The Question I Ask Every Year (And Why It Matters)

 Thank you for another amazing year. The channel and newsletter are nothing without each of you.

As we prepare to close out the year, I usually take some time to ask myself a simple question: What do I really want to accomplish in the year ahead? Not a New Year’s resolution that fades by Valentine’s Day, but meaningful goals—especially when it comes to radio.

Maybe you’re a technician who wants to upgrade to General. Maybe this is the year you finally learn Morse code, or dive deeper into a specific digital mode. I’ve written down goals like these for many years now, and for me, putting them on paper is key. Another personal hack that’s helped immensely is carving out dedicated time each week. Maybe it’s an hour a week, or maybe it’s an hour a day. Whatever you commit to, the important part is having the discipline to stick with it. And if you slip? Don’t get discouraged. Just backtrack and pick up where you left off. I didn’t learn Linux overnight—it took years to get here, and I still have a long way to go.

This year, my focus is on finding more ways to give back. Part of that will happen through YouTube, but an equally important part will be through my local club. I want to help a few members who have a strong interest in both Linux and digital modes, and I plan to participate in as many public service events as possible. Each of those events is an opportunity to push the limits of what we already do and discover more efficient ways to use the radio spectrum.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll reiterate it again: if you’re not happy with your local club, be the change you want to see. Volunteer to give a presentation on a topic you’re passionate about. Offer to teach a Winlink class if that’s your thing. Clubs are only as active as the members make them.

Here’s to a fantastic 2026.

The Mistake Operators Keep Making

 I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen an operator get burned by an update. It’s happened to me more than once as well—often enough that I finally adopted a new philosophy several years ago.

The scenario is usually the same. A shiny new firmware or software update drops right before an event you’re supporting or participating in. You install it, thinking you’re being responsible… only to discover that something is broken. A feature no longer works, menus have been rearranged, or behavior has subtly changed. Suddenly your radio, Meshtastic device, or computer is in a less-than-ideal state—and that’s on a good day.

To be fair to programmers, I don’t believe there’s ever any malicious intent behind these updates. As a programmer myself, I know how easily things can slip through the cracks. No matter how much testing is done, there’s always an edge case that wasn’t anticipated.

Which brings me back to the philosophy I adopted years ago: the two-week freeze.

For the two weeks leading up to an event, nothing—and I mean nothing—gets updated. No system updates. No software updates. No firmware updates. Don’t touch the radios. Don’t touch the computers. The only exception is programming a new frequency into a rig, and even then, only if it’s absolutely required for the event.

Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

One System Shined. One Fell Short. Guess Which?

 

Our city’s Christmas parade always feels like controlled chaos—and this year was no exception. A tremendous amount of work goes into both the planning and the execution, but events like this are a fantastic real-world demonstration of just how much can be accomplished over RF.

Overall, it was a big success, though we definitely came away with a few lessons learned. And honestly, if you aren’t learning something during an event like this, you’re probably not paying close enough attention. There’s always room for improvement 🙂 Rather than diving into every detail here, a few highlights are worth sharing:

• Our digital data transfer system worked almost flawlessly—again.

• Everything ran completely without internet access.

• All systems were powered by emergency power.

• Meshtastic didn’t perform quite as well as I’d hoped.

• APRS continues to shine for events like this.

• Always have a backup plan… for your backup plan.

If you’re interested, you can read the full after-action report. It’s a living document, so a few tweaks may still happen as additional thoughts come up, but it’s about 97% complete.

Sometimes it's just weird

 

Sometimes, computers just act up for no apparent reason. Yep — even Linux machines.

This morning, Bluetooth was working perfectly one minute… and completely missing the next. Bluetooth had gone astray. It’s happened before, and usually, a quick Bluetooth service restart fixes it. Not today.

Alright, no problem — time for the classic full system reboot. Still nothing. 🤔

At this point, I started to wonder if the Bluetooth card itself had failed. To test that theory, I booted from a USB drive running Linux Mint 22.1. (Booting into a live environment is a great way to check hardware — I often do this to verify Linux recognizes things like the sound card, WiFi, etc before installing.)

Sure enough, Bluetooth worked just fine in the live environment. That told me the hardware was fine and the issue had to be with the installed OS. “No biggie,” I thought — I’ve got backups.

I shut down the live session, which did a full power-off, and booted back into my regular Mint OS install to restore from backup. But to my surprise… Bluetooth was working again!

Apparently, a full shutdown — not just a reboot — was what the system needed.

Sometimes, computers are just weird. 🤷‍♂️

My Secret Weapon to Keep Chaos Under Control 🤫

 The Christmas parade our radio club supports is coming up this Sunday, which means I’m officially in prep mode . There’s a lot more that goes into this event than most people realize, and this year I’ve got double duty.

First, I’m on the tech team—our job is to set up the portable repeater and digipeater, handle any on-the-fly tech issues, and even program folks’ HTs if needed. My second role is receiving registration data over RF, passing it along to command, and tracking everything via APRS. Basically, if electrons are moving, I’m somewhere nearby .

All of that takes a fair bit of prep. My routine starts with reviewing last year’s after-action report, then setting clear goals for this year’s event. Once the goals are locked in, I sketch out a rough outline of how each of my stations will be configured and what gear I’ll be using. It’s not a full equipment checklist—more of a high-level game plan. The exact gear changes a bit each year as new toys come into the shack and other stuff gets sold off.

Only after that outline is done do I dive into the actual checklist. I use the Checklist Generator to pull in everything from inventory. I like to build this about a week ahead of time, then review it a couple times leading up to the big day. It’s the best way to make sure nothing important gets left behind .

It is a lot of work, but honestly, I absolutely love it. It’s a fantastic way to serve the community while putting our skills to the test in a real-world environment. I can’t think of a better way to spend the day .

The Radio Trick I Totally Blanked On

 A week or so ago, I was driving home and tried to key up our county’s primary repeater. Nothing. Tried again—still nothing. That was strange. I switched over to another repeater and called the trustee. He answered and, after a quick check, confirmed that the main repeater was offline. The power supply had failed, and the backup battery had completely drained.

I offered to meet him at the site and swap in a new power supply. On the drive over, he kept calling me on the reverse frequency. I never answered because I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get my radio into reverse while cruising down the interstate at 70 mph. If you already know where this is going, feel free to chuckle. For everyone else, here’s the important bit:

When a repeater is offline—just like ours was that day—only one operator needs to be in reverse. Everyone else can transmit on the normal repeater frequency. The operator in reverse will hear you, even if you can’t hear anyone except that one person. Simple enough… but I clearly wasn’t thinking it through in the moment.

All I really had to do was pick up the mic and talk. He was already doing the heavy lifting by operating in reverse from a high-elevation tower site. If I had switched to reverse, he wouldn’t have heard a thing I said. Lesson learned!