March 29, 2022

Amateur Radio in Ukraine

I've mentioned before in other posts that my hobby is amateur radio. While amateur (or "ham" ) radio is officially banned in Ukraine (so we are told), an interesting thing happened to me. Last night I heard a station within the contested Donbas region near Donetsk asking for contacts. This station had an unusual callsign not consistent with typical amateur UKR callsigns nor issued or approved by the ITU, the International Telecommunications Union which co-ordinates such things. Speculation is it is issued by the provisional separatist government in Donbas. Tonight while operating I had another station, also within Donbas call me. This station had a typical UKR government approved callsign. As soon as we concluded contact another UKR station called me! This one was not within Donbas, but just immediately west of that region. He also had a standard issue government assigned callsign, recognizable by the prefix. Nope, I didn't contact the separatist station, nor was anyone else that I could detect. Not even Russians.

As you may well imagine, this had my head spinning a bit. The fact that there are hams operating within Donbas is amazing in itself. The fact of the callsign discrepancy within Donbas clearly shows there are civilians in close proximity with distinctly different allegiances, one to the separatist movement and the other to the UKR government. How touch and go daily life must be! Yikes!

Technically, I would like to clarify that these contacts are made in a digital, over-the-air mode and are not conversational. I have a computer interfaced to my radio and software with a special protocol. A bare minimum of info is exchanged, callsigns, an approximate location and signal quality report. No asking "How's the war coming along, Vlad?" It would be nice if it were more personal, but under the circumstances I think this is terrific. Sometimes this hobby literally puts one on the front lines. Wow.

March 4, 2022

Small potatoes in the larger scheme...

...but I stopped by Walgreen's last night to pick up a prescription. I inquired about a second booster since I use an immune compromising drug. The upshot was I left with my fourth vaccination. Whoo hoo! I know this isn't a big deal to you all, but I'm pretty jacked about it. It's really low key these days. I didn't even have my vax card with me. The pharmacist said "Don't worry about it. It's all on-line now. Anybody who needs it can look it up." I'm a little stiff and sore today, but no worse than the first three.

December 31, 2021

Wind driven fire devastates suburban Boulder county CO

Source: Fox news 31

A grass fire reached densely populated subdivisions near the communities of Superior and Louisville. These are northern Denver suburbs. Latest reports are of at least 600 homes destroyed as well as a hotel and shopping center. Winds are reported of 100 to 110 mph, but are beginning to abate with sunset. Number of homes burnt will undoubtedly rise. Injuries reported when a roof blew off a retail tire store. No reports of deaths yet.

Read more: https://kdvr.com/

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This is an unbelievable scene with entire blocks of subdivision homes in flames. Sorry for the Fox link, but it's local Denver and they're doing a pretty good job.