Happy Birthday to me!!!

On Wednesday, March 6, 1946, I was born in the St. Ignatius  Catholic Hospital in Colfax, Washington. Fifty one years earlier, Yakima Canutt, champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman and action director was born in that same hospital. Yesterday (March 6th) was my 72 birthday! So far it has been a great ride! 

It was a very complicated birth for my mother, Ann. Mom was 5' 2" tall and Dad was 6' 7"!! How I EVER came about is still a mystery to me!  Suffice it to say that mom had some difficulty while in labor. The doctors were really baffled when I came out of the birth canal clutching a Hallicrafters S-38 (the original model with BFO). No wonder Mom had difficulties and that, dear readers, is why I am an only child! 

Obviously, the die was cast....radio was in my life from the very beginning. Having been licensed as a ham in 1963 the last 55 years has been amazing. However, I was involved with shortwave listening (SWLing) and broadcast band DXing since I was about 8 yrs old.  Like I said, radio was an integral part of my life very early on.  

While many of "the great unwashed" are totally ignorant of ham radio and its place in the current world of technology, I find that when someone asks me about the hobby they think that cell phones and the internet have replaced ham radio. It amazes them when I relate that their precious little "smart" phone is nothing more than a hand held radio. Their internet connections are dependent upon radio in the form of their router and microwave links in order to work. Yeah, all that Buck Rogers technology still relies on good old radio! 'Ya gotta love it!

I am going to take a minute and wax poetic. Tanner Raynes, a good friend of mine, once told me a couple of things about life.

 1. "Old age is a gift, enjoy it, you earned it".
 2. "Good days and bad days: All days are "good days" when you are surrounded by the ones you love and care for.

Thank you, Tanner. 

My birthday present to myself was to procure a brand new, untouched by human hands, Elecraft KX2. OK, the "human hands" thing isn't quite right.....untouched by "normal" human hands is more like it. Why? Because, nobody (and I do mean nobody) at Elecraft is "normal" and I mean that in a VERY good way!

Elecraft is a success story beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Not only is Elecraft a success story about technology it is a success story about how to build a business model and leave the other ham radio manufacturers in the dust! The adjective "innovation" does not even begin to encompass what that company is about! 

I have only met Wayne Burcick, N6KR, and Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, a couple of times. However, looking at the brief history of the company it is abundantly clear that the brain trust at Elecraft is a force of nature. Not only do they design and market cutting edge ham radio technology, their price points on their products are well below similar products offered by the (evil?) Off Shore Empire. The KX2 is only the latest innovation in a long line of products that has set the ham radio hobby on it's ear.

OK, enough praise. Let me tell you about my KX2. It's small. Obviously. It is feature packed.....again, obviously. Finally it is easy to operate without a steep learning curve. 

Time for a history lesson. For a little less than 20 years I have been an advocate of the Yaesu FT-817, a truly amazing radio for the early 2000s. Much has changed from then to now. Unfortunately, while Yaesu had the lion's share of the QRP portable market for a long time, they failed to update the 817 and that left them vulnerable to Elecraft's KX3 and KX2 transceivers. Although it is rumored that Yaesu is about to release an upgraded QRP portable rig (the FT-818?) the features that have been leaked to the public show very little impressive technology upgrade. Basically it's the old story of "too little, to late".

Now, before you start condemning me as an Elecraft "sellout" you need to remember I have had four FT-817s over the years and have had a lot invested in three out of the four with 3rd party upgrades like DSP, CW/SSB filters, etc. For me to sell my last, fully loaded, FT-817 (total investment around $1600) was a major turning point in my QRP journey. Unfortunately, here at the K7SZ Bent Dipole Ranch, money is not something that I have in abundance. If I want a substantial upgrade in my ham gear I have to either find some older boatanchor gear, restore and sell them for a profit or sell a piece of gear I have in order to fund the project. This KX2 upgrade (and it is some kinda' fine upgrade!) forced me to sell my tricked out 817 to get enough money to afford the KX2. Am I glad I did? Initially I was really unsure. After all it was a hunk of change (just over $1000). However, after I got into the operation of the KX2 I never looked back! The FT-817 is part of QRP history. The KX2 is the new frontier. Period. 

I am not going to bore you with operational details and the minutia of getting to know my KX2. You can find all that on the Internet and You Tube. I will say that I am extremely satisfied with my new radio and look forward to doing some satisfying mobile/portable  work from our RV and SOTA (anyway those summits that I can get to with a bad back, two bad knees, and two highly modified feet....while it sucks getting old....I can truthfully say I have earned every ache and pain twofold!) 

That's it for this posting. I still have some birthday cake to eat, so I better get to it! 

Vy 73 and God Bless. 

Rich K7SZ
Bent Dipole Ranch
Dacula, GA