About DogPaddle Radio

I was originally licensed at General as KC0LMV in 2001, back when there still was a code test. It wasn’t much of one — things topped out at 5wpm — but I did it, and got on the air. I had fun tinkering and building kits (I still have that fairly early-run Elecraft K1), operating PSK31 when I had a few minutes, and watching the dogs run around while I tried to fix the antennas that couldn’t withstand the stress of a Minnesota winter. 

The dogs have been a constant in my life. My wife and I were a crazy dog couple, driving tens of thousands of miles a year for obedience or agility trials, or hunt tests, or tracking tests, or events with our dog friends. We’ve had a flat coated retriever, a passel of Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers (say that 10 times fast), the most agreeable high-octane border collie I’ve ever known, and are currently raising a Labrador who’s part of the Guide Dogs of America service dog program. When I got my Extra in 2003, I switched to AD0G. The dogs had always been on my QSL cards, and it was a good fit for me. 

When kids and family life moved to the front of my priorities I sold off most of my radio gear. But while my pastimes shifted, my tendency to build my own stuff has persisted. From shop equipment like a scratch-built CNC router or a vacuum press, to acoustic and electric guitars (that CNC router definitely helped), to little microcontroller projects and 3d printers, making stuff in order to do stuff has been a through-line for me. 

And in the end, that’s what I’m doing here. SOTA and POTA (and the kids being older) helped get me back into radio — I love a short, structured QSO that’s logged and done. But I have ideas about how I want my gear to work. And really, I love the project and preparation side of it as much, if not more, than actually doing it. “I’d really like a portable antenna that does <this>. I guess I’d better make up a little PCB for that matching unit.” That’s a benefit, not an obstacle.

That’s what I’m doing here: capturing and sharing those projects. My white whale right now is the portable transceiver I’ve always wanted, but that was impossible to build before 2026. I’m throwing everything at this from interesting components to a different approach to SDR with what I hope will be some tools and capabilities that make my activations — and maybe yours — a little better. I do smaller stuff too. Some you can buy, some you can download. I hope some gives you ideas of your own.