Brian Fitzgerald avatar

Brian Fitzgerald

Found out tonight I’ll be net control manager for the Sunday night ARES net here in town for the next few months while the normal manager teaches an AE class for the club. Time to start hitting the whiskey and cigars so my voice can have the proper gravitas on 146.76 this weekend. 😂

Seriously though — net managers out there… what tips do you have for a first timer? I’ll take any help I can get!

Another this morning… A quick 30 minutes and 14 QSOs at K-5649, Pawnee Lake State Rec Area. I hadnt been to this picnic ground in a long time and forgot how nice it is. Trying to find best way to log (for me). Tried direct in to HAMRS on Saturday, and today tried paper. Each had their own positives and negatives. POTA-people… What works for you?

@kc2ihx yes!! Won’t be anything to remember about those 24 packs other than how you felt afterwards or how long they sat in your garage before you finally dumped the rest out :-)

You know it’s going to be a good beer when the price of the single can catches the cashier’s attention and they ask you “that much?! For one can?!” 😁 It’s always time for a great barrel-aged imperial stout.

I’ve hunted a lot of POTA (Parks on the Air) but this morning I tried my first activation and it went all right! It’s so much easier to hunt when you pretty much know the call and park before you even check in, but to have everybody coming at you is quite a challenge! Thanks so much to so many hams, especially @Kb9vbr and @qrper, that share their experiences online so that a newbie like me can start with some degree of confidence.

Spent an unforgettable evening with 92,002 friends watching Nebraska Volleyball in Memorial Stadium — the largest crowd to ever watch a womens’ sporting event.

@cpultz yeah, losing the “what’s everybody saying right now” aspect of Twitter has been hard, and without a login, that jackhole, Elon has even made it impossible to view posts. My best hope right now is that Threads becomes the place that a lot of that ends up and that Threads holds true to becoming federated through ActivityPub so that those on Mastodon can interact with it.

Haven't talked with South America in a couple months. Was happy to see Paraguay pop up on 17m. Just worked ZP5WBM in Paraguay (Gridsquare: GG16HC / distance: 5129 mi) on 17m using SSB

@mrwilson Some at the Weather Channel seem to agree:

"Abrams argues that numbers in the WBGT may not sound "ominous" enough with critical values "only" in the upper 80 to lower 90 degrees F range."

I think she's right, later in the article, that perhaps if they focused on the colors or levels rather than the actual value, it may be taken more seriously.

forbes.com/sites/marshallsheph

Just worked CT3MD in Madeira Islands (Gridsquare: IM13TB / distance: 4309.2 mi) on 15m using SSB AF-014

Our Lincoln, Nebraska mountain bike team has grown every year. It's a wonderful community of middle and high school athletes and their families that I'm lucky to be a part of. We've been practicing all summer and get to start racing this weekend — when it may be over 100ºF 🥵

That one was a challenge! Just worked Jeff, F4GGQ in France (Gridsquare: IN77SX / distance: 4299.2 mi) on 17m using SSB

The first day of school is always a fun one and we have a lot of fun at Lincoln Public Schools celebrating it with our coverage. Our communications crew has been all over the city taking photos, videos and more at our buildings and I've had the pleasure of being the relay man, throwing them up on our news.lps.org/first-week-2023/ page.

Just worked W8B (special event station in WV celebrating world's largest teapot) in West Virginia (Gridsquare: EM98LJ / distance: 844.6 mi) on 20m using USB

Finished my second of two 6 1/2 hour shifts driving the “free ride” golf carts at the county fair for the local radio club. So many were excited to take a bumpy trip across the parking lots in the large 6-passenger carts. I just wish I had time to actually attend the fair myself! 😁

Just worked W3PAW in Queenstown, MD (Gridsquare: FM19AW / distance: 982.6 mi) on 20m using USB

@r2d3522 @dynode Its not my thing either, but it seems that every aspect of radio one could be in to also has a contingent of folks that think it’s pointless and a waste of bandwidth. I figure I can try to find a way to play along, find a quieter band or shut it all off and go do something else for the weekend.

Just worked S51DX in Slovenia (Gridsquare: JN75DW / distance: 5089.6 mi) on 20m using USB

Fun night at the Sporting KC Leagues Cup game last night but I have never seen the stadium just get taken over by the other team. It was a Chivas home game (they were even selling Chivas merch!)— but we got the win and they are out of the tournament 😁

‘Twas the night before Quilt Auction and all through the camp, not a creature was stirring. It was too hot and damp! cjhcenter.org/quilt-auction starts tomorrow morning!

Just worked KC2MIB in North Carolina (Gridsquare: FM05PB / distance: 1050.7 mi) on 20m using USB

Just worked CO8LY in Cuba (Gridsquare: FL20CA / distance: 1886.2 mi) on 17m using USB NA-015

@WXFanatic Another meteorologist for you to add to your awesome list at rentry.co/wxlinks-mastodon : @rustywx in Lincoln, NE

@cpultz Funny how, in the past, being able to self-host your social media server would be considered a positive, but today it seems like a hurdle. I still think that having a known domain attached to your username is the ultimate blue checkmark, but I haven't seen a lot of that happening yet.