Really nice day out! One of the few remaining for this year. I tried to stay outside as much as possible. Really tried. Almost made it. Busy putting “stuff” together for the trip though. Which meant being inside way too much for such a nice day.

Not much else going on. Playing with my 857d and the new Alpha Antenna. Added a couple of counterpoise wires to it. Made 4 but have room for only 2 to fit on the thing. Need an extension for the screw thingie that holds the coax attachment thingie. (There are a lot of “thingies” in Ham Radio.)  Even managed to check in to the Noontime Net on 7.268.5 using only 25 watts! That’s good.

Made Fried Chicken, Boiled Chunked Potato’s, and barely warmed up Home-Grown Peas for dinner. Was yummy. Now to remember that I have to save some for SWMBO. Or else. (Not really. I mean; she wouldn’t really, like, hurt me or anything. But there is that look.)

Went back and attached two wires each to the connectors for the counterpoise. I figure it should work. Hopefully. No harm trying.

Heard on the radio today: “Lady calling says she keeps getting texts that someone is trapped at the bottom of a canyon. Injuries unknown.” Several small fires in the area. Non-Injury Hit & Run. Altercation at Safeway in town. Three episodes of people passing out. (Probably the heat. It got up to 75 degrees today.)

MCARC 2-meter Wednesday Evening Chat Net went well with about 8 check-ins. I had to switch to the directional I built so they could hear me, and their signals were broken and scratchy, but we got it worked out. One of these days I’ll find a sweet spot for the 2-meter/440 antenna that will work just fine. Of course, I may wind up buying another 100 feet of coax to reach it in that spot.

And that’s about it for tonight. Just not much going on around here.

Sunday. Nice, warm, partially cloudy Sunday. A day to finish the mowing of the back yard. Get out the whack-weeder and do around the house and garden. (What little garden I put in this year.) Whack-weed the walking path around the property. Pick the last of the blue berry’s and the peas that are ripe. (Yummy!) Water everything that needs to be watered. Mowed the upper-back and pet poop yards.

Someone hacked our Netflix account over the past month. I tried logging on cause I stopped getting discs and wanted to see what’s up. That was what was up! Someone hacked it and changed everything to Spanish, deleted me (and my lists) and added someone called “Kids” and a Streaming Plan at $12/month. Luckily they only got us for a couple of months. But, still. Damn!

So I’ve cancelled the account online cause it’s just easier than trying to get through to a “Service Rep.” I’ll wait a couple of days until my new cards get here then start it again under my name with the new numbers. Then start rebuilding our lists. What a pain!

SWMBO’s Home Teachers came over for their monthly visit. These seem a bit more dedicated than any she’s had the past few years. Nice people. And they don’t stay too long.

MCARC 2-meter Sunday Evening Chat Net went really well. We had 12 Check-Ins. If not a record then very close to being one. Several of the new Hams (KG’s) managed to join us. That was cool! Afterwards AC7VA (Gary) tried to explain 6-meters to me. It somewhat worked but I still haven’t heard anyone on 6-meters. Tried tuning into the 6-meter repeater in Shelton but didn’t hear anything there either.

Anywho, nice day. Only had to get dressed once (for SWMBO’s visitors). Nothing fell out of the sky and landed on the house, or us. Don’t really have to worry about Tornado’s here.