CQ CQ CQ all ORR Net Members - K [Archive] - Open Roads Radio forum for Ham, Amateur Radio and RV camping

One Country Boy

02-04-2009, 06:31 AM

Morning Gentlemen,

I thought I would start this thread for ORR Forum users that wish to participate (check-in). The thread to run similar to an informal net on the air. Signal reports, wx reports, etc... Just a brief comment or two to let others know we are still around and what's happening with each of us. Are you at the home QTH, on the road (and where) or getting ready to go to work (for those that still do, hi). Check in dailey, weekly, monthly or just whenever you can and as often as you can.

My name is Jim and I'm located in Wewahitchka, FL, where it is presently 27 degrees. Temps are expected to stay in the 40's today with 25 mph wind gusts. The RV is parked in the drive and no plans to move it currently.

Are there others ? CQ CQ the ORR Net - K

w3zi

02-04-2009, 07:17 AM

Morning Jim
Its 53 right now here near Homestead. Its expected to go down to 39 tonight. Just doing my morning reading and getting ready for work. Try to check the site a couple of times during the day. Heading over to Fort Myers Saturday to get some work done on the coach. Not many places here or many I would trust.
73
Mark

Radio

02-04-2009, 08:05 AM

w4ewa de ku4oj

r r r fb om wx is 18 deg and clear with a stiff breeze. too cold to put the dog out for the day. i beleive the winter would be much milder if i had not bought the new trailer. qth is at work. need coffee. how's dx? 73's -k-

AE5BI

02-04-2009, 09:00 AM

47 here, FullTiming in the SF Bay area. I threw up a "short" long wire yesterday (it was all I had handy) and I can tune to 40M & 20M. I need to set up a schedule to be on as I have a couple of HAM buddies I left in Flagstaff that want to chat. When I figure something out you all are invited to chat and maybe we can trade some signal strengths. I'll get a better antenna set up when I can.

Andy N1ORK

02-04-2009, 10:42 AM

WX here is about 22F and sunny. Getting colder tomorrow and a high of about 33F on Friday. Haven't been able to check the bands this morning, maybe this afternoon. Volunteer to build sets for the local theater group and now waiting for plumber to hook up some new sinks and a garbage disposal (new countertops installed yesterday). Maybe we'll be able to hook up on the air some day. I'll try to monitor/call on 7.230 and 14.260+/- this afternoon. I'll post here when I do.
73
Andy - n1ork:radio:

One Country Boy

02-04-2009, 05:18 PM

Roger - roger - roger... de W4EWA

Copied all you guys 5 and 9... QRM free. :D

The high was 44 degrees here today, it's 39 right now and the sun has not set. That is severe winter weather for us. Actually where I'm located it's more like So. Alabama or So. Georgia. 53 is cool wx for Mark, W3ZI, down in Miami.

Thanks for the checkins and keep intouch. 73, Jim

de W4EWA - K :radio:

aintgotnun

02-05-2009, 07:23 AM

what's shakin y'all??

ok so I don't know yer lingo. get over it :D

heheheheheh

"brisk" 36 degrees this am for the scoot into work up to a beuty 69 for the scoot home

y'all have a good'n

jagco

02-05-2009, 01:15 PM

Afternoon y'all.

WX here is sunny and 21. It's supposed to hit the 40's today and 50's tomorrow. Warm front coming through. I am home, on disability, and planning to full-time when DW retires. I haven't checked the airwaves yet today (other than 2m repeater), but plan to later on.

73-Jeff WØJPS

One Country Boy

02-05-2009, 11:28 PM

Hi fellers, de W4EWA ...

Nice response, no QRM, QRN and no QSB here. Thought I would see what was shakin' before I hit the sack in a few minutes. The low temp was 18 degrees here last night (or early this morning). I think Radio had 16 in his report but that was later in the day yesterday. That's pretty cool for the Atlanta area too isn't it Wade ?

