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I’ve finished work for the remainder of the year and its a good time to take stock. I had a lot of plans, most of which didn’t happen as a result of some over optimism on the planning front so what went wrong. Well not much in fact when it comes to radio. I did however sneak a little progress here or there but its been barren for a few months. Before we get into new years resolutions I think its worth noting what did go on….

1. I bought a MTR-5B rig which has had a few outings and a couple of QSO’s. Lovely bit of kit by the way.
2. Practiced my CW a lot off air. Not so much on air.
3. I acquired a TS-850 as well. Very nice
4. I spent a bit of time perfecting the Raspberry Pi / RTL Dongle iGate. Pleased with that because I’m not that great with Linux.
5. I am typing this on a PC loaded with Ubuntu. In an attempt to learn a bit more about Linux.
6. Bought a FT-817. I really missed the old one for VHF contesting (get which section I prefer)
7. Built a towbar mounted decorating pole mast. Well prototyped one at least.
8. Attempted to programme an Arduino to display a load of GPS data. This is definitely in the work in progress tray.
9. Did programme an Arduino to decode morse
10. Wrote a piece for RSGB on the SatNOGS project we did at the club. May or may not get published

………….hang on this list is getting longer than I though it would

I suspect I’m not alone in this but looking back in the log I have not had a QSO in a few months other than on a repeater or as part of a contest. I thought that this meant I hadn’t really done much. But the reality is that, probably like quite a few, there are a more pressures on your time than you think there are. It just so happened that when this relaxed and I turned the rig on, conditions were down the khazi.

So Happy Christmas, Happy New Year and all that. Remember hams don’t just make QSO’s.

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