Been all over and not back to my blog in years so figured I should get it up to date.  Here it is fall of 2014 and the deserts are starting to become a welcome place to be.  The summer was long and hot and we now look forward to the winter months for the best of Arizona. 

I retired last november and am still working 30 hours a week for a good friend over in the Tempe area.  He has started a grinding or tool making shop so I am helping him out until the first of the new year when I will completely retire.

My ham radio hobby has kept me busy over the past few months by redoing my shack.  I use the laundry area of our home for my shack it is about 400 square feet and this year I figured it would be a good time to redo it.  Gave it a new coat of paint and replaced all the wood work in the room.  Tore out the old ham shack bench and installed a new corner unit desk which is now the new operating position.  I guess you would say I de-cluttered the area some and got rid of lots of things I just have not been using.  I have sent the rig back east for it's complete check up for the year so as of now it is being brought up to standards for the upcoming DX season.   I am still running the IC-756 ProII and the AL-811H amp.  Doing some work on antennas now as the weather is cooling up some.  Have to re-hang the WARC band dipole soon and then spend some much needed time upgrading the 6 band vertical with some more radials and new coax. 

I guess this is about the end of the updates for the month of October of 2014.  I look forward to a nice ending of the year and hope everyone has a happy holiday season all over the world.