Rebuilding my station

After many years away from amateur radio, I am slowly adding back equipment. I had sold all of my radios and I gave away antennas, and station accessories, that weren't homebrew. Given my current QTH (place of residence), I am limited on the types and numbers of antenna's I can deploy. As I live in a townhouse, I will be forced to use portable antennas and even indoor. With no attic space, and living in a single story place, the indoor prospects are very limited. That means tripods, and quick up and down verticals in my very small front "yard". I cannot feed thru windows easily here, so I will likely employ a "window feed thru jumper" like the ones designed by Comet. I can close the door on that, allowing me to use my portable antenna while in the apartment. Of course I also plan to utilize the park for portable or even set outdoors. Plus, mobile options exist for HF. Since I have access to many repeaters here in my area, I am ordering a 144/440 dual band mobile rig and power supply. I think I am going with the Yaesu 6000R as of this writing. 50 watts on 2 meters and 40 on 440 should be plenty. I have a usable antenna that I currently use with an Alinco DJ-MD5. I also grabbed a Baofeng UV-5R an ever popular and cheap radio...to play around with. I plan to add a 2 meter 70cm Elk yagi antenna. That will sure up the VHF/UHF for the moment. Then it will be on to HF. May grab and Icom IC-7300 or the Yaesu Ft-991A. The Icom is super popular right now and would meet my humble needs. The Yaesu would allow all HF plus 2 meter and 400, which would allow me to try SSB on those. And not just the FM, the Yaesu 6000 allows. My goal is to start acquiring HF stuff this summer. 

If anyone is interested in amateur radio, check out www.ARRL.org

Woeful Tiny Tales

Ron Lanham Writing

There are certain truths, that have been with me now for nearly a decade.  A list of ideals that served as a reminder. A testament to a scorned heart.  Notions such as ‘She talked about trust, but forced me to learn forgiveness’. ‘She talked about redemption, but left me in hell’.  Foundational passages like ‘She talked of opportunity, but never gave me a chance’. The truth I realize, in all of it’s brutality, as time tilts ever forward, is that the me and she in these woeful, tiny tales of misery, could change places.  The truth however, would remain constant.

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Diablo IV Beta

I have been playing the open beta of Diablo IV this weekend. I have been able to level my barbarian to 18 so far. This is despite Blizzard server issues and long queue times to get into game. These anticipated technical issues aside, my impression of the game thus far is positive. There are 5 classes as of the beta. Barbarian, sorcerer, rogue, druid, and the ever popular necromancer. Once you reach level 20 with a single character, you unlock some titles and a wolf pup backpack cosmetic that will follow you into the full release. The abilities/skills system seems robust. Use of healing potions is a major improvement over D3 in my opinion. Character creation gives plenty of customization. I like the questing and the open map concept can be fun, or can be confusing in the questing. I am looking forward to also creating a druid class after I hit 20 with the barb. I am even more looking forward to the full release after this beta experience.

Rusted Tin

"Therein lies the problem." Sheriff Clay says pulling handcuffs from his pocket.

"This is just a little private use liquor, John" Bill Wade offers.

"Your parole is very specific. No liquor making. Period. Put your hands behind your back." The sheriff orders.

"Oh hell John. All you have here is some empty bottles. Old sugar bags and some rusted tin. What is my crime?" Wade counters.

"That still is enough to put you back inside.  Let's go." The sheriff leading Wade to the waiting cruiser.

Fair to say

It is fair to say, this space is all over the place. From various attempts at poetry. To snippets of short stories. And then there is the amateur radio updates. So, why not throw a little gaming into the mix as well. I am most looking forward to the release of Diablo IV. I started that franchise with the original in 1996. And have faithfully played each new release since. I missed the pre-order beta period this past weekend. But Will be knee deep into it this coming weekend, for the open beta. My gaming tastes are varied. Everything from Call of Duty, to real time strategy, to board games, to D&D and points in between. Of course being a child of the 80's, those old arcade titles like Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders will always be near and dear. Other titles of interest this year, is the latest Destiny 2 release 'Lightfall'. The upcoming 'RedFall'. And will be wrapping up another run through Valheim's "Mistlands" today in fact. I am primarily back to PC gaming, as I also love to build computers. I still have an Xbox and Nintendo Switch, though they rarely get any use these days. Happy gaming.

Inconvenient

"She was skating too long on that thin white line." Red blurted out.
"What?" The sheriff asked, distracted
"Cocaine. Angie is, well, was into the coke." Red frowned as the words left his mouth.
"So pretty and young, shame what she had gotten into." Red continued
"Let's get the coroner's office over here. And don't go talking to anyone, especially reporters about this." The sheriff said pointing at Red.