Welcome to my corner of the internet. It’s a bit like my workbench - cluttered, chaotic, and never quite as organised as it should be. This blog should stay up for as long as I can afford to renew my domain (it’s like $20 a year, contrary to what some people may say I can definitely afford that). You’ll find a mix of everything here - project notes, troubleshooting guides, random thoughts about life, and the occasional existential crisis. Sometimes the technical stuff works, sometimes it doesn’t. I write about both. Head over to About Me to read more, well, about me, check out Posts for my thoughts on everything from radio repairs to life decisions, or browse Self-Hosted to see what I’m running on my computers currently.
A week without a post, which you know means a properly busy week for me. When I’m not writing, it’s because I’m up to my neck in projects that seemed like good ideas at the time.
The radio repair saga continues, though with a plot twist. The TS930S I’ve been wrestling with turned out to be too far gone to be economically viable to repair - it’s found a new home at one of the radio clubs now, so at least it’s not cluttering up my bench anymore. But nature abhors a vacuum, apparently, so I’ve started on a new radio repair project: an old Icom HF transceiver that’s got me properly puzzled.
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Sorry this one’s a bit late - didn’t have anything properly finished by last Sunday, and I’d rather post something worth reading than rush out half-thoughts just to meet an arbitrary schedule.
This week’s been dominated by radio projects, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been following along. I’ve started working on an FM transmitter with the grand ambition of eventually hosting some sort of radio show. Nothing fancy, mind you - keeping it sensible at 1 watt to stay well within the restrictions of the General User Radio License. The whole thing started as a bit of a thought experiment really, but now I’m genuinely excited about the possibilities. And definitely no music, because that way lies licensing madness and paperwork that would make my head spin. Radio podcasting, perhaps? Not sure that’s even a proper term, but it sounds about right for whatever this endeavour might become.
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Another week gone by, and I’m sat here trying to work out what actually happened versus what feels like it happened. Spoiler alert: physics was involved in both versions.
This week brought a school trip that served as a rather dramatic reminder of why I have such nice, safe indoor hobbies. Someone in their infinite wisdom decided it would be character-building to start us off on one of those treetop obstacle courses. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Picture this: me, twenty feet up in the canopy, quite literally shaking in my boots while white-knuckling safety lines and questioning every life choice that led to being suspended on wobbly planks between trees. Every few minutes I’d be reminded exactly why I prefer my feet firmly planted on solid ground, ideally indoors, preferably near a nice warm computer that doesn’t sway in the wind.
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So here we are – my first “proper” post on this little corner of the internet. I say proper because I already threw up that story I wrote, but this feels more like an actual introduction to whatever this blog is going to become.
I’m currently working on automating the whole publishing process so I don’t have to make two separate remote connections to the server every time I want to push changes. It’s one of those small inefficiencies that drives you mad when you’re trying to maintain any kind of writing momentum. For now, I’ll be pushing updates manually a few times a week, usually around 12pm whenever I remember to do it. And with that schedule comes absolutely no promise of a new post each time – sometimes it’ll just be me tinkering with the backend or fixing typos I missed.
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I’m not sure what this thing will turn into. Maybe that’s fine.
This is the fourth time I’ve done this. Different names, different sites, different looks. Probably because what I need from it keeps changing. Sometimes it was just for keeping track of project notes. Sometimes it was where I dumped thoughts that didn’t have anywhere else to go. Now it’s something else, I guess.
There’s stuff rattling around in my head that doesn’t work as a text message or a quick photo or something you’d bring up over coffee. Some of it’s quick, those ideas that disappear if you don’t grab them right away. Other stuff sticks around, going in circles until I finally write it down somewhere. That somewhere is here now.
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