Thursday, 8th June, 2023
If I fail my licence exam I’ll be pissed off. I feel like I’ve done a lot of revision for it, and not sure what else I’d do. I think I’ve done more than the average person would, but maybe I’m biased. I was pretty good at studying but university was circa 20 years ago now, so maybe I just think I was. The other fact is, I only need to pass, which is just over 60%. However, I’ve never had exams where I had to just pass, it was always get the maximum score you can as it all added up, so I hope that works in my favour. I’m aiming for 100% and if I miss, I should probably get more than 60…right…oh well we’ll see when the time comes.
Really I want to be spending my time with the fun stuff - like new antenna, or investigating satellites, or even just chatting to randoms on the air. If I want a serious rag chew (as they call it), I hit up 40m and see who’s on in the UK. If I want to know the ins and outs of great uncle’s new medication I move to 80m.
I got a new radio, well used, but a fancy one in May. I’ve hardly spent any time on it as I’ve just been revising and reading the manual and making flash cards with Anki.
The funny neighbour who asked me to cut the hedge via recorded delivery, left a bottle of wine on our doorstep to say thanks. I saw him, so ran out to talk to him. Needless to say, he was a nice guy, and we’d started off on the wrong foot. He did ask about the antenna 😅 at which point I then proceeded to go into excruciating detail about all things amateur radio. I’m sure he was glad he asked. I said just to text me when the hedge gets too high. We can tell from our side as it’s far from the house, but his house is lower so it’s more noticeable. I do like it when it’s cut as it looks neat, even if I can’t quite do a straight line across the top.
These three days at work, all the managers have gone off on a team build. It’s remarkably quiet and calm in the office, and everyone just gets on nicely. We all look forward to the gems of inspiration that they’ve come up with.
I like the online radio communities more than my local one. I feel like that’s a shame but there’s more diversity online, and I can just drop in and out of discord to chat or ask questions. Still, it would be nice to get to know the locals.
I’ve been planning a new area in the garage for radio. My office gets taken over by the kids at the weekend, playing games or doing homework, so now I feel like I need another area for me. The garage needs sorting out first though. But a nice workbench along one wall, possibly at standing height with storage underneath and a tall chair. Then the radios and it makes it easy access for the cabling. Probably needs a computer too 😅 and maybe a TV on the wall with various things being displayed. Perhaps it’s an excuse to buy stuff. But seems like a good one. Only thing is it’s easy to forget how cold it gets in the winter. Right now it’s a nice temperature in the garage.
My wife wants the coax via the kitchen window to be gone by the end of the summer, so I want to set up the new “shack” by then too.
In theory, it could have stuff for photo developing, as last year I was going to make a dark area in the garage. But I’m also thinking it’ll be a good space for a 3D printer…
No doubt I’ll do nothing and then it’ll be winter again.
Can’t believe Jack has had his aquarium for a year! Time flies. 🐠
