Renewal

Ten years. My amateur radio license lasted ten years. And in that decade I… sent some APRS packets from hiking trails and set up a janky iGate at my parents’ house.

Look, I never said I was going to be a prolific operator.

Anyway, I just renewed my FCC license for the first time. The process wasn’t hard exactly, but it was incredibly stupid. You’d think by 2024 the FCC would have figured out how to make a website that doesn’t feel like it was designed by a committee in 1997 and then abandoned. You’d be wrong.

But it’s done. AF7NK lives on for another decade.

Maybe this time I’ll actually do something with it. I’ve been eyeing HF radios. The idea of bouncing signals off the ionosphere and talking to people on the other side of the planet appeals to the tinkerer in me. Plus, the sunspot cycle is looking good right now. Solar maximum and all that.

We’ll see. I said “maybe” for a reason.