Slash and Chop

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Well yesterday I continued my perpetual war with Satan’s Putting Green. I finished the mowing and weedwacking and was trimming the white mulberry trees back to bonsai size when the first drops of rain fell. I was glad to get it all done and it does get unruly and I start to fear the demons inhabiting the tall grass.

I recently have started to get more active in one of the clubs I belong to. FISTS is a club dedicated to the preservation and use of Morse Code. The name of the club refers to the fact that every operator sending with a straight key has a distinctive style of “fist”. It is as distinctive and individual as a finger print. During WWII one indication that was used to determine that an operative was turned to a double agent was to listen for differences in their sending. A change could indicate the operator was under an unusual amount of stress. In any event, FISTS is a (free membership) club for promoting the use of Morse Code on the ham radio bands. They even have 4 mini-contests (sprints) during the year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. All information dealing with them can be found at http://www.fistsna.org

Again with the Namaste, folks

Nothing to grouse about

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Wow. Since my last entry I had a long work stretch … 5 consecutive days. Now I am in the middle of having 6 days off so it is balanced out. 🙂

Last night we went for a ride on the back roads looking for animals. I refer to this as going on recon. We enjoy just getting out and about and living in a rural area makes that easier. First off we were buzzed by 2 very large hawks about 2 miles apart. They both swooped down but the second one went about 50 feet to another tree and when we approached, went to another tree further on. This repeated 4 times before we passed him. About 3 more miles on, we came upon a female grouse walking down the road. I slowed the car and tried to ease past her without chasing her. As we drew near I started hearing some leaves rustling on the side of the road. I looked over and observed a male grouse displaying and making noise to distract us from his mate. All in all it was a very enjoyable recon. We sighted 8 ruminants, 6 turkeys, 3 hawks, 3 moggies, 2 grouse and 2 squirrels. Not bad. I did call on 146.52 several times and did not receive any replies. That is not surprising as we were out in the hills and away from civilization.

The other day we went on a bus tour in Gettysburg. We only live about an hour from there so we do go to the battlefield quite often. It was nice for a change to sit back and let the driver deal with the traffic, though we do like coming down there on our own.

Well enough for now. Namaste kidlets.

As for the weasel …

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All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey thought ’twas all in fun…
POP! Goes the weasel

Penny for a spool of thread
Penny for a needle
That’s the way the money goes…
POP! Goes the weasel

The painter needs a ladder and brush
The artist needs an easel;
The dancers need a fiddler’s tune…
POP! Goes the weasel


I’ve no time to where to sigh
Or to tell the reason why
Kiss me quick, I’m off, good-bye…
POP! Goes the weasel

Why did I post this? Well, today I beat Satan’s Putting Green into submission. I also decided on a compromise to a contention betwixt a White Mulberry (MORUS ALBA) and myself. The thing wants to take over. I didn’t plant it and I believe it was left as a gift by a passing bird. In any event, I have been trying to get rid of the thing for a few years now. I have cut and chopped and tugged and pulled and the damn thing keeps coming back. I reached a decision today. I am not going to try fighting it, I am going to trim it. I read that they can grow up to 15 meters (50 feet for the ones who don’t do metric) tall. Uhuh. Challenge accepted! I am going to keep it trimmed to a maximum of 3 feet (1 meter). Lets see how it likes being a shrubbery. The Knights Who Say Neigh would be proud!

Another thing I do when out in the yard is check over all my antennas. There are a few limbs I need to take down but on the whole they look ok. Enough for now.

Namaste, kiddos

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