Greg it doesn't matter about the lingo, just jump right in. If necessary we can tutor you on the "Q signals" and stuff. Just glad to have you.

I feel like I'm working DX with Stephen out in the SF Bay area. I forget where all you guys are and the names escape me at times, so forgive me if I get 'em confused. I enjoy seeing the signatures with the QTH's and names in the signatures. It makes it easier on this OM. :radio:

The XYL and I got a little "cabin fever" today. We've been pretty much inside with the cold temps and wind blowing. We rode down to Mexico Beach (http://www.mexicobeachgov.com/) (about 20 miles south) and looked around this afternoon. I took a few photos I may post later. I noticed the El Governor Campground (http://www.elgovernormotel.net/) had increased the number of sites and there was not a vacant slot in the park. Many of the folks from up north are staying here to get away from the winter weather. It was like a ghost town though, almost no traffic. The little community, located on the Gulf of Mexico, has really began to develope in the past 5 to 8 years. Highrise condos on both side of US 98 make you feel in places like you are in a tunnel. Most of them are unoccupied or for sale. It appeared that construction had ceased on several that were incomplete. The building boom is over and the economy has effected the developers. Some of us don't mind the developement slowing.:D

It's 28 (2322 hrs CT) now. The high today was 55.

Better call it a day. 73 all have a good night.

CQ CQ de W4EWA - K

KC1BUD

02-06-2009, 01:14 AM

16.2 here right now 70 miles north of Detroit, low yesterday was -20 . I sure hate global warming.

Andy N1ORK

02-06-2009, 05:57 AM

OK Dan, what are you doing up at 02:14am? It's now 11:06 utc, 12 degrees and calm. May get up to 31 today and 47 by Sunday. We finally got our kitchen and bath counters done and the sinks all hooked back up in the QTH. Later we're going out to look for tile for the backsplash above the counter. So it's been a busy week so far. Saturday we have a club (w1brs) breakfast and then I'm helping with an Elmering class for the new hams in our Emcomm/CERT group. We try to hold Tech license classes about twice a year to keep the Ham ranks up and to encourage new hams to get involved in CERT/EmComm and our local repeater club - W1BRS.
73

AE5BI

02-06-2009, 08:57 AM

I intend to get on Saturday evening and you are all welcome to join in if you can hear us. Just a reminder, my current location (the SF Bay Area) is NOT my mailing address on QRZ. I try to keep it up to date on our website.

We will give a listen and try 14.260 at 4PM PT but I was warned that this is a popular DX Freq. so if it is busy we'll move up or down a bit. At 6PM we give 7.230 a try.

One Country Boy

02-06-2009, 10:59 AM

It dropped about 4 more degrees after my post last night. The low was 24. I just went out and collected the mail and it feels pretty good. It's 57 degrees, sunshine and practically no wind. We're forecast to have a nice weekend. Southerly winds off the Gulf of Mexico are suppose to start and that is a sign of rain in the near future. The baromatric pressure has really been high here the past couple of days.

Wow, 16 degrees !! Dan was up sort of late wasn't he Andy. He was probably working some rare DX if his antenna wasn't frozen over. That's something to think about, frozen ice on the ant. I bet affects the SWR doesn't it ?

Stephen, I'm going to put that 20 and 40 meter sked in my cell phone to remind me. I'll try to be there. If it's OK, I'll cut and paste you proposed sked to the other thread concerning the skedules.

Wife is doing brunch, gotta run. 73 guys and C U L.

de Jim W4EWA

KC1BUD

02-07-2009, 12:41 AM

KC1BUD

02-07-2009, 12:46 AM

Tonight we are almost having a heat wave. It is 0145 local time and it is still 31.3 outside. were supposed to get a chance of rain tomorrow or Sunday. :rain:

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 02:19 AM

Well it's my turn Dan... A little after 2 AM local time (Central) and I'm up. Couldn't sleep. The old back gives me some trouble and when it starts, I might as well get up.

