more pictures

Field Day 2004 was just fantastic here in Ann Arbor. The weather was perfect
(although a bit cool late Saturday night), band conditions were great, and we
had an awful lot of fun.

Our club held FD 2004 at Domino’s Farms
again this year. Domino’s Farms is the headquarters of Domino’s Pizza, and really
a perfect location for Field Day. We commandeer a hilltop there for our operations.

Yesterday, I worked another “two-fer.” That is, I made some contacts in both the West Virginia QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party, which were taking place on nearly the same frequencies.

Last night, I worked YZ200A, a special event station in Serbia. According to the DX bulletins:

Rodja, YZ1AA, is active until the end of year with the special callsign YZ200A. Activity is to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the First Serbian Mutiny against Turks (1804). His activity will be mainly on CW (just a reminder, he is a member of FOC, YUCWK etc…).

For more information on this revolution, see the webpage, “The Serbian Revolution and the Serbian State.”

At first, I was kind of troubled by this, but I guess this is no different than US special event stations commemorating the Fourth of July. What do you think?

Almost 20 years ago, Brad Thompson, AA1IP, did me a big favor. He decided he liked being an engineer much more than he like being an editor for Test&Measurement World magazine, and left the magazine to become a consultant. That opened the door for me; I got his job.

Fortunately for the magazine, and for electronics engineers, Brad agreed to continue writing his column for the magazine. In his latest column, Brad describes some of the interesting test equipment designs that radio amateurs have come up with lately.

I got started in electronics back in the 1960s by listening to shortwave radio. I was not the most serious of DXers, but I enjoyed listening to broadcasts from all over the world. I collected quite a few QSLs, too.

I kept up with the DX world by reading both Electronics Illustrated and Popular Electronics. My dad subscribed to both magazines because at the time he was building hi-fi kits. Both magazines covered hi-fi equipment as well as shortwave radio and amateur radio topics.

One of the ways in which Popular Electronics got readers involved is via the Shortwave Monitor Registration Program. For a very small fee (10 cents!), you could apply for registration. For that dime, you got a certificate with a “WPE” callsign and were eligible for awards, similar to the DXCC program that the ARRL now sponsors.

Well, I’m back from a week-long vacation in New Mexico. We did some rock hunting, saw Carlsbad Caverns, and ate some good Mexican food.

One thing I didn’t do is make a single contact while on the road–I left all my radio gear at home. I was tempted to take my HT, and if my KX1 had been complete, I might have taken that, but I wanted this to really be a vacation and do things I don’t normally do. So, I left all my stuff here at home. Hopefully, I’ll get back on the air tonight, though.