Now

Ham Radio

I'm spending a fair bit of time on Morse code (CW) these days. I got my amateur radio license in January of 2023. Around October 2023 I made my first CW QSO, and November I started working on awards with the Straight Key Century Club. That's a great group, and I enjoy it immensely.

In January of this year I took a course with CWInnovations. It was an excellent course, with a great group of folks, and I learned a ton. I'm still working on building speed and fluency, but I'm much better than I was at the start of the year!

Cameras

I like cheap cameras, toy cameras, and old cameras. This year I've used:

• A Superheadz Hello Kitty half frame camera to document a trip to the mountains.
• My trusty Lumix waterproof digital camera at the lake and river.
• A Dragon Touch instant print camera (it prints on receipt paper!) camping with the family.
• A Canon Rebel XT with a cheap 70-300mm lens to photograph birds and critters in my yard.
• A Praktica FX3 that I got for Christmas. I only used this one around the yard, and the learning curve feels high with the top-down viewfinder!
• And I just acquired, and look forward to using, an Olympus PEN EE-2 half frame. I hope to use this for some travel soon, but need to see if it works!

Gardening

I'm trying to rework my various beds to take them back from weeds and aggressive volunteer plants. I'm hopeful I can get some bulbs in this fall and have a really lovely spring.