Shack in 2001

 

 

I'm active on several VHF/UHF Digital Voice modes, starting with D-STAR in 2010, and more recently on DMR and System Fusion in 2016. I usually use the Raspberry Pi hotspot (pictured at right) with a DVMega, a DV4mini, and an old 2m DVAP. This configuration allows all three modes to be used simultaneously in the same box. Is that the modern version of an antenna farm? Maybe it's more like an antenna garden.

 

I'm also hosting a YSF reflector on Fusion (US Ohio), and a couple X Reflectors on D-STAR (XRF010 and XRF011).

 

 

APRS has been an interest since the late 90s and I currently have a weather station on APRS as part of the Citizens Weather Observer Program. Lots of leftover AX.25 packet gear from the early 90s made moving to APRS simply a matter of changing software and frequencies.

 

Another long-term project is our local Skywarn group's website at warn.org. Cincinnati Skywarn is WARN, the Weather Amateur Radio Network. The look of the site hasn't changed much since its original inception in the late 90s and it's slated for a long-overdue responsive upgrade sometime soon. I also host a feed of the audio for our weather nets on Broadcastify.com.

 

 

In the early 2000s, I spent a lot of time on HF working for awards and frequenting awards nets.  My HHH Net Worked All States number is #794 and my OMISS number is #4408.  I was also pretty active with 3905 Century Club nets and earned some awards on RTTY and voice there. As a byproduct, I also have the ARRL Worked All States single band 40m award. I'd like to start on DXCC at some point, but I'm not sure yet of the route that might take. (QRP?) And that might have to wait until the next solar cycle upswing.

 

 

I've been a computer programmer of some sort since the late 80s. I worked as a developer and system administor for NetCrafters from 1996 to 2014 and now do the same type of work as a freelancer and independent contractor, mostly with Perl, PHP, MySQL, and Apache on Linux. Debian and Ubuntu Linux are my servers of choice at the moment.

 

Other interests include playing drums, guitar and keyboards, writing & recording original music, electronic gadgetry, and radio related stuff of all kinds. I've also developed a penchant for "virtual storm chasing." It's amazing how closely you can follow severe weather events online these days from the safety of your own home. (Unless it's your area that's under the gun!)

 

I'm on the web at n8qq.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/bradmc, and on Twitter at twitter.com/bradmc.