Amateur Radio
For me, the logical next step in my electronics obsession was to become an amateur radio operator. I got my license back in 2020, and if you listen carefully, you might catch me calling CQ on 7030kHz as VA3ZZA.
I’m 90% a CW operator, 9% an APRS user, and occasionally key up on VHF FM to make sure the band is still dead (…lol).
I like participating in the Summer & Winter Field Days, and also helped bring together the first ever Meme Appreciation Month event.
The station
I currently operate from my home. Generally pushing 2 or 3 watts from my Elecraft KX2 through a home-made 40M dipole that snakes its way around my room and through a crack in the door.
Before my current setup, my antenna was my bedframe.. No, seriously. It made me quite a few contacts too. My motto for my setup is pretty much “Low SWR is Low SWR”.
APRS
I find APRS to be a really interesting mode. I quite enjoy building programs that interact with APRS-IS (the radio equivalent of a Discord bot). For example, I was running a program that tracked Canadian trains for a bit.