Friday, 21st April, 2023

I’ve literally been spending all evening from when the kids go to bed to 11pm+ on the radio. Listening, chatting, chasing unique stations and continually being amazed that this bit of wire in the garden can get me around the world.

I made contact with Canada the other night. He lives near St. John’s but still all away across the ocean!

I can hear folks in Florida and Texas, but my licence doesn’t give me quite enough power to reach them. Or the sun is not in a super solar activity mode just yet.

I’m torn between learning for the next level and being on the radio!

Last night I got the Aland Islands, which are between Sweden and Finland in the Baltic Sea. As they’re a special island on the air (IOTA) so many people were calling. So when he replied with my callsign it was super exciting!

Tonight I’m going to try out some digital modes. They only need a tiny fraction of power to work so potentially I could get into the US or Asia etc.

I’ve so much material for blog posts but don’t know when I’m going to write them!

I also like not being on the computer. I am on the laptop looking up callsigns and adding to my log but I’m sat on a bean bag in the kitchen and it’s nice to be in a different environment. I’m going to run a cable around the house to the office but thinking about making the kitchen more permanent that it is. We’ll see.