WT8P's Notes to Self

Inside, right-half of the Elecraft K4D with the new Noctua Fans installed

My first HF radio, the Elecraft KX3, was air-cooled and got me spoiled to the relatively quiet operation. The K4D, on the other hand, has two fans. Although the “base” ventilation speed has been lowered, there’s also some whining from the bearings. Most hams can’t hear it, I, unfortunately, can and don’t enjoy the sound. I’d previously replaced the ones […]

Chicken Bun Cha Bowl

food
Recipes

2023-04-16 wt8p No comments

After taking the cooking class last month at our local PCC, I wanted to make the Bun Cha bowl solo at home. It was a lot of work – about 1 3/4 hours from when I started until when we ate. Some of the sequencing can be refined. Step 1: Make pickled daikon and carrots. You can do this in […]

Displaying K4 Spectrum in N1MM

radio

2023-03-012023-03-05 wt8p No comments

In mid-December, N1MM (version 1.0.9758) introduced a spectrum display option supporting the Elecraft K4 radio. Below is a walk-through on setting it up. For this to work, your radio will need to be connected to your local network. You can check this by tapping the Menu option and scrolling to the middle. You should see a valid IP address like […]

Birdwatch/Community Notes

Diatribe

2022-11-232022-11-23 wt8p

In September, I was invited to participate in “Birdwatch,” now known as “Twitter Community Notes.” The concept is a misleading tweet can be annotated with additional information or context by the community. For example, consider this headline: Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd holds press conference after agency says it seized enough fentanyl to kill 2.7 million people. WFLA, October 21, […]

Parks on the Air

radio

2022-10-19 wt8p

In addition to all of the geocaching I planned, I also thought I’d try activating some parks. Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program inspired by the ARRL National Parks on the Air program in 2016 by Sean Kutzko (KX9X) and Norm Fusaro (W3IZ). The idea is simply “everyday is field day,” that is, you take your radio crap […]

An old piano that's been sitting outdoors for years. It's no longer playable

Geocaching in the Northeast

2022-09-192022-09-20 wt8p

Like a lot of folks, I had to cancel my travel plans in 2020 – this was a March trip to New York City — which left me with a moderate chunk of air travel credit$. I used some of them to visit the oldest geocaches Kansas and Colorado last year, but about by late December of last year, I […]

Aspects of Geocaching I like/dislike at the same time

geocaching

2022-08-31 wt8p

The cache lifecycle. I like that any cacher can log an appropriate needs maintenance/archive, but I find local cachers are often reluctant to do so. Nearly every time I travel, I find dozens of hides with super obvious issues (e.g., hasn’t been found in a few years, streak of DNFs, CO appears to have left the game). I’ve been logging […]

Learn to Drive Syllabus – Suburbia and Beyond

2022-07-112022-07-11 wt8p 1 comment

Part 1: here. Part 2: here. Suburban practice: 30-45mph streets Goals: Be able to drive to (and park at) Trader Joe’s then Metropolitan Market and get back home. Continue building good habits, two-way communication with parental unit in right seat Scanning and naming things to keep an eye on (e.g., pedestrians looking like they may cross, lights about to change, […]

Quieter fans on the Elecraft K4D