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Pitcairn Islands is a DX aficionado dream come true with call sign prefix VP6. The Pitcairn Islands comprised of four islands has a population of about 40 some people and only one of the four islands is inhabited (Pitcairn). The Pitcairn Islands was the landing place of the nine mutineers from the HMS Bounty. [Plus 11 Tahitian women and a few Tahitian men.] If you were chasing DX in the 1960's- 1980's you undoubtedly worked VP6TC (Tom Christian) a descendant of Fletcher Christian, one of the nine. Seventh Day Adventist missionaries visited Pitcairn in the 1800's and converted the inhabitants to their religion. One of the regular VP6TC 20M skeds was with an Adventist ham station at Loma Linda University in SoCal. VP6TC is a SK but VP6MW (Meralda Warren) is active on 15M FT-8. Incidentally, QRZ.com shows her with close to 250K hits. VP6 land has been a destination for DXpeditions, but it has been maybe 10 years since the last one. Facilities are limited and many have solar p...

Scrolling through the CNN app this morning, I found an article about DNA testing that was done on Hitler. In a macabre event that acquired a piece of evidence that contained Hitler's DNA it was matched to a known relative. Much was learned through the  DNA testing of Hitler, and it serves as sound evidence of why he did what he did. One marker strongly suggests that he suffered from Hypergonadism, and another debunked he had Jewish roots. Hold on, the connection to ham radio is coming. That connection is SolderSmoke Podcast 262. Scroll to the section conducted by Dean KK4DAS on the 100-watt SS amp he built. This amp project was long in the making as it initially had Zero Output on any band beyond 20MHz. Here it comes... Dean used AI (Claude) to zero in on the zero out. So, what does DNA testing do but compare a set of data points with a well-known database and look for matching patterns. Is this not the same approach using AI. The leverage of AI is that it can look at hundreds of t...

The word neutralization has many interesting meanings. For Mafia Dons, like the Tony Soprano types, the word has the definition of simply eliminating the competition in various criminal enterprises.  Tony Soprano For many Americans, they see neutralization through the lens of the midterm elections, in less than a year from now, to reverse the questionable actions taken in this past year. There seems to be widespread support for this type of neutralization based on the 2025 elections just held. For me neutralization has to do with rigs I have built. The action of neutralizing a RF amplifier stage is to negate the situation where K*Beta = 1... also known as the Barkhuasen Criteria or in simple terms the final amp is oscillating! Initially I looked at the output stage (12GE5) of my Hybrid Wireless set, and it all looked pretty good. As built and after initial testing it did not look like any neutralization was required. I swapped in a new tube as the original tube was stressed from to...

A possible answer to the question about the obvious chaotic behavior of some elected politicians. Each day they know less. It is all about subtraction. So now back to some radio stuff. I continue to look at the possibilities of converting the SSB version of the 23 channel CB radios to 10 Meters. The Crystal synthesized versions look particularly attractive for conversion with a specific look at the Cobra Model 134 and Model 138. The chart below is chock full of information on how the synthesis works. There is a bit of magic taking place and the chart tells the tale. Ten synthesizer crystals plus the BFO crystal give you 3X23 or 69 channels of either AM, LSB or USB signals. With a single BFO frequency it is possible to have LSB and USB simply by picking the correct LO. For LSB and AM with a 7.8205 BFO and an LO operating at 19MHz, the output is in the range 26-27MHz which is an additive mix. Now if you shift the LO to 34MHz two things happen: we use the subtractive mix where 34 - 7.8205...

To all those who served and are now serving... Thank you for your service! Saying Happy Veterans Day to me sounds most inappropriate! While a Federal Holiday and no mail or your bank is closed it is a day of reverence , respect , reflection and recompense . We owe veterans for our freedom and for those in power today, I wonder if you understand that simple fact. Yet, after serving our country their service seems to be forgotten. Possibly it is a result that often government leaders never served.  The last four presidents did not see active military service yet were responsible for sending thousands of military personnel into harm's way. When you have been there and done that, it adds a whole new perspective to the decision process. Yes, you are wondering about that last statement regarding US Presidents and military service. Here is the list of 15 U.S. Presidents who have held the office without prior service in the military. John Adams John Quincy Adams Martin Van Buren Millard F...

Happy 250th Birthday to the US Marine Corps. Semper Fi! Having served with the Marines as a part of RLT4 in May of 1965 at Chu Lai, they have my greatest respect and admiration. Yes, I did take post graduate course work in Marketing and most definitely that often colors what I see. In the last two weeks the highest viewed posting remains the one with BB on the beach. Marshall McLuhan , a Canadian marketing guru of the 1970's proclaimed "the medium is the message" as evidenced by TikTok. What is clear based on tests I have run on the blog... Hot looking women assures blog readership. The Medium is the Message, looking at a photo of BB suggests some hot info on ham radio stuff. Thus, our subject for today will not get a lot of views. POTA Antennas, now that has a nice ring to it. As usual something turned up on my smart phone about Wolf River Coils   So, Let's Talk About Antennas! In a limited look see, one thing caught my eye was a really light weight 217-inch telescop...