My history as a ham radio operator is here.

One of the most popular ham radio activities these days is "POTA", or "Parks on the Air". The idea is to set up a portable station in a national or state park or forest (no city parks) and try to get as many contacts with other hams as possible. There are various awards that depend on how man POTA stations you can contact, or how many contacts you can make if you're running a POTA station. For my first POTA activity, Sarah, Sherry, and I went to Pedernales Falls State Park where I set up a radio and made 32 contacts. Click on the appropriate thumbnail below to see some photos.

Back in the early days of ham radio, the hams would acknowledge radio contacts (called "QSOs") with other hams by sending QSL cards. These days, most of the acknowledgements are done with online QSL websites. But a few hams (including me) like QSL cards. QSL cards can either be sent via email or physically as a postcard. During my first year back on the air, I've made over 4,000 contacts, so I don't initiate the QSL card transfer. But if someone sends me a card, I reciprocate with the same format. One of the thumbnails below shows what my QSL cards look like. I can either print them on post card stock or send them electronically via email. Other thumbnails below show the QSL cards that I've received (by year). Some were physical and the rest were electronic. If there's handwriting on the card, or if both sides of a card are shown, it is a physical card.

Each QSL card has the call signs of both radio stations. My call sign is N5BK. Call signs in the United States are issued by the FCC and start with one of four letters: "A", "K", "N", or "W".

My last 15 logbook entries are shown below: