Stay Tuned

I am sure you have noticed I am using a bit more space here in Ramblin’ Dan to write about my amateur radio interests, mostly due to the fact that I lost my main station gear to the lightning strike. That has forced me to put a lot of attention to this aspect of my avocation interests at this point in time. This is because when I don’t have something (because it was suddenly taken away) I miss it the most.

In a way it is good because I started writing about amateur radio again. I contributed an article to the local amateur radio club web site and paid my radio club dues. That club (Klub actually… Plano Amateur Radio Klub, P.A.R.K.) never took me off their mailing list, so I always felt I was in contact. Now in reality, I am in contact again.

Most of my radio interest is in the electronics construction and in the more unusual forms of transmitting data (digital) type information. Yes, I talk on the microphone but I have been hooking all sorts of gadgets to my radios since day one. I had a real baudot teletype system with continuous paper feed and perforated paper tape punch and reader. My (it’s called RTTY for radio teletype) station looked and sounded like a very early Walter Cronkite news room.

Today that is all done with computers and sound cards rather than hardware, but I still enjoy the fun. I am designing my new equipment to continue this interest. I have dedicated a Linux based computer to be my amateur radio digital communication tool. I may even get back into building hardware again. Ahem… stay tuned.

Tags: Amateurcomputerhobbyradio