Enjoyed the attempts at contacting Andy and Stephen today on HF. I did hear Andy several times very strong on 20 meters but the QSB was so fast, it did not last long when his signal was up. It was up and down very quickly. I thought I heard Stephen once but it was so light I could not be sure.

The temp here right now is 29 or 30 degrees, depending on which outside sensor you look at. Temps are suppose to get up into the high 60's later in the day on Saturday. Yes, that's correct just looking at KQ4YD's weather station (http://whitecityweather.com/) about 15 miles south of me. He's got 30 degrees down there right now also.

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 03:57 AM

A photo or two I took down at Mexico Beach a couple of days ago. Charter boats in the Mexico Beach Canal.

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 04:05 AM

This is the mouth of the canal where it opens into the Gulf of Mexico. A dredge at the mouth of the canal keeps the sand from the wave action pumped out. On this day there was no surf.

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 04:13 AM

This area is known for it's "sugar white sand beaches" that extend from Destin, FL to Mexico Beach. We're also known as the "Redneck Riviera".

aintgotnun

02-07-2009, 09:41 AM

68 headed up to 76 today and fixin to head out on a scoot with some friends to meet another friend in Thurber, Texas

oughta be a nice couple hundred mile day

y'all have a good'n

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 10:00 AM

Now that sounds like a great thing to do on a Saturday Greg. I have a lot of friends that bike. Most of them retired cops. It got to where when I rode in anything other than a car, truck or golfcart I broke something so I gave up ideas of 2-wheeling ever again. Going to be a beautiful day here today with temp possibly up to about 70.

Be safe Greg and enjoy your ride.

de W4EWA - K

KC1BUD

02-07-2009, 02:18 PM

Well it's my turn Dan... A little after 2 AM local time (Central) and I'm up. Couldn't sleep. The old back gives me some trouble and when it starts, I might as well get up.

I have, in my stick built, a select comfort and in my MH I have a 4 inch memory foam topper both allow me to sleep rather good with my bad back. My back is why I have been retired since 2003 at the age of 51. But the pain pills and two different types of muscle relaxers seem to help as well.

I always say that when we are 18 we are stupid. I originally hurt my back in Vietnam heavy lifting incorrectly. I never went on sick call and therefore never got my injury entered into my records. Or I would be drawing VA for my back as well as my diabetes. It caused me to retire only 2/3 of the way to a full retirement.

KC1BUD

02-07-2009, 02:25 PM

:worthy: Jim your a show off, If I were to take photos here all you would see is white and broken branches. :fuss::rain:

Although it is a blistering 55.4 today with a 12 mile wind.

One Country Boy

02-07-2009, 05:04 PM

I thought the pics might warm some of you up abit Dan. It got up to 77 here today. First nice day we've had in awhile. It won't be long now Dan, Spring is on the way.

Jim

wa8yxm

02-07-2009, 08:26 PM

If you are 70 miles north of Detroit (You know, my favorite camp spot is 70 miles from my house.. I'm in Detroit and it's mostly north)

If you are 70 miles north of Detroit,, Try 3935 KHZ at 4pm eastern.. I may take Sunday off, but most of the rest of the week I'm there.

JOKE FOLLOWS:

Oh, and you know why it's so cold out don't you? It is all the president's fault

Think back oh, about 40 years, Right bout the time NIXON was taking office

If you'd have asked someone back then when a "person of color" would take that oath of office they would have told you when all H-E-Double Hockey Sticks freezes over........

And if it's cold enough to freeze down there it's for sure we are not going to be warm up here!!!

Copyright me WA8YXM 2009,
Permission to re-post this portion is given provided you are VERY CLEAR that it's a joke and you include this line
Copyright me WA8YXM 2009

One Country Boy

02-09-2009, 12:44 PM

CQ CQ de W4EWA

Hey guys... Beautiful weather here in NW Florida. Temp is 76.4 degrees, bright sunshine and a light breeze from the south. Just a very nice day. If you don't like it, stick around, it will change.

