Hard to believe, but this month I celebrate my blog sixth anniversary. Over 800 articles published about making, ham radio, shortwave listening, broadcasting and more.
I got the blogging bug in the summer of 2015. I was working with Frank VE6FMH to revitalize the Calgary Amateur Radio Association web site. We were groaning about the limitations imposed by Wild Apricot on our publishing ideas, and he started telling me about WordPress. The more I dug in, the more I realized how easy it would be to build and maintain a professional site with WordPress. So, I got started.
It took me a month or so to learn the ropes and create multiple blogs on my personal domain. My first article was Remembering the CJOB Main Studio, published August 1, 2015.
Around the same time, I had been using my retirement to focus on many hobbies. In addition to ham radio, I discovered “making” as a source of great enjoyment. My ventures including 3D printing, CNC, Arduino and so on. All of my activities provided a great source of content for the blog. You can explore past content through the menus above and listing of popular series to the right.
So, as I celebrate my blog sixth anniversary, I must reflect on what is a blog? A weblog is essentially a diary of activities and interests. Since there are more than 100 million blogs, you need to find your niche, as described in my About page. Like most, I attract readers through Google searches, links, social media posts and subscriptions.
My current publishing schedule is Tuesday and Saturday for new posts.
Blog Sixth Anniversary – How I Prepare Content
Most of my posts are about personal projects. As I do radio and other projects, I keep detailed notes about my activities and discoveries. Also, I take lots of pictures with my smartphone. Each of my projects get documented in a PowerPoint file. Many of my projects will result in a series of 5 – 10 articles describing activities in detail. Most recently, I have been writing about my flying saucer resonator vertical antenna.
My second most frequent source of content is achieved by researching areas of interest, usually relating to my core mission. I have always enjoyed writing and communicating.
Doing projects and documenting results is a great way to enjoy retirement.
Congrats, John!
That’s an impressive amount of cranking! I just checked my 70mhz.org Forum posts: 218 in 16 years (mainly Equipment section)… Just got an IC-705 to play with. It¨s a pity they left out the planned 70 MHz TX in the last minute. But last night I found it does 70 MHz RX, but may need an additional +10 dB pre-amp for adequate sensitivity… Cheers/73, Zaba OH1ZAA
Congratulations John. I look for the non-technical blogs of which there are few but I do enjoy those.
Hi John,
Congratulations on the successful 6 years of producing and publishing your blogs. Although i don’t comment that often I do look forward to reading them and thinking about their content.. I enjoy the personal insight and specially when struggling with how to re ignite the hobby. Also with the lack of personal contact over the last 12-18 month’s its nice to see there is life out there.
Cheers
Mike
Hi John,
Did the math. Wow! An article every 2.7 days; that’s productivity.
I look forward to each new one and very much appreciate the scope and the depth of your undertakings. During my 57 year amateur radio journey the hobby has evolved considerably and it is gratifying to see one of my fellow travellers take the time to encourage us all to stay in the game.