V44KF

Ham radio is still alive and well at V44KF. Time slips away and before we know it 16 months come between blog posts. Ham radio is one of those hobbies which have very deep valleys and even steeper hills, as I have learned over the past 45 years plus. I do not know if ham radio on a Caribbean island is any different from ham radio in the metro. Hams  operators are the same all over, but conditions are different, given the economics of every country and how people feel they should face their future. In some places the future is determined by the people and in some other countries it is not. Some people believe that each one of us is responsible for ourselves and have the ability to chart our own course, as we wish. I am not getting into that, but as far as my ham radio vision can see is has always been up to us in the past, and so it is in the present, and all things being equal, so to in the future. I think many of us have to retract that pointing finger of blame. Ham radio

It is coming up on that time of year when we can have our ham radio emergency operations tested by some of the elements. We always expect to past this test with flying colours. I am not privy to the postmortem results but the conclusions that we are told to draw afterwards always seem to indicate that we were at the head of the class, again. That is commendable since we know that our works and documentation is what was used to form the backbone of the regional system, pertinent to disaster and emergency, bringing some light into the darkness of the communications that existed back then. Over the years nothing has really changed, except the people, and nothing needs be said, because what we may now have is a result from the progression of people and place, and it is not anything short of what was to be expected. I see this from my elder ham perspective. Many new hams may tend to disagree, because they do not believe in what I believe in, and they refuse to see the reality of the times l

After 40 years I believe that the St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Amateur Radio Society is coming out of the wilderness. That is my view and I suspect also the view of some members of our ham radio society at what I hail to be an historic meeting at the Red Cross Convention Center on Bradshaw Hill last evening, June 4, 2013. I am still alive and well and engaged in the hobby of ham radio in our V4 land, St Kitts and Nevis. Today is just 5 days short of a year since I last posted here. It is not that I did not have anything to say, but there are times when you have to cool out and just watch movements from the sideline, and in my case not upset people with my usual 'different' point of view. It is not my fault if I see things differently, especially when they sometimes seem predictive. Some of us are just born that way, and maybe it is for a purpose. I notice that our society is moving upward and forward, and I think that it may have something to do with our embracing certain spirit

It is time for ham radio again. This year seems to be going so fast that there is no need to complain, but just go with the flow. These are the days when you go to sleep on Monday and seem to wake up on Friday, in time for weekend. No point in trying to explain what did not happen as planned, just reschedule and hope for the best. These are different times and call for a new approach and even a new attitude, if one is to remain sane and prove to be the dynamic person that one is supposed to be. I missed some days and weeks, but I am not judging and holding myself to account for something that I elect to do in and on my own time. We are into another hurricane season. This is something cast in stone. And when dealing with these "stones", one has to be permanently on the ball, and there is no getting away from anything. I have not been close to the local ham radio hub for a few weeks and I am not in a position to determine whether the ham radio product in V4 is in a state of

Thanks to my last blog post some of us have become awake and found the time and made the effort to get involved as never before. People take vacation from everything, including life and living, if given the chance. People need to be kept on their toes, sometimes on their face too, or they fall asleep, take an extended break, leave of absence, or whatever, they disconnect and move away and move on. In our hobby of ham radio, someone moves away because things are bad, well bad, as far as they are particularly concerned. It is a personal thing and we have to learn to appreciate that and to be there for the brother or sister, keeping them in touch with themselves and with the hobby, until they can bounce back. We may even have to assist their bouncing back, as best we can. So we are moving on, and I am glad that my last post was able to provide a backdrop of sorts for the appreciation of future events. I knew nothing of the future, I just follow my spirit and 'write it' as it com

I had to abandon my blog for the 16th February entitled "QRP time". How thing are going these days I hope that I can complete and publish it. I suspect that QRP may be a solution that can mean something to some of us, and I am not speaking about myself because I can afford to go QRP. I have been around for a while and worked the world. There are only a few countries that I still have not contacted, but I am not fussy because there are no ham radio operators there, and no plan for any DX-expedition is in the offing. QRP is a challenge that I think could bring me some ham radio excitement. But we will look at QRP later and see what gives. Recently I had a chat with a local ham radio operator and it concerns me that some of us may not seem to be as optimistic as we should be. Optimism is a personal think so I am not knocking anyone, it is just that I see things differently, plus, I may know a couple things that some people do not, and it may not have anything to do with my a

Two months has gone by rather quickly, but that happens when you are having fun. I had too much fun in the last 60 days and had to throw some of it away. So sorry that I could not just pass it on to some of our local hams who may not have had enough fun for their season. But then again some people do not like to get anything that appear to be "left over", but I do not have that attitude, so when you have left over Coax Cable, PL-259 connectors, antenna wire, and maybe even an HF transceiver or 2-meter base radio, just bring them by me. If you have two, so much the better. Don't blame me, I am not being greedy ... but anything free ... take two. I was too busy over the season to follow whatever ham radio action that was going down in our V4 Federation. I know for a fact that if it was only one thing that did not happen, it was that the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society, the Ham radio organization with responsibility for the furtherance of ham radio in our Fe