I should be out working in the 5'er. I need to route the satellite input where it can be seen in the bedroom as well. It ONLY shows satellite in the living area right now. It's a mess. I've got to determine how it's wired.

Anyone else to check in to the ORR Forum Net ?

CQ CQ de W4EWA, Jim in Wewa, FL

Andy N1ORK

02-09-2009, 06:28 PM

Beautiful sunny day here also Jim. High of 41 today and may get to the low 50s by Sunday. Hopefully the cold spell is over and temperatures will get back to seasonal (mid-30s to low 40s).
Can't get to the NH camp until mud season is over in the Spring (usually by the end of April) to set up the portable QTH and antennas. Need to install flooring in the sunroom, run 115AC and antenna cables to operating desk.
Never even got on the air today, between running errands and studying for the Extra exam, I've just now been able to sit down and reply here. I'm scheduled to take the test Wednesday after our local repeater club meeting. I've been hitting in the 90's on the QRZ practice tests, so I think I'm ready.
:panic:

One Country Boy

02-10-2009, 01:15 AM

Here goes. I've probably seen the last of Andy.. He gets that Extra Class Ticket, he'll probably not have time for a lower classman. ;) Good luck with it Andy. If you're scoring that high, you're home free I'm told.

Did you get finished with the kitchen renovation or project you were doing there at home ?

It got up to 74 here today. Very nice. Mark, down in Miami probably has sweltering heat.

73

de Jim W4EWA in Wewa, FL ~K~

Andy N1ORK

02-10-2009, 02:44 AM

I'll always have time here for you guys, I just wish we could connect on the air. Now that the snow is off the roof (literally), maybe I'll be able to. It's 28F now and forcasted to go into the high 30s. It's supposed to get into the low 50s with rain next week, so most ofthe snow on the ground should be gone by then.
The counters, sinks and faucets are done, the tile guy can't come till next week, so we're waiting on that right now. Then we'll be done.
73
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

02-10-2009, 03:14 AM

Hit by a car about 7 miles from my QTH. A Florida Black Bear, weighing in a 475 lbs.

wa8yxm

02-10-2009, 06:47 AM

As long as it was not YOUR car that hit it....

I recall a classmate back in my college days (Physics) he had purchased a cute little car (I think a Sunbeam if I recall..it's a very old memory) at a literal fire sale and was about 95% done restoring it to showroom.. Basically he had one more coat of finish to apply.....

Came in to class saying "It should be open season on Deer 365 days a year no permits needed, no bag limits"

(For those who do not know what "Literal fire sale" means.. It means he had to replace everything in the car that could burn.. Re-paint everything and deodorize

As you can guess... He was starting over on the front end of his cute little car

One Country Boy

02-10-2009, 09:19 AM

Glad to hear you are coming along with your projects there Andy. Also happy to hear you have no plans of shunning we lower classmen on the receipt of your EXTRA. :D Seriously, again, good luck with it. I'm sure you will succeed.

John, there is a lot of deer hunting in the area that I live. I've done a little hunting for deer but it was a long time ago. My father and I hunted quail when I was growing up. I've killed only one deer, it was an 8 point. You guessed it, with a car. My game warden friend that e-mailed me those bear photos said there was very little damage done to the assailant vehicle (that's cop talk, right ?;)). The animal was hit only in the head with the vehicle bumper. If the driver had been driving one of those little Sunbeams you were talking about when he hit that bear, the drivers seat probably needed cleaning. :worthy: We have many deer in our neighborhood. They are in our yard in the night. We have even seen them walk through the back yard during the day. My wife went out one day last week to find a large gray fox in our back yard. We see red fox here normally but the others are a rare sighting.

