At liberty... well, soon, anyway.

Yeah I know. I don't keep this blog going-- I probably should do
a better job of keeping it up.

Last week I was notified that my job is going away. (this has
happened to be before-- I was "downsized" from TI/Raytheon in
1999. Just shy of my 20-year service anniversary.)

Monster.com came to my rescue, and I got a call from MetroIS
based on my posting. Funny thing is, the lady gave me the wrong
job posting number (transposed digits) and the original job I
looked at was in Martinsburg. When she told me "oh, the job we
were intending to point you to is in Clarksburg," I should have
said, "Well, then, I'll have to have about 10% more money!"

Now, it was actually way better than the Martinsburg gig would
have been since I could be at home with Dad.

Well, here we are nearly 10 years later and I'm facing yet another
defenestration. I didn't get quite as much notice and I'm sure I
won't get as nice a separation package.

But I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. Trying to turn it into
an opportunity. Maybe where I end up will be way better.

I had a nibble today for a slot upstairs from where I'm sitting
now. It's actually back closer to the group I started out with.
It may not work out, but it's a shot and it gives me a dim light
of hope in what has been a bleak week.

And if that's not bad enough, I mean, beeing unemployed is crummy
but not life-threatening. I got e-mail from Texas -- apparently
Monica's off getting MRI and CATscans and stuff. Dari said in her
e-mail that Sandra had gone down to be with her, but I haven't heard
much since the last report. Last (part 5) was that Sandra had heard
from Monica, who was waiting for the Doctor's debriefing on the MRI.

So, we're waiting for the latest update. Might not hear anything until
tomorrow, since I think Dari only does e-mail from work.

OK so there. I've updated my blog. I'll try to do better.

==>YCD

MWA meeting next week!

Next Tuesday, March 17 is St Patrick's Day. It's also the March 2009
meeting of the Monongalia Wireless Association. It's also the 5th
session of Tech License Class 2009.

We chose to put the class on Tuesdays so that the sessions would
overlap the MWA meetings. This accomplishes two things:

1) The Tech License students can attend the meetings and get to
know some of the other MWA members. Hopefully, they will feel
welcome at the meetings and get into the habit of attending.

2) The other members of the MWA who don't attend the class can
participate in the demos and displays we schedule for the sessions.

This is something we view as a "win-win" opportunity.

If you're in the area, please drop by.

MWA March Meeting
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
7:00 PM EDT (2300 UTC)
Red Cross
White Birch Tower Suite 300
1299 Pineview Dr
Morgantown WV 26505

39°39'42.06"N 79°57'12.28"W

Talk-in on 145.430/PL 103.5



View Larger Map

Here Comes The Sun

I just turned off my gas heater here in the
ham shack. It's sunny and warming (not exactly
warm, but warmer than it's been!) today. Warm
enough I can go off Propane and back to just
the electrics.

Once again, I am tired of winter and ready for
spring. Gee, that seems to be a recurring theme
around here.

Tech License Class 2009 is in session. We have
a nice group, and I'm looking forward to seeing
about a dozen new call signs in May.

Field Day 2009 is coming. As of this writing:
104 days to go!

I hope the weather is much nicer than last year.
We nearly got blown off the hill. It made me think
more about how better prepared I should have been.
After all, it's a PREPAREDNESS TEST too!

The hamfest season is coming up. I hope to hit
several of them this year.

I talked to Jim KY2D via the IRLP link -- really
cool! He and John AB4XT are planning to go to Dayton
Hamvention 2009. They'll fly in, I'll drive over. We
have rooms at University of Dayton this year.
Looking forward to it.

I'll try to post here more often. Just gotta get into
the habit of doing this.

To close this entry, I'll remark on how much I miss
Buzzy Bill WA8YCG (SK Dec 2008)

Bill and I attended the Monongalia Wireless Association
Novice License Class in 1967. Bill has been a fixture
around here in both the MWA and the Mountaineer Amateur
Radio Association. His expertise and wisdom in many areas
has been both a resource and inspiration to many of us.

This year marks 30th anniversary of when we drove to
Anchorage Alaska with Bill AL7AH. That was a trip of a
lifetime for me. We saw lots of country and had a great
adventure.

Bill also came to visit in Texas a few times. He was a
good ham and a great friend.

I often see something or read something or think of
something that I think I should forward it to Bill.

* * *

I'll try to post more often. Maybe putting a link on my
desktop to the blog will help.

Cheers,
...Bob WA8YCD

Where've I been?

Alright...

So it's been ... 6 months since my last post.

I just haven't been so good at keeping it going. Not much to say, I guess.

I'll try to do a little better.

Field Day 2008

You may have been led to this blog by the ARRL Field Day Station Locator!

http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php

As of this writing, there are about 100 days or so until FD2008.

We at the Mountaineer Amateur Radio Association are always looking forward to another fun time at Field Day.

We will operate 2A WV from the W8SP Repeater Site in Marion County, about 5 miles east of the I-79 "Downtown Fairmont" exit (Exit 137) on 310 (aka The East Grafton Rd) in the unincorporated community of Quiet Dell.

We will begin setting up the stations on Saturday morning. We will run one PHONE, and one CW station on all HF bands (we'll try again for 160m -- that hasn't worked out well in the past!)

We'll also take advantage of setting up a VHF/UHF station, as well as several Special Mode demonstrations. We may or may not run GOTA depending on availability of some of the club members. (Also, GOTA rules tend to change from year to year, and they may or may not make it practical for us!)

Of course, on Saturday night we'll have our usual dinner at 1800 local time. Some of the family come up to the site and join us for that event. It makes for a really nice time.

After dark, we're likely to have a nice fire going and sit around and chat, and we've even been known to "pick'n'grin" a bit.

FIELD DAY 2008 - JUNE 28-29 - W8SP Repeater Site
Hope to see you there!

73,
Bob WA8YCD MARA President

Still goin'...

Well, I haven't been on the blog for a while, should have updated it regularly.

I keep forgetting to check into it from home. I'll try to do better.

We've just had our 5th class session and many of the folks are still hanging in there.

We have covered chapters 1, 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, and 3-4. We'll cover 4-1 and 4-2 next time, and 4-3 after that.

Currently we're looking at April 3 for Jeff coming by and doing the Satellite and EME presentation.

We hope to do CQ-100, EchoLink, and IRLP coming up soon.

We may also have an HF & PSK-31 demo in the works.

Looking forward to some of the excitement coming up.
73
Bob WA8YCD

New Monongalia Wireless Association web site!

Randy N8OZY announced tonight at class that the MWA website
has been moved from www.qsl.net/w8mwa/ to

http://www.w8mwa.org/

The new server is in Randy's office, and he has control of it.