Back to Wisconsin

My Vermont house, now sold, with my mini-antenna farm (the hex beam is on the roof).

After four years living in Vermont, it just never clicked for me. Ham radio was great: 2 acres, excellent antennas, and being on the East Coast. The rest of it? It just didn’t resonate. As much as I wanted it to.

Rather than fight it, and after visiting Wisconsin more than once, I concluded it was time to move back. And not waste another minute with the decision, because it was the right one. After making that decision over Memorial Day week in 2026, I moved back to Madison, WI, in late August. It took a lot of work to take down all the antennas and shut down the shack.

Buying a house in Dane County, where Madison is located, from Vermont is almost impossible because houses here still get listed one day and, three days later, have an accepted offer. Even in this interest rate environment (7.0+ 30-year rates). So I have ended up in an apartment. Which means the antennas I used in Vermont - hex beam, 67-foot 80-meter vertical, 37-foot vertical, and 43-foot ‘all-band’ vertical won’t exactly work.

However, I have some thoughts on operating from an apartment. That’s to come.

In the meantime, I’m very happy to be back in Madison. It is the third time I have lived here, and now it is the city I have lived in most of my life. I’m calling it my hometown now. And I’m going to stay.