The bear was not a record for this state. My friend tells me the record weight for Florida is about 600 lbs. We don't normally see them this big though. The bear is being mounted for an exhibit. He was so big the normal mount the taxidermist used would not work. He had to order a grizzly mount.

We get all types of subjects going on ORR. What next ?

CQ CQ de W4EWA in Wewa

One Country Boy

02-10-2009, 09:32 AM

I really don't mean to hijack the forum, but have a ham radio related question. What is the best freq(s) to listen to on 6 meter ssb for dx or just to make a contact ? I'm not very familiar with six. I've found some charts on the internet but may have changed.

Thanks.

Andy N1ORK

02-10-2009, 10:53 AM

Jim,
50.125 is the SSB calling frequency. For 2m it's 144.200.
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

02-10-2009, 12:38 PM

Thanks Andy...

73,
Jim

KC1BUD

02-10-2009, 01:11 PM

Today the high is supposed to be near 60. It is 56 right now. We are supposed to get rain as well. By next week we could be right back in the deep freeze.

w3zi

02-10-2009, 03:06 PM

We finally had a break from the "cold" so to speak here in Miami its 75 today and will be 81 tomorrow. What did that dumb ground hog say -- 6 more weeks of winter?

Andy N1ORK

02-11-2009, 06:31 AM

Well, it's supposed to get up to 55 today. So looking forward to it! It's funny, what seems to be cold for some folks is warm for others. I'd 'of been swimming at 75.
On another note, anyone use EchoLink? I thought it could be a way to 'chat' while trying to make contact on 40m or 20m. We can put our calls into the 'favorites' bucket for future reference.
73
Andy - n1ork

AE5BI

02-11-2009, 10:08 AM

I don't think the goundhog (Phil) said anything...

Andy, did you test yet? How'd you do?

I am listening to 50.125 and it is very quiet, S0, usually a bad sign for me.

Andy N1ORK

02-11-2009, 12:11 PM

I'll be testing tonight after our club meeting. I figure about 2030 EST. So if I don't log in tomorrow, you'll now what happened. I figure if I bring $150, I can take 10 tests and maybe get one ok.

jagco

02-11-2009, 12:57 PM

On another note, anyone use EchoLink? I thought it could be a way to 'chat' while trying to make contact on 40m or 20m. We can put our calls into the 'favorites' bucket for future reference.
73
Andy - n1ork

I tried setting it up, at one point, but couldn't get this Belkin router to let me do it. Another ham suggested I switch to Linksys, and he could walk me right through it. Just haven't done it yet. :headphones:

One Country Boy

02-11-2009, 05:49 PM

I'll be testing tonight after our club meeting. I figure about 2030 EST. So if I don't log in tomorrow, you'll now what happened. I figure if I bring $150, I can take 10 tests and maybe get one ok.

Let's see, $150.... Minimum of 3 VE's, right ? :idea: That's ONLY $50 each Andy. This is no time to be frugul. $150 each should do the trick. To make yourself feel better, you could call it a "Stimulus Package". ;)

I'm sorry, "The Devil made me do it," as Flip Wilson used to say.:worthy:

Seriously, best of luck to you friend. I'm sure congratulations will be in order.

73 -

CQ CQ CQ de ~Jim~ W4EWA

One Country Boy

02-11-2009, 05:56 PM

I tried setting it up, at one point, but couldn't get this Belkin router to let me do it. Another ham suggested I switch to Linksys, and he could walk me right through it. Just haven't done it yet. :headphones:

I thought Echolink was a good idea. I forgot I could not get it to work the last time I tried. I downloaded the latest version and installed it today. I can't get it to connect. I'm using the Lynksys wireless router. It will not connect with the router out of the line either. I'm told by another ham here that the ISP I'm on has certain ports nulled or locked. Anyone know anything about that ? I guess I need to call the ISP's technical division. I used to use it when I had dialup but not since going to DSL. That's a bummer.

