Author: Dale

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A new tuner, and progress toward a new shack

For months now I’ve been struggling with my horizontal loop antenna. It’ not cut to exact resonance, it’s too low to suit me, yadda yadda – but it’s what I have right now. I have it connected (via about 50′ of low-loss LMR-400 coax) to an ancient LDG RT-100 remote auto tuner, but that tuner has struggled and largely failed to find a suitable match on nearly any band. Most of the time it only gets down to 2:1 or 3:1, so I use the rig’s internal tuner to make up the difference. My tuning process on band or large frequency changes is:

  • Disable the rig’s tuner
  • Press and hold the TUNE button on the remote keypad, assuming I’m using the FT-1000
  • Press the TUNE button on the RC-11 remote box
  • Wait for that to finish tuning
  • Release the TUNE button
  • Turn on the rig’s tuner and wait for it to find a match

After a long bout of planning to move the RT-11 closer to the feedpoint, looking for a later RT-600, rejecting the idea of several other remote tuners because they’re really not designed for balanced antennas, and deciding not to buy an RT-100 for various reasons, I decided to try a completely different approach just to see what happens. I pulled the trigger on a used LDG AT-600Pro. It’s a desktop tuner rated for 600W, with an A/B antenna switch built in as well. My plan is ti use that, remove the RT-11 from outside the house, and replace it with a good common-mode choke.

The tuner arrived yesterday, and I set it up just to see how it works. I haven’t de-cabled the RT-11 yet, so I put it in by pass mode for now. To my delight, the RT-600 has no trouble matching the antenna to 1.5:1 SWR or batter on any band I tried from 80 through 10 meters. No using the FT-1000’s tuner, and the AT-600Pro remembers the settings by frequency, so after switching bands it generally tunes in a fraction of a second. It’s almost effortless. I have a lightning arrestor arriving tomorrow that I can use to bridge the two coax runs and get the RT-11 out of the picture, and I’ll wind a common-mode choke from the excess LMR-400 and a stack of FT240-31 toroids I have coming.

I’m utterly thrilled that the AT-600Pro does so well. Now I can run the full 200W of output power on the FT-1000MP Mark V if I want to. Using gthe SB-101 or HW-16 will be easier – I can tune them into a dummy load and let the tuner do the heavy lifting there. I can only conclude that the RT-11 is crippled. I thought it was dead back in 2005 or ’06 hen it stopped working with the flagpole I was trying to use. hen I resurrected it, it seemed to work OK… but I suspect it’s got some sort of internal damage. Maybe a bad relay, maybe a stuck or dead driver line, I don’t know. Doesn’t matter; I can junk it with a clear conscience.

On another front, this morning I finished building the new run of shelves that I’m hoping will be enough for all the storage I need in the workshop. I’m clearing out some old junk, and the new shelves are much stronger and aren’t sagging (and won’t sag, either). The idea is to empty out the shelves currently taking up part of the 10′ of wall space I plan to use for the new ham shack, then move my large Ikea Galant desk from my old office upstairs down to the shack. That will give me a 110″ long, 31.25″ deep operating desk, with an “L” on the left end that’s 47″ by roughly 23.5″. I’ll have a substantial shelf overhead for the network equipment and to suspend a pair of monitors. I should have plenty of room for all of the station equipment without much stacking. I’m really looking forward to being able to have the FT-1000, SB-101, and HW-16 stations all set up and easily accessible. The biggest challenge will be keeping the cabling from turning into a rat’s nest of tangles. I need to give that some thought.

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Baby steps

I’ve been working a fair number of POTA stations lately – I have a Sapphire award for over 75 stations “hunted”. Woo-hoo! Not a big deal, really. Most have been FT8 or FT4 data modes, which I barely count as contacts. Going by the award endorsements, at least 20 have been phone, the rest data modes. Until today, I don’t think any have been CW. One of the reasons is that they’re almost always running 20 WPM or better – way too fast for me. I have, however, been working on a (temporary) solution for that until I get my copy speed back up.

The FT-1000 has an internal “contest keyer”, at least in terms of what qualified in the 90s and early 2000s. Yes, of course I have a few keyers around, but I kind of wanted to be able to use the rig’s internal memory keyer and dedicate my MK-1 to other radios. I bought a cheap-ass but working version of the Yaesu FH-1 remote key pad. The only difference between that the FH-1 is the button markings. Anyway, I set up one memory with just my call sign, and another one with the exchange – “TU 599 NE 5NN NE K”. Now all I need to do is listen to the POTA station’s call sign a couple of times to get it all, and I can use the keyer to send what I need to.

