Hamvention and More

This was actually a pretty busy week, now that I stop to think about it. There were three big events that captured much of my attention: The Eurovision Song Contest, Dayton Hamvention, and a two-day Data Expo hosted by my employer.

This and That

❤️ The Eurovision Song Contest Semifinals and Grand Final took place this week, and as usual I rated the entries from all three events. I was not too impressed with this year’s field; none of the songs earned a “loved” rating from me.

🎶 I made my first Crucial Tracks entry.

🧮 I spent a day and a half at an offsite mini conference hosted by my employer. This year’s event was the biggest yet, and there were a lot of interesting presentation from both colleagues and vendors. One of our vendors invited me to dinner on Monday night at a very nice restaurant here in town and it was very nice. Time well spent.

📫 New posts this week: I took a walk in the rain on Monday, and finally posted my response to the Blog Question Challenge: TV Show Edition.

Lots of Ham Radio Happenings This Week

🎙️ On Friday, I attended the Dayton Hamvention^[1] in Xenia^[2]. I spent the day walking around the flea market, where I picked up a nice (but not too nice) clean Astatic D-104 microphone with a basic “G” base. I plan to update it with a new electret element and get it on the air. Fingers crossed.

📚 I picked a couple of books from the ARRL booth, including Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Sketchbook. It looks like it’ll be an interesting read and there might even be something useful in there, but he should have called it Salty Walt’s Book of Verticals, because there’s nothing substantive in there that isn’t a vertical. And no, I didn’t stand in line to get my copy autographed. Psh.

🏔️ As I look toward retirement, I’m starting to think about getting into portable operation. I attended a Summits on the Air forum, which was very instructive. I also spoke with the folks at Elecraft, who I can now blame for landing the KX2 transceiver right at the top of my wish list.

🗺️ Special thanks to Paula K9IR for pointing me to CalTopo, and for several other helpful tips. Thanks also to the anonymous ham who recommended the SOTA Goat iOS app.

🏆 I did NOT win a door prize this year. Boo.

📻 Since inheriting my father’s Icom IC-7300, it’s been sitting on a shelf. I decided this week to swap out my Yaesu FT-DX1200 and post it for sale. It’s a little bit sad because I really love the 1200 but the 7300 is smaller, newer, and a bit more modern.

🫟 With the installation of the 7300, there’s a lot less stuff at my radio desk. But now there’s also a lot more crap on the floor and in places it doesn't belong. My office really needs a good cleaning and reorganizing. My big plan was to do that Sunday, but that didn’t happen.

Reading

🐙 Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky (12%)

🧠 “Brain Drain” by Scott Galloway

Watching

👔 Suits LA Finished season 1. I can understand why the canceled this show, but I’m a little sad too. It wasn’t good, but I like watching it. Just like the original Suits.

That’s all for now. Next week includes the start to a long holiday weekend, so it’ll be a short work week. (Very excited about that.) Until next time, stay funky.^[3]