CQ CQ de W4EWA
:radio:
~Jim~

Andy N1ORK

02-12-2009, 05:53 AM

Jim,
You may have to allow two ports in your router and maybe the EchoLink url also. I used to have DSL and remember having to do that in the router. I had AT&T and once the ports were allowed in the wireless router, it worked ok. I didn't have to call them to open anything. Did you follow the DSL instructions on the EchoLink web site? I think they tell you which ports have to be allowed. There may be something about your firewall also.
Andy - n1ork/AE

One Country Boy

02-12-2009, 06:36 AM

It mentions the firewall and some other stuff about the ports Andy. I didn't read it all, did n't have time. I'll go back and take another gander at it.

Report ? Do you have a report ? Were you suppose to take the T E S T last evening ?

Over ...

Andy N1ORK

02-12-2009, 06:41 AM

I guessed you missed the clue Jim. I signed my post as n1ork/ae.

One Country Boy

02-12-2009, 06:58 AM

I did ... I'm sorry Andrew.... It's a little early. ;)

CONGRATS to you !!!:beer:

I knew you would do it, never had a doubt.

Need to get Wade to put it on the banner. "New EXTRA on ORR" ! !

Andy N1ORK

02-12-2009, 09:20 AM

Thanks Jim!
Two of us got Extra, and two got General last night. 4/4 ain't bad.

jagco

02-12-2009, 06:35 PM

Congrats! Congrats! Guess I need to start studying :)

Andy N1ORK

02-12-2009, 07:03 PM

Thanks!
It wasn't that bad. We started studying early January by first going through the ARRL Extra license manual. We studied each question in the pool (total 500 or 550) and if we weren't sure of the answer, tried to understand them using the manual. Each question is explained, although not very clearly at times. Once we went through the whole manual, we hit the QRZ sample tests and just kept repeating them, sometimes 10 a day. Some of the questions we just had to memorize.
If you put your mind to it, you'll get it.
Andy - n1ork

TXiceman

02-13-2009, 06:56 AM

Congrats Andy. Now you are going to make me get the book out and start studying for the Extra again.

Ken

Andy N1ORK

02-13-2009, 08:23 AM

Thanks Ken!
You should study the book at least once. After a while, for me, it came down to having to memorize some of the questions because I couldn't remember the formulas that went with them. I'm sure you'll get it!
Andy - n1ork

AE5BI

02-13-2009, 09:35 AM

Congratulations Andy! Gosh, I know what you mean. When I sat for the tests all the formulas completely fled! Flashback to highschool...

One Country Boy

02-14-2009, 07:05 AM

CQ CQ

Beautiful day here yesterday. In the yard most all day, trimming trees and getting ready for spring. Bummer today. Rain all across the SE looks like. Started raining here last night and still raining. Expected to rain through the weekend I believe.

A "Happy Valentines Day" to all the ladies out there.

CQ CQ de W4EWA K

One Country Boy

02-16-2009, 06:48 AM

Another Monday morning....

To all the working out there, hope you have a great week.

Retirees, what's on the aganda ?
I have some limbs I left on the ground from trimming trees and shrubs last Friday before the rains started. BTW, we received over 3 inches of rain over the weekend. Just maybe it knocked some of the pollen out of the trees. I see the guys out west are getting a lot of rain now. Although we have had some low tempertures recentcly, the vegatation is starting to bloom. Everything is yellow with pollen. Speaking of rain, "Radio" if you read this (I'm sure you will), how are the water levels up in the Atlanta or North Georgia area ? I'm really curious and have not heard much recently. Are the levels beginning to come back ? I know they probably still have a long way to go to get back to normal. The water is higher here than last year, just need it to stay that way. I watch this COE site that monitors levels along the Chattahoochee River (click here (http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/acfframe.htm)). You can see our location near the bottom of the chain. Maybe the "water wars" between Florida, Alabama and Georgia are over for awhile. The Large Mouth Bass are very active. I've spotted a couple of 5 pounders while on one of the docks behind our home and many smaller ones. It's going to be time to go fishing before long.

