Hobby

Summer Musings

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It has been over a week since I posted. I am sitting here marveling at how fast the summer is going. Soon it will be that time of year when I get stuck behind school busses on my way home from work. Joy. I looked at Satan’s Putting Green today and realized it needs mowing. I won’t be able to do it until the weekend. Oh well, my neighbors won’t care. Usually my one neighbor mows his yard the day after I mow mine. Almost a symbiotic relationship.

I was able to work the final (of 3) special event station run by W9IMS. I qualify for their certificate. Every year they run 3 specail events: the Grand Prix, the INDY 500 and the Brickyard. You can get a qsl card for working any of these events and a certificate if you work all 3. Now I am looking forward to the Route 66 On The Air event which happens in the beginning of September.

Namaste y’all

Momento Mori

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So here I am, sitting down. I just finished kegging my blonde ale and now it is a matter of waiting for it to carbonate. One nice thing about brewing beer is that most of the work is done by yeasts. Once you make them a nice home they go to work procreating and when they have had their fill of procreation, they become factories. They take in sugar and other fermentables and process it into alcohol and gas (CO2). Wonderful little critters.

It is always a good thing to question your own motives. Why did I join a certain club? Better yet, what am I giving to the club to make things better? Clubs will die from lack of activity. When I first got into ham radio I joined a local club. On paper the club had over 50 members. I never saw more than a handful at meetings and the only activity the club did was a half-assed attempt at Field Day. The “leadership” of the club was content to do nothing and there was a sense of ennui throughout. Basically the club was dead. I am hoping that history does not repeat itself. I am currently in a new club that needs a boost. I realize that there are a lot of things in a persons life and priorities have to be set but a little time can be spent on a positive thing.

A Fine Summer Evening

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Here it is, the eve of St Swithin’s Day. We should all be hoping for a great weather forecast tomorrow! Satan’s Putting Green (my yard) is brown and crispy since I mowed it. We have not had much rain yet this month (about 5.56mm) but that doesn’t bother me much. I have been watering the EarthBox that my tomatoes are in every other day. They are about 1 meter high now and still growing. Looks like I might have a decent crop. I guess it is a bit strange that I grow tomatoes as I don’t eat them except in sketti sauce and catsup. I just like to grow them. I am considering making my own sauce as I also have growing oregano and thyme. It might be interesting. I also have some cayenne peppers growing and I might theow them into the sauce.

I was on the radio this evening and worked a couple of stations. Relaxing, it is. I send my signal out over the air and wait for a return. Sometimes I get several, sometimes I only get a few. Either way I enjoy it. I live next to the old bed of the Newport and Shermans Valley Railroad (actually it runs down the border of my property) and I think that will legitimize me running a special event commemorating the railroad. I just have to work out a few details. Instead of a QSL card I will provide an e-mail address and will reply to contact information with a printable certificate.

Events, Special and Otherwise

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I am now sitting at my radio trying to work some special event stations. Special events are when a ham operator or a bunch of ham operators work as many stations as they can over a day, weekend or week. They usually have certificates or cards available to the hams who contact them. The one I am currently working on is the 13 Colonies Special Event which runs from 1 to 7 July 2002. It is a yearly event and they have nice certificates. I work the stations mostly in morse code (CW) but some using SSB (voice). It is fun hunting down the statins and then trying to break a pile up and be heard. Some people get almost obsessed about it but I see it as fun. I try to work all 13 states but some years I just can’t. In any event you can get a certificate for working any of them … you don’t need all. Right now I have worked 11 of the stations. It is a bit amusing. I was going to write that one of them was iffy as I didn’t think the operator copied my call sign correctly and I heard them come back on on a different frequency. I worked them with no problems so now I am at a count of 11. Lol I just worked my 12th station and am only in need of 1 for a clean sweep. That is how the events go, sometimes lots of activity, sometimes not so much. The next event I am looking forward to is the W9IMS Brickyard 400 event at the end of July. Anyway, back to playing radio.

Namaste, kidlets.

Weird Coincidence

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Ok. The last post I made in this blog was the last time I mowed. Today I mowed again and I am posting again. It must be fate! Actually, Satan’s Putting Green was getting wild and I had to subdue it. The demons were getting brave and creeping out. My neighbor came over last night and asked if he could borrow my wheel barrow as he needs to cart away some rocks. I hear him hitting them every time he mows and he told me he had to get his mower fixed. Go figure.

Anyway, I am on my way to a VE session tonight. I volunteer with a VE team testing folks who want a ham license or to upgrade their license class. I see this as a way of giving back to the hobby. Basically I sit and monitor until someone needs their test graded. As I am an Amateur Extra Class operator, I can grade any level of test. It is very simple. I remember when I first started as a VE, Morse code was still a part of the tests. The leader of the VE team used to have me verify the tapes to make sure he had copied corrrectly. His hearing was going so he wanted to be double checked. Now it is just a written exam. Well I am going to end this entry now and wish you all a great day

Namaste, kidlets.

Carry On Lawnmowing

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Well, I was able to finish taming Satan’s Putting Green prior to the commencement of the rain. It is amazing how fast it grown. Now my neighbor will have to mow his. It’s a never-ending competition. I had my car in for repairs. Now I am sorta relaxing and playing on the radio. Got a cup of coffee in hand. I am hoping that the band propagation gods smile down on me. Speaking of radio, it is almost field day. I have a suggestion for a field day antenna to try. They are simple to build and are quite effective. I am speaking, of course, of a Z-L Special. They are a mono-band antennas and are easy to put together. They consist of 2 folded dipoles spaced .1 wavelength apart and driven 135 degrees out of phase. There are a lot of web pages and Youtube videos that detail the construction and if you are reading this then I believe you can find them on any search engine. 🙂 My point is if you want a simple to construct antenna for field day or for other use, this is a good one to try. You can even build them as a rotary beam. I had a 20M one that I loaned out and it never got returned but I am planning to build another one soon for 17M.

