Skipping 2025... I'm back in 2026 now?

Well, I guess we’ll just skip right over 2025 and jump right into 2026. I’ve been away from the blog here for a while. Truthfully, I don’t think anyone reads this, but it’s an exercise in frustration on my part. This happens to be the only website I haven’t migrated yet, so at least I get maintenance experience.

In any case, 1-10-2025 was my last post and here we are in 2026. So here is what I’ve been up to!

Radio

2025 was filled with some radio fun. Not nearly as much as 2024 was. Mostly this was due to time constraints and other requirements in life but I do plan to get back out there even more in 2026.

A new mode… well, new to me.

I’ve been couched by my friend and mentor, Chris WR7B for the better part of two years now on getting into CW and finally dedicating the time to learn. I think I can now safely say I’m somewhat competent at code. Enough at least to do a reasonable activation. Make no mistake though, the frustration is probably on the other end of the air… “AGN AGN”

I spent much of the later half of 2024 dedicated to practicing code and trying to get myself where I felt at least comfortable getting on the air. I spent a little time operating at home as a hunter, when time permitted. On New Year’s Day of this year I ripped the band-aid off and activated Cedar Swamp State Wildlife Area - US 7649. I managed 15 CW contacts before deciding to take a break and jump over to SSB for a few QSOs.

Truthfully, this was the hardest thing I think I’ve done in many years. Once I completed it though, it got much easier. This activation was filled with lots of “AGN AGN” and “K?” or just “?”. I’d like to tell you I kept it together, but I really didn’t. There were quite a few blank moments.

I quickly followed it up with another activation on the 3rd at US-10659 Augustine State Beach. Still nervous and needing repeats often, this activation felt a bit easier. Band conditions weren’t as good but all operators were friendly and offered repeating several times.

I’d like to take a moment to express my thanks to those operators for their patience. I’m sure it was a bit frustrating.

So for quite a few activations recently, I’ve been dedicated to CW. It’s quite exhilarating in comparison to SSB. I’ve operated SSB for most of my ham career, so a new mode is more than welcome. FT8 just doesn’t do it for me.

New mode, new radio

If you read my thoughts on the Ic-705, you probably saw this coming. I travel a lot for work, and usually it’s by air. The IC-705 is a great radio. If you don’t fly or backpack, it’s excellent. If you fly, backpack, or are sensitive to a larger radio, maybe not the best choice.

Truth be told I was completely sold on a KX2, however, I screwed up. While packing for a trip I dropped the IC-705. It was in a foam camera wrap and a case commonly used by owners of the IC-705(I believe it’s a water bottle bag/case). I took the radio out, inspected it and saw no defects. Turned it on and again everything appeared normal.

However, once halfway around the world, I noticed the fatal flaw. The BNC connector had been bent inward badly.

Fortunately, my employment affords me access to an electronics lab. Some young technicians were able to put some blood and sweat into bending it back out enough, so I can at least activate that island, more on that in a bit.

So I was able to get my final activation of 2025 done with IC-705, but my eyes were opened.

I really like the KX2. I loved the KX3 when I owned it. I’d already decided on replacing the IC-705 before it was dropped with KX2, I just hadn’t ordered it yet. When I came home I pulled the trigger, finally, on the Lab 599. I reasoned that: I’m apparently rough on equipment, it’s a little tougher, it’ll be safe from rain, I’m not scared to throw it in the backpack, etc.

The KX2, I’d be terrified to damage and if what happened with the 705 is any indication of my negligence, then maybe a KX2 wasn’t for me. Arguably, the connector on the 599 could be bent the same way but the 705 could have just as easily landed on the screen. I trust the screen of the lab599 more than the 705 or the KX2.

Truthfully, I was growing frustrated with the IC-705, hence it being slated for replacement. It’s large for what it is, it’s got some really weird features for what it’s supposed to be. D-Star? Why? The battery is a joke. I think Icom missed the mark here. If they’re aiming to compete with a KX3/KX2 or get that portable op, smaller is better in most cases. I don’t see many portable operators running D-Star…. Maybe it’s just me?