A belated "Happy Valentines Day" to all the ladies out there. I don't think I saw it mentioned on the forum.

A low of 40 degrees here last night. It's currently 42 and the humidity is at 91%.

73 folks .....

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA "K"

KC1BUD

02-19-2009, 11:47 AM

I thought the pics might warm some of you up abit Dan. It got up to 77 here today. First nice day we've had in awhile. It won't be long now Dan, Spring is on the way.

Jim

We warmed up for a few days but we are back in winter's grip. It is currently 21 degrees out but the wind chill is-4.3 with an 18 mile an hour wind. and it is snowing.

One Country Boy

02-21-2009, 07:09 AM

Good morning,

We have had a day or two of nice spring weather, even turned on the AC once. It was back down to 27 last night. Clear and windy for the most part.

73,

de Jim W4EWA

CQ CQ K

One Country Boy

02-22-2009, 09:06 AM

Happy birthday to Bill, N7OQ !! Many more to you friend.

73...

KB5LJE

02-26-2009, 05:10 PM

I am ready to try to help get the net going. Let me know when and where.

73's KB5LJE

One Country Boy

02-27-2009, 06:10 AM

I am ready to try to help get the net going. Let me know when and where.

73's KB5LJE

OK Mike.... The weather has been so nice here that I have been mostly outside catching up and cleaning up for the past few days. I'm about ready to get my priorities back in order though. Put Ham Radio & Computer back on the top of the list. Although, I have to say the fish have been very active in the creek behind our house. I may have to put the boat in the water and cast for a bass. It's a very good time to catch them on live shinners as well. They are hungry after a cold winter. Hi Hi...

I have to run to Panama City (about 25 miles) this morning but plan to make it a quick trip. I will post to the "Sked Thread" when I have some time and try to hook up from there. I think you are in Northern Mississippi, correct ? Straighten me out please if I'm wrong. My XYL says I''m never wrong. Somehow, I don't think her heart is in those words. (Hi)...

I have been able to hear guys in Texas, Miss and TN during the day on 75 meters. Strange how long 75 has been during the day.

73,
DE Jim W4EWA - CQ CQ K

TXiceman

02-27-2009, 07:17 AM

A retired gentleman came in one morning in has bathrobe, got a cup of coffee, grabbed the newspaper and headed to his favorite recliner. The wife immediately started naggin' on him about what he was going to do this particular day, to which he responded..."Nothing". She replied. "That is what you did yesterday".

And his response was, "Yeah, I wasn't through!"

Enjoy the day.

Ken

One Country Boy

02-27-2009, 10:50 PM

Very good Ken.... That's what I expect to do tomorrow !!:jitter:

jagco

02-28-2009, 01:23 PM

We have that conversation here, too!

One Country Boy

03-01-2009, 08:18 AM

Good morning guys,

Went to bed last night with the windows partially open and woke up to 37 degrees this morning. What a drastic change. The wind woke me up during the night, I need to check the annomometer to see what our highest gusts were. They were pretty stiff. Not much rain here but a lot of wind. The temps are suppose to be in the 40's to low 50's all day and back down to high 20's tonight.

I left the HF rig on 3865 KHz most of the day yesterday, listening for Mike. I went in before bedtime to shut things down. I heard a young female voice on. This young lady had checked into the Marconi Net. I think she said she was 14 years old and had received her general class ticket back in December. This yl was located in Alabama, her call KI4YDT. The net control explained to her how nice it was to hear a young voice on the ham bands and really rolled out the red carpet for her, and rightfully so. He went on to explain that the average age of a new ham now days is somewhere in the mid 50's. I think he said 58. I was surprised by that. Once I began to think about it, I see a lot of guys just getting their ham tickets on forums that are in their 50's and 60's. I just never thought about it. Things have changed in ham radio. Back in the 60's and 70's I think the age was probably much younger. Anyway, thought I would mention that. It was refreshing to hear this young lady on-the-air and you could tell she was nervous. I didn't hang around but wish I had to hear the others comments to her.

