In addition to this blog, I also blog on automotive testing at AutoTestNews.Com. This afternoon, I got a phone from a guy in Great Britain inquiring about one of my entries there.
After our conversation, he mentioned that his father was an amateur radio operator. I asked if he remembered his father’s callsign. “VP7DL,” he quickly [...]

James, K1JMD/AE, posted this early Friday morning to the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list. I thought it interesting enough to post here:
It is going on 02:45 EST and I just got back to my hotel room after leaving the ARRL HQ midnight test sessions, and a visit to W1AW. I am not sure how many people were [...]

Yesterday evening, I was trying to make some WV QSO Party contacts, with the hope of reprising my victory in 2004 (I was the high scorer from the state of MI). Unfortunately, either the skip was too long or there just weren’t any WV stations on 80m CW.
So, I started tuning around and heard [...]

Here in Ann Arbor, I’m working to establish a permanent amateur radio station at the Hands-On Museum. As part of this station, I wanted to have some kind of “hands-on” activity. One thing that came to mind is to have a computer set up to let kids type their names in to a computer and [...]

On the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list, Bob WA7YUL was telling a story about how he and his son were having trouble maintaining a QSO on 75m phone, when he suggested that they switch over to CW. After doing so, his son was amazed at how well they could maintain contact.
The quote came at the end [...]

On Friday, I received a pack of QSLs from the bureau. The two most notable are from OO175B andn DF0HQ:

OO175B. This card commemorates the 175th anniversary of the Belgian nation. The nicely-designed card shows roughly the Flemish-speaking area in the north and the French-speaking area in the south.
OO175B is a callsign used by the club [...]

I am all for banning cell-phone use while driving. What I didn’t think about is that legislation banning cell-phone use might also outlaw mobile amateur radio operation. Legislation is in the works in Georgia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. If you live in those states you might want to [...]

On the QRP-L.Org mailing list, there’s been some discussion about why people become QRPers. Here’s the list so far:

High power is too easy. These folks enjoy the challenge of QRP.
There are restrictions on antennas where they live.
They’re tree huggers who want to conserve energy.
They like to build their own equipment.
They’re too cheap to buy high-power [...]

From the ARRL Letter, Februrary 9, 2007:
As new Amateur Radio Service rules phase in Friday, February 23, eliminating the Morse code requirement, Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will mark the milestone with a weekend-long special event. In addition, a number of Central Connecticut volunteer examiners will be on hand at ARRL Headquarters — both [...]

Jim, K8ELR, submitted this link to the DE0BRF QSL Gallery.
The page I like the best is the page of deleted DXCC entities. Being Slovak-American, the Czechoslovakia card was interesting. Perhaps even more topical, though, is a card from the Saudi Arabia/Iraq Neutral Zone. Both are shown below.