I’m not a big FT-8 user, but what shack computer would be complete without an installation of WSJT-X? So, last night I installed the program. After selecting the correct audio input, I was seeing and decoding FT-8 signals on 20 meters.

Yesterday, the first program that I attempted to install on my Linux Mint computer was Not1MM. As reported in the comments section of Part 2, Not1MM doesn’t seem to want to run on this computer. It installs just fine, but when I try to run it, I get the error message, “Incompatible processor. The Qt build requires the following features: sse4.2 popcnt.”

As part of my effort to get QLog running the way I wanted on my Linux Mint computer, I asked for help on Mastodon. There, someone suggested that I might want to run the Andy’s Ham Radio Linux (AHRL) script to install a bunch of ham radio software in one swell foop. That sounded like a good idea, so I gave it a go.

As you may know, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. This means that it will no longer provide technical assistance, feature updates or security updates. This has prompted me to bite the bullet and convert the Windows box I use in my shack to Linux.

To reach the next generation, ham radio has to pivot from nostalgia to exploration. When young people see it as RF coding, STEM adventure, space comms, and emergency resilience, they’ll show up. They’re not uninterested in radio — they’re uninterested in irrelevance.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from SWR Magazine, announcing their fifth edition. SWR is a publication produced by a group in Puerto Rico, including Editor Jose Candelaria NP4ET, Technical Editor Juan Montivo WP4OV, and Assistant Editor Serafin Martinez KP4FIE. This is the first issue that I’ve seen of this publication, and honestly, I’m impressed.

In the latest Great Lakes Division newsletter, there is a article titled, “What kind of Ham Radio Classes is your club teaching?” Its basic premise is that one-day Tech classes—the kind of classes that I teach—are inferior to more traditional classes. There’s so much misinformation in this article, that I just had to reply.

My friend, Rick, K8BMA, sent me an email this morning that included Nancy, WZ8C’s, article on instant character recognition. This article is often cited as gospel when it comes to learning Morse Code. While I agree with her thesis that instant character recognition (ICR), I’m not sure that her advice to “overlearn” Morse Code is any better than my mantra, which is “practice, practice, practice.”

My wife, Silvia, is a stickler for keeping the garage door closed, even if I’m just outside doing some gardening. So, I have a garage door control that I keep in my gardening toolbox, so that I can close the door when I’m outside and then get back in when I’m done.