I worked N2DA on 20 meters this afternoon, and got my first CW POTA contact in the log… and my first CW contact using the Mark V FT-1000.

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An Embarrassment of FT-1000s

I’ve been scouting for a replacement for the TS-850 for a while now. Something maybe a little newer, but not one of the new rigs that puts most of the functions on a screen. Call me old, I like my knobs and buttons. I don’t like wading through menu layers to get to stuff I change fairly often. I never did fall in love with the TS-850. It’s a fine rig and all… but it replaced a TS-930S, and while I appreciate the relief from the constant power supply issues, the receiver never has really measured up. I know that’s a high bar to set.

At first I was thinking about the FT-1000 series, Yaesu’s flagship contesting radio from the late 90s through the mid 2000s. The original FT-1000 and FT-1000D was superseded by the FT-1000MP, and then by the Mark V in two different flavors – the 200W Mark V FT-1000MP, and the 100W Mark V FT-1000MP Field. Nice radios, but they’re all 20+ years old. I also considered the Kenwood TS-590SG, a much more modern, DSP based rig. Then there’s the Elecraft K3. A new K4 is nice, but at nearly $7K it’s just not in the cards. the K3 is highly regarded and falls somewhere in the $1500-2500 range, depending on the many, many options and filters available for it. I thought about the TS-950SDX, but pretty much nobody recommends that – it seems like a continuation of the 850 with audio DSP. 

I’d pretty much decided on the K3, albeit a little reluctantly. Some of the functions seem a little more menu driven than I’d like, but it’s pretty much universally loved. I hadn’t pulled the trigger yet, waiting on a deal I liked. What I wanted would cost me over $1K, probably closer to $2K, and I wanted to find the “sweet spot” of all the options I wanted, but at a good price. 

Then someone listed an FT-1000MP for $600, all in, shipped to my doorstep. I just couldn’t pass that up. I bought it. It arrived. I fixed one problem – a dead CAT serial port that took a $1.30 chip to fix. It’s awesome, I love it. It exceeded my expectations. I used it for SSB, for FT8, even some CW. Life was good. Sure, a Mark V Field would be nice, but I was happy.

Then someone listed a Mark V FT-1000MP – as-is, for $200. Wait, what? He was up front about his reasons. He’d had some problem or other, fixed it, everything worked until he closed up the front panel, then the buttons and LEDs quit working. He took it apart again, found a cable loose or something, closed it up, and still had a dead front panel. He decided to call it quits and sell. Well, I’d just been in the front panel of an FT-1000MP – nearly identical – days before, and encountered a very similar problem that turned out to be knucklehead me not recognizing the “zero insertion force” (ZIF) flat cable connectors, and getting a couple of them partially seated. On those connectors there’s a latching piece that has to be pulled out to seat the cable, then pushed in. These things were designed to be assembled by tiny little Japanese girls in a factory, not mucked about with by my giant ham fists. I figured I could fix this $200 rig and have an updated, newer, fancier version of what I had just fallen in love with. So I bought it.

The UPS boxes arrived yesterday. The rig has its own power supply; the 200 W final amp needs a 30 V supply, so it comes with an FP-29 switching 12/30 V power supply. I put it in the bench and, sure enough, the display was OK (if a bit dim) but the buttons and LEDs were unresponsive. It did take longer than I thought to get it working, but in the end I did. It wasn’t a flat cable; it seems to have been just the routing of the high-voltage wires for the display’s CCFL backlight tube. Last night I put it on the air, and I have to say, the upgrades to the original MP are pretty impressive. I don’t know that I will even need to move the extra IF filters I bought for the first rig over to it.

So, now my tiny operating desk has a TS-850, and above it a shelf with an FT-1000MP and a Mark V FT-1000MP stacked on top. A little overkill, sure. And yes, I’m sure I’ll sell two of these rigs. I had been keeping an eye out for a Mark V Field, the 100 W version, because my remote antenna tuner is rated for 125 W maximum, but as it turns out the 200 W Mark V has a convenient menu setting to set the maximum output power to 200, 75, or 10 W. It also has the typical 100/50 W switch inside the rig, same as the TS-850 and the older FT-1000MP, but I don’t know what that will actually do on this rig. I have the radio set for 75W max. Is it perfect? No; it has one mismatched knob from a different Yaesu rig that isn’t obvious but I’d like to replace it some day. It’s pretty nice cosmetically, though, and seems perfectly functional. I spent an hour exploring different features, some I’ll use and some I may not, and there are still some I haven’t tried out. The transition from the older rig to the Mark V is almost as different as going from the TS-850 to the FT-1000 was.

