Dear Friend,

Thanks to all of you who wrote to comment on my CW Academy class.  I am very excited to be taking this plunge back into CW as a re-discovered operating practice.  Taking a class with other hams also creates the framework for making progress.  I always recommend taking a class or having a mentor for any new or rediscovered discipline.  

Now that the weather is drying up, I have to locate the ground rod that I buried in the back to connect to my block of lightning arrestors to connect to the radios in the shack.  I discovered, quite by accident, that the dry desert winds here make a lot of static electricity that can make blue sparks from the center pin of my PL259 to ground. My house is made of poured concrete and steel “rebar”.  Thoughts of making that the ground may make better sense.  I am still exploring this option. 

I have been chasing Peter Shilton, VE7PS,  for a few years for the QSO Today Podcast.  Peter came to my attention as a meteor scatter and EME contact chaser.  I also discovered that his love for Drake radios has caused him over the years to collect just about every radio the RL Drake company made, get them to work, and to create operating positions for all of them.  See the pictures on his show notes page.   

Have a good week, 73,

Eric, 4Z1UG