I probably shouldn’t be writing this at 2:17am. But I am. Because I’ve been back on n2zdb.com again, and somehow this site just… sticks. Not because it’s flashy—it isn’t. Not because it’s packed with content—it really isn’t. But maybe because it feels like walking into a stranger’s messy garage, seeing old solder fumes lingering in the air, and knowing they care.
I think the guy’s name is Michael Trager. He’s in North Carolina. His callsign? N2ZDB. That’s it. No wild branding, no bio full of “CEO” stuff, no newsletter popup screaming “subscribe.” Just a guy and his gear. I kinda love that.
The site’s most detailed bit is about swapping LEDs in a Kenwood TS‑2000 rig. I’ve never even owned that radio, but reading through it made me feel like I had. He talks about replacing the bulbs with these crisp white LEDs, and there are links to [reviews on eHam](https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=8839) (here too) where people rave about how clear their displays look now. Someone even said: “Directions were complete and I had the bulbs changed in a couple hours.” That’s my kind of project—not perfect, just… doable.
And then there’s the antenna launcher he calls the “Air Boss.” It’s like a potato cannon but for string lines. Another ham reviewer wrote that he got his OCFD antenna 80 feet into a tree with it. Eighty feet! I live in an apartment. My ceilings aren’t even 9. But still, reading that made me feel something—like maybe I could too, if I had a tree, or a yard, or maybe just a bit more courage.
Michael even reviewed his own product on eHam. You don’t see that often. Some might call that weird, or maybe vain. I call it honest. Here’s a guy who made something, used it, and shared how it went. Not to get rich. Just to… share.
I wish he wrote more blog-style stuff. Like, what was the first rig he ever built? Did he fry a capacitor and swear under his breath like the rest of us? Did he ever drop a spool of solder and watch it roll under the couch, never to be seen again? I wanna know that stuff.
Still, the site has a weird kind of charm. It’s not polished. Some links are plain text. Images load slowly. There are no ads. It’s just a slice of someone’s brain, left out on the internet, hoping someone wanders by and gets inspired. I did.
Things you’ll find on n2zdb.com:
- 📻 Basic callsign and location info
- 🔧 LED mod guide for the TS‑2000, with links to order kits
- 🚀 Reviews of the Air Boss pneumatic antenna launcher
- 🧠 A GitHub page with configs (not gonna lie—I didn’t understand most of it)
Why this small site matters to me
Because it’s not pretending. It’s not SEO-optimized. It doesn’t try to sell me some $399 “ultimate ham toolkit.” It just exists. And that, in a web full of polished nonsense, feels like a relief.
I think we need more sites like this—little weird ones, built by humans with imperfect typing, crooked photos, and real stories behind every resistor. The ones you find at 2am, when sleep isn’t coming and your hands still smell like flux.
Anyway, that’s all. I’m gonna shut my laptop and maybe fall asleep listening to static from my old Yaesu. But I’ll be back on n2zdb.com, probably. It’s just that kind of place.
—a sleep-deprived ham with burnt fingertips and a half-finished 20m dipole sitting in the corner
LED Mod Reviews
Air Boss Antenna Launcher
Michael’s GitHub (yep, only one repo)