If someone had told me a year ago that I’d have a stack of radios like this on that desk, I’d have thought they didn’t know me very well… but when things line up, they line up, and here we are. Now I just need to get the 850’s ALC issue fixed so it’s working properly again, and get it listed for sale. Then I’ll pull the filters from the FT-1000MP and list that one, along with a few other pieces of gear I don’t need. Meanwhile, I’m exploring a newfound enjoyment of chasing POTA stations and finding new DX countries on FT8 and FT4.

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It’s New Radio Day!

Woohoo! It’s always an adventure to un-box a new radio. In this case it’s “new to me”, but qualifies as “vintage” or “classic”, I guess. I picked up a Yaesu FT-1000MP, manufactured in 2000 – so, 26 years old. That makes it a late production 1000MP, made just as the successor Mark V FT-1000MP was introduced. This was Yaesu’s flagship HF contesting rig at the time, retailing for $2500 in 2000 – which would be just a bit under $5000 in 2026 dollars. It was pretty advanced for the time, with dual receivers, DSP in the audio chain, and quadruple conversion. These were a huge hit with contesters, and the price on the used market has fallen well under $1K for a clean example with no defects.

The radio arrived yesterday from a ham in Wisconsin. I unboxed it and gave it a quick bench checkout to make sure there were no major issues. Aside from a little dent in teh top speaker grille – easily corrected once I have the top cover off – there are no cosmetic issues with it. The display isn’t quite as bright as I’d like to see, but it’s adequate; these old CCFL backlit LCDs are aging out and will all eventually fail. Fortunately, replacing the backlight with an LED strip is neither difficult nor expensive. I did it to my TS-850 last year.

After setting it up on the operating desk, I did some side by side comparisons with the Kenwood. Both seem to have about the same sensitivity; I could copy both stronger and weak signals on both rigs with essentially identical readability. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, really — the TS-850 was no slouch for its day, either. I switched both rigs to the 500 Hz CW filters. The Kenwood’s is an optional crystal filter I had to buy and install, the Yaesu has one installed in the second IF (8.215 MHz) from the factory. It was pretty obvious that the FT-1000MP was a little better – again, both were clear and readable, but there was a little less noise on the Yaesu, and it was less tiring to listen to. Later I figured out that I didn’t have the DSP switched on at the time; turning that on makes it sound even better.

I’ve spent a little time exploring how to use the rig. It will take a while to learn all of the features and functions, but there are already a coupe that surprised me. It doesn’t surprise me that there is a sub-receiver, obviously. I figured that was handy for contesting, but didn’t really see how I’d use it during casual operating. I was surprised, however, by how quickly I figured out that yes, it is nice to be able to tune around listening for other stations without changing your operating frequency. It’s so quick and easy to just hit the “dual” button to get both receivers in the headphones.

Tuning the RT-11 remote tuner is pretty quick and easy… though it will be even quicker and easier when I have a remote keypad plugged in (Yaesu FH-1 or FH-2 or equivalent). That has a dedicated button to put out a carrier at a selectable 10, 25, or 100W power level for just this purpose. For now, I turn off the internal tuner and the keyer, set the RF power control to about 12 o’clock, and key the rig with either paddle. That puts about 25W out to the antenna. When the RT-11 finishes I turn on the rig’s tuner, hit the TUNE button, and while it’s doing its thing turn the RF to max and turn the internal keyer back on. The whole process takes only a few seconds.

So far the only glitch I’ve found is a non-working “A->B” button. This is the one that copies the main VFO frequency to the sub VFO. I do miss that function and I’ll need to fix that button. I’m hopeful that Yaesu used standard tactile switches for the panel and not some dome switch pad. Over the next few days I have some things planned that will require taking the overs off, so I’ll have a look then. (note: This turned out to just be me not knowing that you need to press and hold the button.) On the schedule for this rig:

  • Install the 250 Hz CW filter that I have coming on Monday
  • Install the TCXO-4 module that should arrive today
  • Replace the internal backup battery
  • Check out the front panel buttons to see about fixing the A->B button
  • Get a look at the display and see whether I want to install an LED backlight kit, or DIY a solution
  • Buy or build a remote keypad – this will give me a single TUNE button as well as the ability to use the two 20-character and four 50-character CW keyer memories

