Grrrrr ...

"They" say that timing is everything.  If this is true, then my sense of timing has not let me down, once again.  :)

As Winter draws to a close here in New Jersey land, I was invited to join (and did) the PolarBearQRP Ops group.  I am now Polar Bear #283.  Of course, while these hearty QRPers love to operate portable all year long, they seem to thrive outdoors even more so during the Winter months. 

As adverse as I am to the cold, this looks like a fun group to belong to.  I appreciate the invitation and the acceptance; and I am hoping that this will draw me out into cold weather in Winters to come.

Operating portable is one of my most favorite activities.  As I've said so many times before, there's nothing like being in the great outdoors while sitting next to a portable QRP rig and antenna.  If you are a subscriber to CQ magazine, please be sure to check out the QRP column in this month's issue.  You'll be treated to a photo of Jim Cluett W1PID doing his outdoor portable QRP thing.

On a totally non-related note, I was successful this past weekend in acquiring an Acer Aspire One at a good price to serve as the shack computer.  It arrived today and I have installed Ham Radio Deluxe onto it and have successfully gotten my logbook added.  It's not as fast as the family computer here; but it way faster than the old Dell I was using.  I think the lady I had purchased it from hasn't used it much as it was very busy downloading upgrades to its Windows XP operating platform.

Other than DX Atlas, Firefox, Dropbox and maybe a few other Ham related programs, I don't intend to bog the hard drive down with a lot of garbage.  Also, this netbook is going to be the sole property of Dad.  No kids on this one - one of which catastrophically damaged the old one.  This is for Ham Radio purposes only!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!