March 26, 2026 – Spring brought forth a discussion about nesting wild birds in our area. Bob – KA4PKB used a bluebird background today. Several of us house bluebirds on our property with nesting boxes. John – NK4N mentioned that meal worms are a favorite food of bluebirds and they especially like live meal worms which can be kept in ones home refrigerator. This correspondent foresees this as problematic since the refrigerator is subject to such intense scrutiny. We also mentioned how adept our local university’s athletic department is at fund raising. Certainly the administrative team there is very bright when it comes to finding income streams in so many aspects of college sport. We recalled the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Finally we touched on the installation of owl boxes. While the recommended mounting height is well over ten feet above ground level, we agree that climbing to this height is clearly inadvisable.

March 19, 2026 – Since we have so many good Auburn fans in the group, we couldn’t resist mentioning the basketball team and their victory over South Alabama recently. Auburn is in the NIT Tournament this time. Certainly that wasn’t our wish, but we admire the group for continuing to play to win. Richard – WA4IWD has assembled one of his owl houses. We expect that he might get it in a tree soon.  Antenna and rotor maintenance were discussed. It seems that when these appurtenances are erected, hams often don’t consider that they might not always be able to climb onto the roof or up a tower.  Bob – KA4PKB reminded us of the nice house that stands at the intersection of Samford and Gay streets. We think former and legendary track and field coach Wilbur Hutsell once lived there. The current owner refused to sell it to the developer of the adjacent real estate, so now it stands as if carved out of that scene. Some of us recalled the advent of computer use at Auburn. Those of us who walked the halls in the 60’s and 70’s remember the large main frames, large (and loud) line printers, and decks of punched cards. John – NK4N even remembers one student who arranged a deck so that it played War Eagle as the deck was scanned.

March 12, 2026 – Good attendance again today for our meeting! First and foremost, we acknowledged Auburn’s basketball win over Mississippi State yesterday 79-61. Things will get tougher today as Auburn faces Tennessee at 2:00 P.M. Dayne – K8CHY, mentioned a CW operator that can copy over 100 WPM. This correspondent would like to see a demonstration of that! The 3Y0K – Bouvet Island DXpedition is still ongoing. None from among our group has made that contact just yet. We had some heavy weather in Auburn last evening and this morning. No damage reported by any of our members. John – NK4N, reported the first “Bear Jam” of the season occurred this past Saturday. Visitors to the park often jam the roads when a bear is sighted. Some of our members are beginning to use FT-2 which is a fairly new mode.

March 5, 2026 – Dale – WA4CQG reports “hundreds of contacts” on FT-2. Great work! Some of the commonly used frequencies for FT-2 are 3.585 MHz, 7.050 MHz, 14.080 MHz, 21.080 MHz, and 28.080 MHz. We discussed the way Siri and Alexa work and how easy it is for them to understand some things we say as if we were addressing them. We remembered Dr. James Everett “Jim” Martin, President of his Alma Mater, Auburn University, from 1984 until 1992.

February 26, 2026 – We were happy that member Scott – WR0U was able to join us this morning! Scott was in Mystic Connecticut (east of Groton) visiting family. Dayne – K8CHY mentioned that he had recently worked station HD2GRC from Ecuador on 6 meters.  Good work Dayne! Scott – WR0U and Dale – WA4CQG have worked this station as well in the past. We also briefly discussed Mike Wegner’s blog which can be found at https://wegnerbooks.com/. The blog focuses on Mike’s books and Dayne found the site to be remarkable.  This correspondent is eager to visit the site myself. Scott mentioned that he uses the JT-Alert software.  This software lets the operator know if you have worked a particular station in the past and provides associated guidance relating to band or mode goals.  There is also a logging feature. We touched on WinLink.  Mike – KX4YZ mentioned that we have a WinLink gateway in Opelika that is available for our use.

February 19, 2026 – Bob – KA4PKB used a new screen background this morning that generated some discussion. It was a graphic of ham operator and Nobel laureate Joe Taylor, Jr. – K1JT. Dr. Taylor is a tremendously accomplished astrophysicist who, along with Russell Alan Hulse discovered a new type of pulsar in 1974. The two were subsequently awarded a Nobel Prize for this accomplishment. Dr. Taylor is likewise a visionary amateur radio operator and is instrumental in the development of several communication protocols such as WSPR, WSJT (“Weak Signal/Joe Taylor”), and others. Gail – KB4JAA was congratulated on her recent placement in a cooking competition near her home. Her winning entry was a blackberry cobbler with meringue. John – NK4N mentioned that he had heard KP5 on 10 meters recently, but no one reported any two-way contact. As we know, KP5/NP3VI is a DXpedition on Desecheo Island. The early development of FT2 was brought up. An article on DX World mentions FT2. Richard – WA4IWD suggested that we look at a You Tube video that is available on the Vera Rubin telescope in Chile.

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