I’m pretty happy with the rig. It’s impressive looking – about three inches wider than the TS-850, all of that extra space packed with knobs and buttons. We hams just love knobs and buttons! I like the way it sounds; I like the fact that it’s AC powered so I can remove one power supply from the desk. I’ll operate it for a while before deciding whether to buy any additional filters for it. The factory complement includes 2.4 kHz SSB and 500 Hz CW filters for the main VFO. There are also are are 2 kHz SSB and 250 Hz CW filters for the second IF available, plus 2 kHz, 500 Hz, and 250 Hz for the third IF and 500 Hz for the sub receiver. Filters are not cheap; I want to see what the IF shift & width controls and the EDSP will do before deciding what (if any) I want to install other than the 250 Hz 2nd IF filter I already have coming.

I’ve called CQ a few times, but there are at least two separate contests going on – one SKCC and one not. I did have one guy answer but he disappeared, so no complete QSO yet. I’ll keep trying. With the keyer set at 10 WPM it shouldn’t be long before I’ve got a couple in the logbook. I am intentionally holding off on ordering cables for the Digirig Mobile; I want to stick to CW and phone for a while.

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The New Shack

I realized I haven’t posted anything since early this year when I struggling with equipment located upstairs and all of the RFI and other issues that caused. Since that time I’ve made a good deal of progress.

All of the radio equipment is now in the basement. It’s not idea as far as I’m concerned, but it is what it is. From a practical standpoint it makes sense. I can get coax straight out the back of the house, which makes grounding and antenna installation so much easier. It’s unfortunate that everything is crammed into a very small space. It’s a little built-in “nook” probably intended for study or something. A 51″ wide countertop, 24″ deep (if that); wall cabinets mounted above so it’s a little constrained both horizontally and vertically. A couple of duplex outlets, a phone jack – no Ethernet, and no way to get it there either. Doing any kind of wiring would require major demolition and construction. Just getting RG-8/U and a flat cable for the remote tuner control into that space took a lot, and I do mean a lot.

The antenna is now a 135′ (give or take a little) loop in a triangular shape around the back yard. The feed end is at about 16′; the two legs go out to two maple trees where the wire is up between 25 and 30 feet. Again, not ideal, but it’s what I could manage to get up in the air. A 1:1 balun at the feed point connects the antenna to 50′ of LMR-400, which connects to an LDG RT-11 remote tuner, and from there to the shack via about 35′ of RG-8/U.

I’ve successfully run 100W+ on SSB and CW with no interference with anything else, no RFI in the house, no issues with breakers. The RT-11 doesn’t match the antenna in all cases; on most bands I need to also use the TS-850’s internal tuner. Surprisingly enough, I’ve worked a couple dozen countries using 25 to 50 W on FT8, and one night worked a couple of Russians (grids LO02 and LO33) on 20 meter SSB. Log entries show that 40 meters is almost all US and a smattering of Canadians, with a few surprising exceptions – Japan, Spain, and France. I attribute those to guys in those countries with good beam antennas! Not surprisingly, the higher in frequency I go, the better the DX results are. I’ve even worked a few US stations on 80, but of course that’s pretty clearly NVIS so I don’t even try much.

I have the TS-850, SP-31, FT-817nd, the keyer, and a couple of Astron DC power supplies on the desk. I built a shelf for the SB-101 and SB-600/HP-23. On the other side of the desk is an SB-610 monitor scope I picked up, an HM-102 power/SWR meter, the control for the RT-11, and a coax switch to switch between the antenna and a dummy load.

I am planning a new shack, though. I’m slowly cleaning out my basement workshop and storage area. My plan is to revamp the storage area with nicer cabinets, and build a 6′ long operating desk about 30-32″ deep in one corner. A 4′ workbench will go next to that. I’ll have room for everything, and more room for a straight key and paddle in a more comfortable operating position. Right now things are a little cramped.

I’ve worked a lot more FT8 than I would like to admit, but I’ve also worked some SSB, one SSTV QSO, and even a PSK and an RTTY contact. RTTY and SSTV were firsts for me. None of those are confirmed; the RTTY and PSK contacts got lost in QSB but the SSTV was solid. I just wish I’d saved the darned image, I’m really bummed that I lost that. I blame the software.

Anyway… onward.

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Making my own pipe tobacco – results

I was looking back through some old posts and found a few mentioning issues with pipes, especially bent pipes, “gurgling” as moisture accumulated in the pipe while smoking. I’d tried drying the tobacco, smoking slower, and so on. Some pipes still seemed to have problems.

