of vacuum tubes and the whine of dynamos with the sounds of Morse code. The Ham radio seed was planted, but it was years of school, military service (USAF), and starting a family before I acquired a license.
The HAM bug bit again while I was building a homebrew microcomputer based on the Motorola 6800 processor. It had a whopping 28K of memory, a TV used for display of dot matrix characters, and cassette tapes for input/output. Got my novice, WD9CWY, but didn’t set aside quite enough time to GOTA.
I finally got on the air in 1988 after upgrading to General in 2-land, N2IPY. A few years on the air with the Oak Hills Research Spirit II and a modest 40M inverted vee was great fun as solar cycle 22 tailed off. Then work and family took center stage again … for about 30 years. A fabulous XYL (of now nearly 60 years), two wonderful successful children, and 40 years doing SW enginerding at IBM brought me to retirement almost 15 years ago.
In mid 2021 we moved to The Villages in FL. It’s a delightful community, but little did I realize that the HAM radio bug would bite again while living in this HOA antenna restricted area. … Now, I’m experimenting with invisible wire antennas using no permanent masts, towers, flagpoles, or trees. We have NO trees near our backyard wetland.
2023 – N4REE – still General – ridding ourselves of all things NY, I replaced the N2IPY call with a 4-land vanity call for N4 Robert E Easton
Born again ham
News of the Penntek TR-45L appeared in my Internet feed, out of nowhere, and the ham bug bit hard again. While waiting for my TR-45L to arrive, I became a born-again ham and dived deep into CW rehab. The Long Island CW Club has a great set of resources for CW learning.
Minimalist again
Here I am, minimalist again. No towers, no yagis, no visible permanent antennas (‘cept that temporary WRC vertical that pops up from time to time). I’m back to QRP, stealth wire antennas, “backyard field day” antennas, perpetual CW rehab, POTA hunting, and enjoying every bit of the challenge.
N4REE – Previously…
ex N2IPY (1988) General – Rockland Cty, NY
ex WD9CWY (1977) Novice – Indianapolis, IN