8 April 2026 Wednesday

the night before last (monday night), i suggested
we should study to get 'technician' amateur radio
licenses, and e said he'd love that. i've seen 
that SDF.org has an Amateur Radio Club. i came across
hamstudy.org, which seems like a great resource. 

i've had a peripheral interest...'i'll get to that 
someday,'since i was in college and read 

"Other Electricities," by Ander Monson.

it remains one of my favorite books. it's a powerful, 
strange collage. one of the storylines involves two 
young brothers experiment with ham radio. it's always
stuck with me, and left me curious to experience the
sense of wonder and magic that must come with 
transmitting into and receiving from the great unknown,
to connect with unexpected others in the ether.  

recently i found (used, at reasonably low price) a 
eurorack module called "RF Nomad." by Evaton 
Technologies. it's a cv-controllable shortwave radio. 
playing with it, along with delving further into 
SDF and the world of gopher and gemini protocols,
has finally sparked the spark in me to want to 
go get a license.

i came across this quote from Russell Hoffman (who 
makes the RF Nomad) in an blog post about an article
that is apparently no longer available on the site
where it was originally published:

 "Shortwave radio has a long and storied history, 
 full of intrigue, espionage, piracy, rebellion,
 propaganda, and subterfuge, he added. It propagates 
 around the world and can be received on inexpensive 
 equipment. It is universal, because it can be heard 
 anywhere; and yet at the same time, in a world of 
 internet, TV, and satellite radio, it is also the 
 underground--a hidden world parallel to that of our  
 daily experiences. It offers an additional 
 perspective."

that's how i feel about these digital spaces, like
SDF and gopher and gemini. 

this is the url for the blog post:
https://swling.com/blog/tag/shortwave-synthesizers/ 

it turns out there is an ARC in a town about 35 
minutes south of us, that will have a test in june. 
there is also a test in about 11 days in a town 
about an hour north of us, but that seems too soon. 
the whole reason we're in this town, where we have 
no family and no close friends, is because of e's 
radio tower. 

it's a long story. 

i'll explain more someday.

we had our second oil painting portrait class 
tonight. my painting of my grandfather holding me
when i was a baby is coming along. i spent way
too much time on the tracing paper enlargement,
only to realize that the underpainting created by
tracing paint along the opposite side of the 
tracing paper drawing and then pressing against the
canvas is very rough. but it was good practice 
anyway, and it helped me understand the major 
lines i'll be working with. i'm really excited to
be learning oils! i was always scared away by the 
thought of heavy turpentines, having come across
them when i was younger, but it turns out you 
can even just use vegetable oil, or now there is
an environmentally 'green' paint thinner i've 
come across that has a very mild scent. 

it's wonderful to be taking an art class with e,
too.