My antenna dilemma

I love playing around with antennas. Trying new things, testing, tweaking, and breaking things. I find myself carrying way too much crap though. I’ve traveled, by air, with more than 3 complete antenna kits in my bags. It was getting frustrating.

Recently, I’ve decided to standardize on a few antennas for specific purposes. Thomas, K4SWL has his kits, and I’ve got of assumed the same mentality. I’ve got a kit that rolls with my RV for camping trips, or in my car and a kit I carry when I’m flying. The kit I carry when flying is pretty much the same as it’s always been. An MC-750 as primary and an EFHW backup. The tiny 49:1 kit I have and wire take up no room. The only addition to this kit I’m considering is possibly a POTA mast.

Thus far, for quite a while actually, I’ve been sticking with the vertical MC-750. This is mainly out of laziness. Most of the operating areas I’ve been to have had terrible tree selection. In any case. My goal is to get down to a kit that enables operation on: 80, 40, 30, 20, 15, 17, 10 meters. I’ll likely try to pull this off with at least one linked EFHW and some extensions or swapably sections. Or more likely just an all out dedicated for the bands that don’t match the rest. Still working on that.

The POTA mast, in this case, would just be there to offer a means to support a sloper, should a tree not be available.

More on that later

Computing…

This has been where a majority of my time has been sunk recently.

I’ve had loads of changed to the home lab. I’ll really need to dig in a detail these at a later date, but primarily I’ve been migrating or cleaning up the home lab both physically and virtually.

• New CDN server for business images
• Centralized multiple VMs from TrueNAS to a Proxmox server
• Replaced a dead POE switch …. again!
• Going all in on zero trust with Tailscale for access control
• The big one, complete rewrites and migration of multiple website across much of my business domains

Around the house

has been fun filled, as always. It’s quite literally always something.

Primarily my TODO list has been clogged with a few home lab things. I moved (physically) 2 of my big storage servers from one side of the “office” to the other and needed a dedicated 220 volt outlet for the UPS to run those. Well, again laziness, got in the way. So that’d been put off for months, so much so that one of those servers was down for months. Just turned off…

Mother nature fixed that. The recent storm that hit the northeast forced my hand and again my past self’s laziness got in the way of progress.

Several years ago I installed a transfer switch for our generator. Our home doesn’t have fuel heat (no gas, no fuel oil… just electricity). We do, however, have two pellet stoves that’ll run you out of the house. Perfect for heating when the power is out. A heat pump just wouldn’t work on a generator of our size.

So I installed this transfer switch several years ago and for several years it got no usage. As I was rebuilding the ham shack/office I wanted to install a mini-split Air conditioner. Well, laziness, the inlet for the tiny generator inlet was there, the wire feeding it was plenty large enough for the mini-slit, and it was in the right location…. It got repurposed

Fast-forward to this massive ice storm coming to a town near you, and I needed to install a new one.

So, as work began on the generator inlet I also, finally added that 220 volt outlet for the UPS. At least something got accomplished.

Oh you thought I was done with the generator…. nope

Spent a week getting everything lined up. Installing a new inlet, wiring things in, testing, making room for the generator to have a place to run and be somewhere secure from the weather, draining the old gas out of it, getting it running and…. It’s 15 years old… what’d I expect.

I truthfully hadn’t thought of this generator, except every time I tripped over it, in years. It’s an old Chicago electric from Harbor Freight. I expect the voltage regulator is bad because the voltage was all over the place. Nothing was happy with the power coming out of this thing.

Being short on time and this old generator being really long in the tooth, so to speak, I decided it was time to let it go.

Off to purchase a new generator. I decided to go with a Predator 9500 Inverter Generator this time. The output on this thing is much smoother and cleaner!

This will require reconfiguring a few circuits eventually, but in its current configuration, it works with the transfer switch and inlet we had previously and is a major upgrade in terms of stability and peak power output needs.

Summary

So I guess I should wrap this post up.

2025 was an insanely busy year with lots of missed to-do list items. I managed quite a bit of work around the house and on the antenna farm, but the site here has suffered due to the strain of multiple technical migrations in the works.

I’m hoping this year, I’ll finally get to keep this site maintained, somewhat, regularly.

For the Hams out there 73'