My Radio Journal
Where I tell the stories behind the signals.
It’s a mix of amateur radio adventures, lessons learned, equipment discoveries, emergency communications, DMR and APRS, Coast Guard memories, and the occasional strange or funny moment that comes with a lifetime around radios. Some entries are practical, some are personal, and some are simply stories worth telling—but they all come back to the same idea: radio is ultimately about people, communication, and the connections we make along the way.
Finding My Way onto the Air from a Brooklyn Apartment
Getting licensed was the beginning. From frustrating repeater attempts to the Maverick and a HamSpot 4 built by Collin, K0NNK, this is how I found my way onto the air from a seventeenth-floor Brooklyn apartment—one small success at a time.
The $16 Upgrade That Brought My Radios Back to Life
A roughly $300 handheld had left me wondering whether amateur radio from my Brooklyn apartment was practical. Then a Nagoya NA-701 costing about sixteen dollars let me hear one little repeater tail—and changed the direction of my entire station.
These journal entries are written with assistance from ChatGPT.
The thoughts, experiences, and final editorial choices are my own.