first post of 2015. it’s a small pocket size 40m CW transceiver that i got off of eBay for a mere $8. i’ve mainly used this while i’m at school to flex my cognitive abilities and decode the communications of extra class morse pros. the transceiver has a tuning range of 7.023-7.026MHz (maybe) which puts it in that tiny 250kHz portion of the 40m band reserved for amateur extras. at 5:30pm PST, it’s virtually an endless cacophony of signals. however, i was able make out a signal 565 miles south this afternoon from KI6JD using only the support railing as an dipole antenna. i don’t think he heard my response, but i would expect that considering my total radiating output is somewhere around 0.25 watts. also, my morse skills are lackluster at the moment, so i might have just sent gibberish out on the air. who knows.