Namaste Again

The Power Is Yours

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I had the opportunity to do some troubleshooting the other day. I was operating my HF radio on 10.111 MHz and suddenly it turned off. It came right back on and I continued. A short while later it turned off and stayed off. Hmmm … A small table light stayed on (plugged into the same power bar as my power supply) so I knew the issue had to be either the power supply or my radio. I turned on my VHF radio and it came on. I did observe one of my cats in the general vicinity of the back of my desk where my wiring is. I turned the power supply off and looked around the back where the radios attach. Sure enough, the positive wire from my HF rig was disconnected. It turned out that the spade connector had come off after being interacted with by one of my catz (bad crimping on my part). I crimped on a new connector and attached it to the power supply. When I turned everything on, the HF radio powered up and has had no further issues. Problem solved. Why am I sharing this? Maybe to illustrate the point that it is always best to check the simple solutions before you dig yourself in to much deeper territory. If I had started with the radio as the issue, I would have spent several hours testing and finding nothing. Instead I looked at the simple things first and fixed the problem in just a few minutes.

Namaste, Y’all

One More Lap in the Rat Race

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There is currently a thunderstorm going on. It has rained 18.29 MM in the past hour. Gotta love it. I had left my windows in my car cracked open and had to venture out into a waterfall to close them. One good thing, the storm has lowered the outside temperature from 32 C to 21 C. It makes it a lot more comfortable. Unfortunately, I can’t use my radio right now as I have no desire to have my equipment fried by lightening. It might be an exciting afternoon. Here is a copy of the NWS bulletin:

Special Weather Statement issued May 22 at 2:​47​PM EDT by NWS State College

…STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL IMPACT SOUTHWESTERN SCHUYLKILL…
NORTHUMBERLAND…DAUPHIN…EAST CENTRAL FRANKLIN…EASTERN SNYDER…
SOUTHEASTERN MONTOUR…SOUTHEASTERN COLUMBIA…CUMBERLAND…EASTERN PERRY AND NORTHWESTERN LEBANON COUNTIES THROUGH 330 PM EDT…
At 246 PM EDT, Doppler radar was tracking strong thunderstorms along a line extending from Northumberland to 14 miles south of Selinsgrove to near Carlisle to near Chambersburg. Movement was east at 25 mph.
HAZARD…Winds up to 45 mph and pea size hail.
SOURCE…Radar indicated.
IMPACT…Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor hail damage to vegetation possible.
Locations impacted include…
Harrisburg, Chambersburg, Carlisle, Lower Allen, Colonial Park, Sunbury, Progress, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, Shamokin, New Cumberland, Linglestown, Enola, Steelton, Mount Carmel, Selinsgrove, Shippensburg, Danville, Lemoyne and Northumberland.
MAX HAIL SIZE…0.25 IN MAX WIND GUST…40 MPH

The other day, while out shopping, I was able to save a wood turtle that was crossing the road. I picked her up and carried her across while lecturing her on traffic safety. I try to save turtles as often as I can. I have a soft spot for them, and they are not good at outrunning cars.

Speaking of radio, propagation has been rising. There are more and more dx openings and the shorter wave-length bands are opening up on a daily basis. I am seeing more and more spots on 17M and 12M. It might just be a great sunspot cycle!

enuff for now. Namaste!

And it’s a beautiful day…

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On Sunday I worked the W9IMS special event celebrating the Indianapolis Grand Prix. 2 more to go. Every year the W9IMS club runs a series of 3 special events : 1 for the Grand Prix, 1 for the Indy 500 and 1 for the Brickyard 400. They have nice QSL cards and if you work all 3 events you can get a great certificate. I have worked them for the past several years. Their info can be found on qrz.com

As you can tall, I like working special event stations. They can be an exercise in radio skills and a lot of fun. I have a collection of certificates that I have in loose-leaf binders. I have my wyfe laminate them and then I store them. I look through the binders now and then and revel in the memories.

Good outside activity weather is here. I am looking forward to doing some outside operating, either from a state park or doing some basic hilltopping. Some years back a group of us got together and camped out on a mountain top and used helium balloons to support antennas. That was a lot of fun.

Namaste, all

Suck it up, Buttercup!

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I will not mention the page where this happened, but I had a tag line up next to my name which read “Je suis devenu la mort, le destructeur des mondes” which translates into English as “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. This is a famous quote from Oppenheimer referring to the first test of the atomic bomb. I was asked by a moderator (in private which I appreciated) to replace it with something more related to radio. I pointed out the origin and how it was transmitted over the radio and he said that he was aware of this but it might bring complaints from some users. I did take it down as we were conversing and I asked him if someone had complained. He said no but that they have received complaints in the past about some of my tag lines. Ok. Some little thin-skinned snowflake whined to the moderators rather than having the courtesy to say something to me directly. That is so like a grade school kid running to the teacher because someone said something that offended them. When did this world come to this? If I have a problem with someone I address the issue to them rather than whining to an authority figure. If there is no resolution reached then I bring in an outside person. Oh well, the world has turned.