First Post

So this is my very first post. I’ll work on fleshing this blog out in the coming days/weeks. I just got a CNC machine and I hope to balance my time between making cool projects and posts about those projects, along with all the other things I need to do- eat, do chores, exercise, go to work, etc. Maybe I’ll post pictures of my radios in another post. Right now I have a Yaesu FT-950 (still a good radio as old as it is) and I have recently connected it to my computer and used it for digital modes like FT8, RTTY, and WSPR. It definitely wasn’t easy figuring out all the settings, so I should probably write them down.

I also recently built a QRP Labs QMX+. It was a great kit to build. I would like to tune it to get a little better performance out of the high bands. Right now I’ve ran the diagnostics and have seen that it does not have the claimed 5W power in the 10m and 6m bands, and some of the SWRs get a little high in those bands. I think I may need to adjust some of the filters to improve the output there. Maybe that’s another blog post when I start to do that.

Finally, I just upgraded to an Extra class license in Jan 2025 and got a vanity callsign (which is why I’m now NN0Y instead of KE0MVN). I’d like to get involved in more ham radio organizations but I haven’t decided what I want to do yet- do I want to do emergency communications like MARS/ARES, or do I want to become a volunteer examiner, or just be a regular club member? Do I want to do POTA or SOTA? Maybe I’ll post about the organizations and activities that I try out to see what part of ham radio is best for me (aside from building electronics, which I already know I like).