Since I’ve been blending my own pipe tobacco using home-grown and unadulterated whole leaf tobacco, this “problem” has been largely nonexistent. I have come to the conclusion that the propylene glycol and possibly other humectants – glycerin and so on – that are used in virtually all commercial pipe tobacco blends to control moisture and prevent mold – are the reason. I don’t use any of that, nor do I add flavored “toppings” or heavy casing to my tobacco leaf. At most I’ll mist the leaf with some decent quality bourbon or something as I blend it, which seems to really improve some blends. I do not, however, add any humectants, which allows me to get the resulting mixture as dry as needed for proper smoking.

I’ll still get some occasional moisture in the pipe, especially if I’m smoking more quickly or if the blend is a bit more moist than usual. Some pipes are more prone to it than others. I have not, however, had any problems with excessive gurgling since starting to smoke my own blends. Plus, I know exactly what is and is not in my tobacco. I’m happy with that. I still have several jars of various commercial blended tobacco, but I’m not buying more – though I might be tempted into a tin or two of Escudo some day.

I’ve also started to broaden my horizons a little. I recently bought small quantities of tobacco leaf that I haven’t tried before, specifically some Burley and Maryland 609, which is commonly used as a cigar filler. I’d avoided burley blends because the commercial ones I’d tried I generally did not like, but I just mixed up a little burley, flue cured VA, and some Virginia Cavendish I’d cooked up in 2023. It’s not bad, and deserves further exploration, I think. Maybe a little of something else, some Oriental or Perique or Latakia might give it a little more complexity and make it really enjoyable.

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New flints for the win

A while back I was looking for a nice lighter for my pipes. There’s a rabbit hole you can go deep into! It’s amazing how much money a person can spend on a lighter. Eventually I picked up two of them. One is a silver plated ST DuPont Ligne 1, French made and really nice. The other is a gold plated Dunhill Rollagas, also quite nice. Good examples of these used vintage lighters can go for as much as several hundred dollars each. I got both pretty cheap, since both were supposedly non-working. The DuPont just needed some cleaning and it seemed to work fine. The Dunhill needed a complete rebuild of the gas valve and seals, but the rebuild kits are not expensive and it was a couple hours of fairly interesting and enjoyable work. It works fine now also.

Both, however, were finicky and difficult to light. I was using standard Zippo or Ronson flints, and it took enough work to get them to light that I eventually set them both aside and bought an inexpensive butane pipe lighter with piezo ignition. It works, it’s just not fancy. The other day I decided to either fix the two nice ones or sell them – or maybe both.

I ordered a package of genuine Dunhill flints for the Rollagas. Both it and the DuPont take a 3 mm diameter, fairly soft flint. The Zippo flints used by nearly all lighters are 2.5 mm and made of a pretty hard compound. I figured I’d spend the few dollars required to get the correct flints and see if that fixed the ignition issues. Well… yes. Yes, it did, and quite nicely. Both lighters now light perfectly on the first try, every single time. The new flints produce an impressive amount of spark that lights the gas instantly. I have both lighters equipped with “pipe flame” nozzles, meaning the flame goes sideways instead of straight up to make it easier to light a pipe or cigar than a standard cigarette flame.

Yes, the flints were $15 for a package of 9, instead of a couple bucks for a hundred or two – which would be more than I’d use in a lifetime, even if I were a heavy smoker. These will likely last me years anyway, and if I decide to sell either or both lighters I can now say with confidence that they are completely working as they should. I like the DuPont a little better from the standpoint of looks, feel, and style, but the Dunhill’s slimmer profile makes it a bit easier to use. The Dunhill is a bit more worn, though, with the gold plating quite thin in spots. Regardless, they’re both working well enough now that I’ll start using them again.

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Shelving the TS-850S – for now.

I have come to the conclusion that the RF board in the TS-850 is toast. After several repairs, it’s still deaf as a post. There has obviously been some damage to the components on the bottom of the board near the signal entry point from the antenna – at least. I don’t know what else might be damaged. I’ve looked for a replacement. I find a number of boards on eBay, but about 2/3 of them show the exact same sort of burns in the same area of the board, so I would expect them to be bad as well.

