Worked All States

 24 years a ham, and I've not accomplished Worked All States (WAS).

Right now I sit at 47 confirmed states in LOTW.

WAS is a serious challenge for me, and the three states I have left present logistical and technical problems.

First, let's consider the most curious of the 3, Vermont. This is a state where I have multiple QSOs, but only paper QSLs. I guess no one in VT uses Logbook of the World.

crazy!

Second is the state with only a few Hams, South Dakota. There's only around 2100, but the guys there are working, not hammin' it seems on the the weekend.

The third is the state that is pretty far from me, Alaska. It's the most challenging technically. This is mostly due to Aurora effects, and the geomagnetic eccentricities of the planet. I have only heard an AK station once or twice. I think it's a little funny I have a confirmed QSO with Hawaii but not Alaska.

go figure.

gotta just keep pluggin' away. Sooner or later, in the middle of this sunspot peak, we've got to catch a break.

Until then, I'll be happy to hunt POTA stations. Parks on the Air is one of those groups that exists because of the internet. It also makes ham radio fun for a lot of people, including me. I haven't activated a park yet, but I'm working on creating a station just for that. It will have portable logging, and be entirely self contained. I will be able to open the lid, take out and deploy an antenna, tune it up with a VNA, turn on the radio and get on the air!

Ten QSOs later and I fulfill my mission.

Junk Food Should Taste Good

 Purpose is important. If something doesn't do what it should we either repurpose it or throw it away.

Today I had to throw something away.

It started with a morning trip to the break area for coffee. We have a machine in our office that will custom grind a single cup of coffee's worth of beans, and brew you fresh a cup! It's very good coffee. People will often place little "Take one" snacks out, and this Christmas season has been no exception. There's been an amazing array of cookies, cake, snack, other "Junque Food" available!

"Today" there were cookies

Perfect in shape and perfect in appearance, I gladly chose my portion, and my fresh cuppajoe, and returned to my desk to go about my day and be about business. I sipped the coffee, delicious, medium roast, fresh, and amazing!

I took a bite.

nope, nothing good happenin' here.

Folks, I didn't eat any more of these cookies. They weren't stale in texture, but the taste was as if they'd spent all year soaking in plastic wrap. It's hard to explain. They were off. Almost like there were old ingredients used to make these precious things, or that they'd been sprayed with saran wrap.

They weren't good for anything but to be thrown out.

I immediately thought about what Jesus taught in Matthew 5:13:" 'You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."

That's what needed to happen to these cookies. They were untasty, and no matter how good they looked, I knew better than to take another bite. Jesus uses the example of salt because they didn't have the same salt we had, they had sea salt, and it was possible for the actual "salt" in their salt to be washed out leaving only the tasteless impurities behind. It looked right, but it weren't right. It would still poison the ground though, so it would be thrown out.

May I, in this New Year heed the warning, and be salty salt, useful in my place.