New beginnings, new things, more to come hopefully

Hey all! It's Ria here, and I'm going to be blogging about my ham stuff here. Stay tuned!

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New video on YouTube - connector wrapup (for now)

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 I'm wrapping up the preliminary series on coax connectors. Reason being that I want to cover a few more topics, and also get a few other pieces in which can get me to do some more in-depth topics. So enjoy the last one, for now... I talk a little about my wardriving days, and wifi antennas. Remember - ham radio is a cool hobby, but it's not the only hobby radio out there! I used to be (and still am!) very much enthused by experimenting with license-free radio services. There is a certain crossover with those that I'd like to cultivate both in my  videos and in the community.  Next I'm going to cover using Linux and MacOS in the hamshack. Should be fun. :)
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The FT8 conundrum

As I sit here I am working FT8 on 160 meters. It's a great mode to kill time and get some DX, states or new friends in the log. But this mode is not without controversy. Let's explore some of the controversies and see what can, and should be done. Or not. What's the big deal about FT8 anyway? If you haven't heard of the mode, I am thinking that maybe your radio isn't working or you haven't tuned up into the digital portion of the HF bands lately. So, briefly - FT8 is a digital "sound card" mode jointly developed by two really smart people - Joe Taylor, K1JT and Steve Franke, K9AN. It's not a rag chew mode. Instead, it provides basic QSOs exchanging grid squares and signal reports. One can optionally send a short message (13 characters) but the mode really isn't for this. FT8 was born out of other similar modes such as JT65 and JT9, which were also short QSO modes, developed for weak signal work. In fact, Joe initially developed the JT65 mod
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Contesting and DXing - no shame here.

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One of the things I'd like to touch on here is that my opponent and his friends seem to think that the message that "contesters and DXers are elitists" is a winning strategy with the ham radio public. For the record, I am a very avid and active DXer and contester. I have 324 countries confirmed (326 including deleted), 9 bands DXCC including 160 meters and DXCC challenge at the 1500 level. I also have numerous contest wins, both on my own and on VHF with Andrea, K2EZ who owns and operates a Ford Explorer rover. Interestingly enough, my opponent is also a DXer and contester. In fact, he is even on the DXCC honor roll. This means that he is in the top 10% of DXers worldwide in terms of new countries worked. Wow. It takes a lot of dedication to do that. He's also a member of the Order of Boiled Owls of New York, a well known, but small contest club. So as it turns out, he's one of us, and in some respects more elite than I am. I sincerely don't get why he g
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