Category Archives: Ham radio

GC039 — My ham radio call KZ0C, and thoughts about identity

Yep, got my vanity call-letters from the FCC yesterday. So now you know my call. And of course, I got the domain — www.KZ0C.com. All that rumpus leads me to thoughts about ongoing identity… Domains, email addresses, last-names (and what a goofy system we have for THAT), how WORT got its call, all get covered in this podcast.

Click here to download this 13 minute podcast

GC037 — Got me a ham license

Yep, I got skunked by the weather the first time out, but last weekend I made the grade. I talk about that and all the good engineering I’m starting to do. This show also features a one-time-only tune for the intro and outro which is a live, one-take snapshot of some of the “jam with the synth” stuff I’ve been doing recently. Not good enough to get promoted to “permanent theme music” status, but interesting.

Click here to download this 11 minute podcast

GC035 – Ham license, easy bread and etc.

Whew. Another long gap in the Geezercasting. This one due to getting Really Busy by accident and having no time left over for A Life. But dang nabbit — gotta get back to the life here. The big topic in this Geezercast results from the FCC removing the morse-code requirement for ham radio licenses — which in turn motivated me to get cracking on learning the stuff so I can take the test the day after that change goes into effect. So I’m off to Stillwater next Saturday with high hopes. This show explores the geek-culture of the ham community, why I’ve always wanted to be a part of that gang, and etc.

Click here to download this 12 minute podcast

GC033 — Weather station repeaters, and wireless Internet

Mostly this is the tale of fixing my Davis Vantage Pro weather station’s repeaters after the system conked out yesterday. I almost typed the word “diagnosing” instead of “fixing” in that first sentence, but truth be told I never figured out why the things crapped out, or how I fixed them. The experience provided me a springboard to rant some more about wireless Internet.

By the way you can view the offending weather stations (who knows whether they’ll be up or not) at www.prairiehaven.com/weather/, we were working on the “on top” one.

Click here to download this 11 minute podcast