I’ve spent a long time building out a home lab that, frankly, generates more security-relevant noise than I have time to personally review — firewall logs, intrusion detection alerts, DNS oddities, the usual pile that anyone running a real network at home eventually accumulates. For a while my answer was “check it when I remember to,” which is not a strategy, it’s a hope.
This past week, my wife and I made the drive to Idaho to celebrate a special milestone—our son’s 36th birthday. Unlike some of our other road trips, this one was straightforward with no detours or sightseeing along the way. The goal was simple: spend time together as a family and enjoy each other’s company without any big agenda.
Kicking Off the 2025 Camping Season – 3,400 Miles, 7 States, and a Whole Lot of Memories # Our first big trip of the 2025 camping season took us through seven states—New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming covering more than 3,400 miles in total. Along the way, we hit a few major highlights that made this journey unforgettable:
GRAV to Hugo Migration # I know it has been quite awhile since I have posted anything here on my website but I am hoping to change that. When I decided on diving back in I was not happy with the performance of my page loads even from my local network. This was the main driver for this migration.
This was our first trip of the year for 2022 and was the first time we have gone camping on the early shoulder of camping season. In Colorado camping season kicks off Memorial day weekend. This trip also served as a shake down for the mods and additions that we had acquired during the winter.
This was our first major trip taken with our travel trailer (TT) where we were totally dependent on the trailer and the campsites we chose. The time span of this trip was fourteen (14) days and covered over two thousand five hundred fifty (2550) miles. The header image of this post shows the route that we took. When traveling on vacation we try to keep the driving to about three hundred (300) miles per day. In doing this we get the following benefits:
The weekend of March 13 2021 and the following Monday (3/15/2021) are ones for the history books. The official total for Loveland, CO was twenty-nine point one inches (29.1") Kelly and I have lived in Colorado now for almost eight years and this is the most snow accumulation we have had ever.
This was our first year with our 2020 Forest River Micro Lite 21FBRS, and so far no issues. My 2018 EcoDiesel got a set of airbags with onboard 100% duty cycle air compressor from Timber Grove to assist the rear coils and improve the ride.
The picture above is me settling in our new travel trailer (TT) nicknamed ‘EscapePod V2’. It is a 2020 Forest River Micro Lite 21FBRS.
For those that know me this is our second TT. Our first one was totaled in an accident ((Truck, TT, and me) and ice) in October 2019 on the way home from Idaho. We had some good memories and vowed it would be replaced.
I have had this on my someday todo list for over a year now and finally pulled the trigger last week and ordered all the parts from amazon except the URI interface. As a guide I found AllstarSetup.com Starter Node quite easy to follow. It all went together quite easily and showed how much more practice I need on soldering very small components.
Christmas this year I felt truly blessed. We had all of our adult children home to visit. Activities ranged from just visiting and catching up to playing a game called “What do you MEME”. A couple of other highlights are below:
After some poking around I decided to see if I can put a new face to the site with a new theme. What you are looking at so far is what I found most pleasing to my eye. Side benefit to this one is that it also shows my @kf5jra twitter feed. If you find anything broken please let me know.
This post will explain how I document all the settings of the applications that interface with my ham station. With the complexity of any ham station in interfacing both hardware and software it can get a little overwhelming to keep track of how everything is connected and or its settings. The tools that I have chosen work for me and have been real world tested (accidently).
If this is your first time here this is will not look to new to you, but for returning visitors this might look a little different.
Both the front end and the back end of this site has been changed. The move removes any dependencies on having to use an external program to make these posts and allows me to just use my editor of choice. The moves also removes the dependency of having to use a MySQL for the back end.
IMG_0747.JPG We got our first snow of the season. Been falling since around 4:00 AM. Due to the previous two days being in the mid 70’s or so it has taken some time to accumulate. Streets are still clear since they have the warmth of the previous two days.
With a little help from the North Dakota QSO party I was able to get the last state for my mixed Worked All States (WAS). Big thanks go out to the operator who uploaded their log so quickly after the contest.
With me just turning half a century old (50) I made my life easier at the desk of my ham station.
I have always eyed my dad’s (N6XT) Green Heron RT-21 so I have been on the look out for one to be had for quite some time. So a little over a week before my birthday I spotted a RT-21D posted on swap.qth.com that was almost half the cost of a new unit. Like any good ham operator I did my due diligence to verify the seller was legit. Everything was on the up and up and I became the proud owner of the RT-21D.
This short blog entry is to record that I have confirmed 100 DXCC via LoTW. Now it is time to start working toward the next step.
Hope to see you down the Log
The stars have aligned and I have found the time and the finances to be able to attend the International DX Convention. This is will be my first time attending this convention that my dad (N6XT) has been attending for quite some time. This is also the first time both my dad and I will be attending something together that we both share a passion for.
With the help of my good neighbor (Jay) one of my goals was accomplished. I was finally able to get my Glen Martin RT-936 roof-top tower installed. The tower is supporting a K4KIO 6-Band Hex Beam with the rotating duties being handled by a HyGain Ham-iV rotator.
I have finally stepped into the current age of ham radio (as far as the rig goes). On Friday (04/15/2016) I signed for my IC-7300 that was properly handled by the UPS guy. The radio is not much bigger than my IC-735 but the performance is ten fold over my old radio.
On Friday before the ARRL DX SSB contest I was finally able to sit down to my ham station. After getting all of the software updated and finding I had fourteen (14) Q’s in LoTW I got to turn on my IC-735 and spin around the bands. Good thing was after five months the IC-735 was still working like a champ.
I am still here and am highly aware that I have not posted anything to my site in quite sometime since I moved it here. It has been a very busy year and I don’t see my personal or professional life slowing in the near future.
Due to unforeseen circumstances caused by Textdrive closing their doors without any notice I am slowly getting data restored and my site along with others back online. Stay posted for further updates
With the property/land cleaned up we had a shop built to be able house cars, work on projects, and to be my future ham shack/man cave. With the structure and exterior completed and the electrical wiring in process we (ian, Kyle and I) started on the following:
This blog post is being posted after the fact but backdated in hopes to provide a better flow as I feel in the gaps of things I like to write about that has been done to our home here in Colorado.
After almost eight (8) years in Texas humidity is was time to find a more comfortable climate to live and enjoy life. So we packed up the family and moved to Loveland, CO.