Damn! Tomorrow is also my 63rd Birthday! Yay! I Made It! (This Far.)
We Need This Guy In Ham Radio!
Report when I get back!
Well. Off To Field Day
Category Archives: Ham Stuff
Yeah. It Figures.
Made an early trip to COSTCO in Silverdale, where I spent $139 for burger stuff for Field Day. Nice and sunny the whole trip. Got home and started putting the stuff I bought in the Caravan. Started Clouding over. Started putting some of my radio stuff into the Caravan. Sprinkles. Started taking my 6-BTV antenna down to put in the back of the truck. Heavier Sprinkles. I’m almost afraid to start moving my radio into the Caravan! And I still have to load the generator, air tank thingie, and grill. I expect a full-fledged lightning storm with high winds and, maybe, even an earthquake before getting all the loading done. But the earthquake will probably wait until I’m mixing the gas/oil for the generator. Ain’t no fun unless I spill it all over the damned place!
So, yeah, it figures. (Oh, wait. 10 minutes later it’s actually raining.)
Other than trying to get stuff ready for Field Day I haven’t really done much. Posted ads for a Free Pool, my old tool box from my last truck, and the window air conditioner we’ve had sitting in the hall closet these past 7 years. Several people have e-mailed me about the Free Pool. One guy was supposed to pick it up this evening but I haven’t seen him yet.
Tested that new Dashcam I got on the trip to COSTCO and back. It recorded the entire trip this time. Kind of fun watching the video in their player and watching Google Earth trace the route too.
Had to make a quick run to the bus stop to pick SWMBO up. Always glad to go get her; just sorry she had to wait around so long. On a street corner no less!
Another Nice Day Spent Outside
As much as possible. Took down that antenna I worked so hard to put up yesterday. Rewired it and put it back up. Still haven’t had a chance to test it; but I will.
All the usual watering. All my pea plants have flowers on them! And I have a butt-ton of blue berries that are about to turn colors. Some of the cherry tomato plants have flowers on them as well. Cool!
All the usual chores done until they need to be re-done. Tomorrow, as usual. Made myself my version of tuna salad for dinner; and that was good.
Painted some more of the back fence. Got about a third left to go and about a third of a can of paint. Hoping it’ll make it.
Not much else going on. Played with X-Plane and FSX awhile. MCARC 2-meter Wednesday Chat Net went well. That new radio is really working well for KG7EOU!
That’s it. That’s my life. The only major decisions I have yet to make are: 1) should I stop by COSTCO and get that dashcam we saw when we last went there, or, 2) should I invest in the new Vape gear I’ve been meaning to get? Could do both and get that 2-meter/440 radio at the end of the month.
I know! Everybody’s lives should be so hard!
Lost More Balls. Finally Got It Up!
Spent the afternoon (really nice afternoon) shooting that damned tennis ball gun trying to get a line up over a tree where I wanted a line to go up over the tree. Must have shot that thing 20 times before finally getting one over that would work. Broke several lines and lost 2 of the six tennis balls I went to Ace Hardware and got. But found a tennis ball from last year in the underbrush. And, wouldn’t you know, that was the one that went pretty close to where I wanted it to go.
So, I got the steel wire going from the top of one tree, over the house, to the top of another tree. Attached the new 6-160 antenna (and balun) before pulling it up into place. Now to play …
MCARC 10-meter chat net went well except I kept shutting down my auto-tuner no matter which antenna I used for transmitting. The 6-btv worked best for everything, but, I could hear some of the people on the new antenna way better than the 6-btv or my multi-band fan dipole. But all my antenna’s shut the auto-tuner down. Great signal reports for about 5 seconds when the tuner would shut down and my signal went to crap. Hmmm…
I’m thinking that, after Field Day, I’m going to find a way to attach the 6-btv to the roof of the house, and start saving up for a 50 foot tower. And that Military antenna thing for Field Day and trips around. Going with just 2-meter/440 in the truck and have the Caravan set up for the 857d. Sounds like a plan!
Other than all that it’s pretty much SSDD around here.