Happy Holidays

It’s been a while since I last added to this blog, but here I am … back again.

Last night was our radio club’s holiday party, and it was well atttended. It was nice to see some friends that I literally had not seen since the LAST holiday party!

There was plenty of good food, good fellowship, and just good all-around fun. Several were missing due to various reasons … surgery, illness, prior commitments, etc., but we did think about them.

I’m looking forward to a more active 2024, but we shall see what life throws at us!

A Quick Update …

It’s been a while. Life gets in the way, doesn’t it?

Just to update a few statistics …

  • QRZ Logbook confirmation rate is 83.96%
  • LOTW confirmation rate is 75.85%
  • My Parks on the Air totals are 824 unique parks worked out of a total of 1259 POTA contacts.

Other than that, there’s not a lot to report. I’m still active, but at a reduced rate from the Pandemic times. I have good intentions, but as I said, life gets in the way!

73 de Dick N4BC

Bummer!

We had our monthly radio club meeting last night and it was reported that the 2023 Frostfest in Richmond was cancelled again. That’s the largest hamfest in Virginia, and has been cancelled for the past couple of years due to Covid.

The reason for this cancellation has nothing to do with disease, however. It’s alleged that there is some disagreement and strife in the sponsoring organization … RATS (Richmond Amateur Telecommunications Society). I tried accessing their website for more info, but I can’t connect to it.

Otherwise, I’ve been working a bunch of FT8 and FT4, along with some CW, during these past few weeks of sky-high A- and K-index numbers. My Parks on the Air numbers now total 705 unique parks hunted. I continue to concentrate on CW and digital for my POTA contacts … SSB just doesn’t float my boat anymore.

The weather has moderated here recently. We have days in the low to mid-80s (rather than the upper 90s with heat indices of 100+), but the evenings and early mornings are considerably cooler than last month, and I notice it’s darker when I leave for work in the mornings … I actually have to turn the headlights on 🙂 . Fall is just around the corner 😀 .

73 de Dick N4BC

Boys & Girls Club Smart Smiles 5K Race

Saturday, August 13th, I was up bright and early to help support the Boys & Girls Club Smart Smiles 5K race at the Mariners Museum Park in Newport News, VA. I reported to the Coordinator and then went to my assigned position. I was on a shaded road, enjoying the 70-some degree weather and gentle breeze, which was so welcome after too many “feels like 100+” days!

Me!

Our purpose was to provide safety coverage for any runners that experienced difficulties, and also to keep the race coordinator informed about race progress.

Luckily, there were no incidents, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was a pretty laid-back “race”. There were families with children, old folks, young folks, serious runners, walkers … just about any demographic you could imagine.

The Team!

For the most part, our primary repeater worked well, but I had occasional problems with the Net Control station dropping into the noise. The backup repeater was much more solid, so I had my backup portable tuned to that.

All in all, it was a beautiful day for a race, and a great way to spend a morning in the park!

73 de Dick N4BC

Long Time, No See …

Has it really been last December since I last posted here? Wow! Time flies!

Last December, my boss passed away, and as you can imagine, that was a major disruption to our work process. All of us in the shop were taking on responsibilities that he had previously taken care of.

Things are finally calming down now. We have a new manager, and things are running somewhat smoothly again. Hopefully, no more glitches.

Next month, though, we’re starting an upgrade to our radio system. Every two years, major hardware and software updates occur to keep our 800 MHz P25 radio system current. What could go wrong? 😀

I had to remove one of my long-time resources from the site … Astrid’s Embroidery. The owners are retiring, and it looks like they are closing down for good. Sorry to see that … they did quality work and were a pleasure to deal with.

73 de Dick N4BC