Welcome to Squash Practice

Find here a compendium of thoughts, projects, and experiences that I have chronicled over the years. I’ve written with the hope I would not waste the reader’s time, and most of my posts are timeless, not particularly reflecting current events of the day. Use the category menu above, or the SIDE BAR with a Search box, the recent post list, category selector box or tag cloud below to navigate the site.  I touch on a lot of topics, from Beekeeping to Economics, from Amateur Radio to Gardening.   Enjoy, and please leave a comment if you so desire!

Latest Post


Another ham radio post, a long time in coming, describes a program I built to extract antenna performance information from the log files of reception reports of FT8 signals, a popular digital radio mode. Using these signals from sources around the world, it is possible to quantitatively compare antennas using allplot – A Tool for Comparing Real-world HF Antenna Performance.

About / Contact

Gary RondeauWelcome to SquashPractice, my attempt to chronicle experiences focused around gardening, beekeeping, and living lightly in a suburban setting in Eugene Oregon.   My wife, Ellen, and I live in the River Road neighborhood in Eugene a few blocks from the river bike path that takes us into town.   Both Ellen and I enjoy the bike paths, especially with Sage our dog running along side our DateTrike.
Most of our one-acre lot is covered with large Douglas Fir trees, so getting enough sunlight is a challenge for gardening. A few years ago I tilled up the front lawn to provide enough space for a serious garden.
I keep two or three hives of bees – not so much because I like honey, but rather because the bees are fascinating creatures, and because “Gary’s Gold” is our trademark general purpose gift and barter product.  The plight of the bees has inspired me to learn about the effects and function of pesticides.  You will find several blog posts on this subject.

I am retired now from being the design engineer at Applied Scientific Instrumentation where I did a lot of electronic design, mechanical and optical engineering, and invention. My formal training included a stint at Cornell University where I received a PhD for work on a large pulsed power ion beam generator.  In recent years I’ve taken up the ham radio hobby and have found the technology and the community stimulating, naturally inspiring a few blog articles.

The blog menu, by general topic, should help you explore where our interests intersect. I strive not to waste my readers’ time, so I don’t post unless I have something to say.  I hope you come by often and leave a comment or two!

Gary Rondeau
Eugene, Oregon