At this point I’m shelving the project. After an extended absence from ham radio I’m not even entirely sure I’ll want to get back on the air. From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be nearly the amount of non-contest CW traffic that there once was. I have no interest in contest style exchanges of nothing but call signs and bogus signal reports for POTA, SOTA, or whatever QSO party is going on. I haven’t seen any PSK31. RTTY might be interesting, but FT8 is of no interest to me. If I’m getting on the air, it’s to rag chew or at least have a little human to human interaction with the radio as the means, not the end, and preferably no computer required. I’ll get on the air with my FT-817ND and the old Heathkit HW-16 and see whether I want to pursue fixing the 850 or getting something more modern.

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More engine assembly

Over the past several days I got the intake manifold installed and the bolts torqued. I took a look at the valve covers. Originally I’d planned to scrap them and buy new, but more recently I’d been contemplating either stripping them of the overspray and polishing them up, or just painting them to match the engine. On close inspection, though, I confirmed my initial plan. There’s a bunch of residual RTV that suggests to me that they’re not straight, and one of them has a split where someone had over-torqued a bolt. They’re junk; I’ll keep them on as dust covers for the valve train until I pick up a new set. I really want to buy new chrome covers, but I’m going to keep talking myself out of it. Eventually, some day, someone will have a set of nice finned aluminum valve covers for sale at a price I like and I’ll scoop them up. Or not.

The carburetor is done and in place, though not attached – no studs yet. I cleaned up the air cleaner lid. Once the car is back together and I have the engine back in, I’ll measure the hood clearance and put the tallest air filter I can fit on it.

I got the thermostat housing cleaned up, painted, and installed with a new 195 degree thermostat. Today I got the distributor installed and ran a vacuum line to it. I also installed the little 90 degree elbow from the water pump to the thermostat housing, it just needs clamps. I also installed the pipe plugs in the unused intake manifold holes – a couple of 3/8 NPT plugs front and back. I left one open for the water temperature sender, and a 1/2 NPT for the heater hose.

Finally, I installed the power steering pump bracket and pump, mostly to get them out of the way of other stuff. I’m getting the garage cleaned up enough that I’ve got a little room to work, so it’s getting closer to the time when I’ll be able to get under the car and drop the transmission and driveshaft. I’ll rebuild the C4 – at 93K miles it’s probably about due. I’ll likely just replace the U-joints as well, unless they’re in really good shape.

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Smoking my own tobacco

I’ve still got nearly all of my 2023 crop of Virginia and Samsun Oriental tobacco. I’ve tried it at various times and generally found it to be rather harsh and one-dimensional. Even the Cavendish I cooked over a year ago wasn’t very good at all the last time I tried some.

A few days ago, I tried a bit of some that I’d pressed back in December of ’23. I had cased the ear with water and a bit of molasses, stacked the leaves, wrapped the stack in parchment paper, and pressed it between two pieces of particle board in a shop vise for a couple of weeks. I tightened the vise every couple of days during that time to keep the pressure up. When it was done I sliced the resulting block of tobacco, and it was… horrible. I stuck it in a jar and have tried it every few months since then, and it’s slowly improving. The bowl I sampled a few days ago was actually not bad, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I didn’t like. Then it occurred to me… I was expecting a pure Virginia flake tobacco. This wasn’t. I had included some Samsun leaf in the stack, so what I made was almost a cigarette blend. That’s why I wasn’t wild about the taste.

I think I’m going to order two things from Whole Leaf Tobacco that I either cannot produce myself, or simply don’t want to. The one I can’t reproduce is Latakia. Once produced in Syria and now almost exclusively in Cyprus, Latakia is made by hanging Turkish tobacco leaves in a shed and burning aromatic wood and leaves in a pit in the floor of the shed. They’ll use myrtle, pine, mastic, maybe juniper. Who knows? They burn whatever is available locally – none of which is available here, not that I could keep a smoky fire going for months at a time. So I’ll but the Latakia.

The other is Perique. Used as a “condimental” tobacco both for flavor and to Ph-adjust the Virginia, Perique is both the name of a strain of tobacco, and the process that is commonly used to prepare it. This involved compressing the leaf in an oxygen-deprived environment, which allows a specific bacteria to breed and do its work fermenting the leaf. During the months-long process the leaf needs to be periodically removed, tossed, and re-compressed. Even if you do it right, I understand it to be a tedious, stinky process. I may try my hand at it later on, but for now I think I’ll buy mine.

The pressed flake I have will probably be pretty good with the addition of some Latakia and maybe a pinch or two of Perique. I’ve got some Cavendish that’s still sitting in a jar contemplating its sins, and as soon as this cold clears up I’m going to try a little of that and see if it’s learned its lesson yet.