Paying Homage...

The April 2009 QST arrived the other day. Just like every month, Tim beat me to it. It usually ends up in a place that I am least likely to read it (i.e. the "QST Room"). I had a chance to steal it away this evening, and it was already opened to an article that caught my eye:

"PSK - 10 Years On" by Steve Ford, WB8IMY

Yup Yup... It's the big 1-0 for PSK31, and I'd like to send my thank you's out to Peter Martinez, G3PLX for inventing it. And Mr. Ford, you did an excellent job with the article.

See, I got my license back in 1994, so I remember a time when PSK31 was nonexistent. When Tim started studying for his tech license, and the testing information started talking all this PSK31 stuff, I was awfully confused. I didn't remember any of that on my test years ago.

(Now, you have to remember, I took an 11-12 year break from ham radio, because I was a kid... and kids know it all... and I had more important things to do, like chase boys instead of dx.)

I took a little time to read up on PSK31, and got most of my answers from my daddy. But what really got me hooked was actually seeing the digi signals on the waterfall, being able to click on them, and actual words started printing on the screen. I made my first contact to a ham in Florida sometime last year. I'd look up the details, but ya'll know how lazy I am. Anyway, that contact was the icing on the cake.

Speaking of cake...

I really hated that I missed Pi day(3-14), because we had planned some wonderful things. Just the world got away from me and I forgot. So, this evening I thought... why not have cake? Only, we didn't really have a reason to have cake (and I only say I need a reason because if I don't, I feel terribly guilty for indulging myself). So... Happy Birthday PSK31. I devoured a nice large slice of three-layer triple chocolate fudge cake with cream cheese icing just for you! Yum!

No... I didn't eat that much cake by myself! I had a lot of help.