Listeners to the ICQ Podcast where I appear monthly as a Presenter probably heard me say that I was successfully treated for a highly aggressive prostate cancer (adenocarcinoma, Gleason 8) almost two years ago at the Mayo Clinic. While in Rochester for two weeks, I had a lot of time in bed recovering from the surgery before being released for home back in Mississippi. For me, I tried to keep my mind on things besides the cancer treatment as I had the top prostate cancer hospital in the U.S. treating me and the top robotic surgeon, Dr. Igor Frank, at the helm. So what does a ham think about in this circumstance? Let me tell you…

My friends in political science used to talk a lot about “roll call voting” analysis over lunch in Perry Cafeteria at Mississippi State University. I was a member of the Faculty Forum who held a reserved anteroom for lunch in this beautiful arched building. I learned a lot from experts in other disciplines that a situation to discuss them might have not presented itself otherwise. On roll call voting in Congress, unless the body excuses itself from such an explicit vote, the Clerk records how each House or Senate member voted on a piece of legislation or rule change or other formal matter before the body. The results of such studies reveal how patterns of block-voting occur, whether on all issues or on certain ones.

The pending death of AM broadcasting is a common refrain these days.

Claims based on highly publicized station closings (e.g., author Stephen King), over-generalized personal experiences, the uncertainty of AM’s presence in automobiles, sentiment surrounding the medium and miscellaneous random events have fed this narrative.

But as in the infamous obituary for Mark Twain, this corpse can still fog a mirror. Here is why I say that.

The famous Southern comedian, Lewis Grizzard, had many, many funny sayings. Some got Baptist churches riled up at times. One of those was the title to a comedy album released in 1985, “I’ve Seen England, I’ve Seen France, I’ve Seen Miss America Without Her Underpants.” Well, Lewis didn’t make an appearance at the 2025 Huntsville Hamfest. Neither did that particular Miss America. But this line came to mind as I sat among about 30 or so hams in the ARRL Forum. It was hosted by Mikey Baker, N4MB, ARRL Director, Southeastern Division. This Division covers Alabama, Georgia, Northern Florida, Southern Florida, West Central Florida, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands sections of the League. They claim to be the largest Division in the ARRL. There are a lot of licensed hams in those states but far fewer members.

My bespoke portable HF antenna, called the EiffelTenna, is featured in the October issue of Practical Wireless. I was inspired by a video of Jim W6LG on his Youtube Channel as well as the further work of Jason VE5REV via Twitter (X). It’s a fun build, inexpensive, is very portable, and works 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. I use Faraday Cloth for the counterpoise and place the tripod directly on it.

Here in the U.S., Churches and Chapels on the Air is a new concept. I was fortunate to play a leading role a couple of years ago in herding a few cats on this side of the pond to get on the air in this very special event. It’s led, for over a half century now, by WACRAL, The World Association of Christian Amateurs and Listeners.

Ground-mounted verticals are all the rage these days in portable HF operations. This is particularly true in POTA activations. We all like to get extra mileage out of our verticals in terms of their frequency range and efficiency, no?

One method is to add an inductor to the radiating element to extend what its length looks like for RF resonance. Some versions of this are to bottom-load the vertical (Wolf River Coils does this with their Sporty Forty coil) as well as center-load it (as does Chelegance does with some of their JPC line of verticals). There are top-loaded designs, too.

If you were fortunate enough to attend college, think about what you were involved in while there. You could have been an athlete, but the sports team was likely already there when you got your uniform. You could have been a thespian, but the theater group was already performing plays when you arrived. You could have played in the college band, but it was already making music when you got there. I could continue but for the vast majority of my readers, you were likely participating in a group that existed perhaps long before your enrollment. Consider though something you may have organized or created during your college years.

There has been almost no issue that has raised the hackles of the ARRL membership like the July 2023 Board decision to raise dues. They also decided not to honor existing two- or three-year memberships that members had bargained for and paid their money. The often-used phrase, a rising tide lifts all boats, comes to mind here but in a perverse way. While President Kennedy used the phrase to great political benefit, it doesn’t translate well to all budgetary situations. Raising dues for the League might to some sitting around a Boardroom table be a means to cover shortfalls that the main attraction, QST, has accrued due to rising glossy color paper costs. But it won’t if that dues increase causes members to simply not renew! In fact, it might be a very poor fiduciary decision by the Board that is detrimental to the best interests of the non-profit corporation.