Have a great day all !! 73,

Jim ~ W4EWA
Wewahitchka, FL

KB5LJE

03-01-2009, 11:35 AM

Thanks for listening out but I was in and out most of the day due to visitors. Seems everytime I went to the shcak someone came by or called on the land line.

Nice to hear the story below. Its sad that we dont have more younger croud. When I got my ticket I was maybe 25 and was as proud of it as I was my drivers license at 16.

Good morning guys,

Went to bed last night with the windows partially open and woke up to 37 degrees this morning. What a drastic change. The wind woke me up during the night, I need to check the annomometer to see what our highest gusts were. They were pretty stiff. Not much rain here but a lot of wind. The temps are suppose to be in the 40's to low 50's all day and back down to high 20's tonight.

I left the HF rig on 3865 KHz most of the day yesterday, listening for Mike. I went in before bedtime to shut things down. I heard a young female voice on. This young lady had checked into the Marconi Net. I think she said she was 14 years old and had received her general class ticket back in December. This yl was located in Alabama, her call KI4YDT. The net control explained to her how nice it was to hear a young voice on the ham bands and really rolled out the red carpet for her, and rightfully so. He went on to explain that the average age of a new ham now days is somewhere in the mid 50's. I think he said 58. I was surprised by that. Once I began to think about it, I see a lot of guys just getting their ham tickets on forums that are in their 50's and 60's. I just never thought about it. Things have changed in ham radio. Back in the 60's and 70's I think the age was probably much younger. Anyway, thought I would mention that. It was refreshing to hear this young lady on-the-air and you could tell she was nervous. I didn't hang around but wish I had to hear the others comments to her.

Have a great day all !! 73,

Jim ~ W4EWA
Wewahitchka, FL

One Country Boy

03-01-2009, 04:10 PM

jagco

03-01-2009, 09:19 PM

I was also about 25 when I got my first ticket, and was quite proud to be a ham too.

WB4VYH

03-03-2009, 08:11 AM

Yep, I was 25 YO when I got my Novice ticket in 1971! I was very excited!

Al

KC1BUD

03-03-2009, 12:27 PM

We have that conversation here, too!

My wife, upon my disability retirement said "good now you can do house work", she is still a few years from retirement. I replied, "how about I cook your meals and wash dishes"?
She said "you could clean house too". I said "remember when we were dating"? she said Yea, "what has that got to do with this"?
My response was "remember I never let you see my apartment?" "Yea" She replied. I said "I don't do clean".

KC1BUD

03-03-2009, 12:31 PM

Yep, I was 25 YO when I got my Novice ticket in 1971! I was very excited!

Al

I got my Tech. ticket Waay back in 2004 at the young age of 52. Something I wanted since I was 10 but never found the time or money. Now I am retired and have lots of time and little money.

KC1BUD

03-03-2009, 12:35 PM

One Country Boy

03-03-2009, 09:03 PM

Not complaining are you? :poke: We have had highs in the single digits or teens for the last few days and very cold at night. :jitter: Can't wait for Spring. :bounce:

Everytime I say something about the cold weather I think about you guys in the north Dan. I say to myself, "Self, you have nothing to complain about." Hi Hi... I've had a couple of contacts with hams up north recently and in listening to them, I'm proud to live in the south.

TXiceman

03-04-2009, 07:59 AM

We lived north of Toronto, Ontario for two very long and cold years. Every time I was shoveling the snow our of the driveway (seemed I was doing this most of the year), I wondered about what a SE TExas boy was doing up here in all of the white stuff. I got back south and do not intend to live like that again. Maybe a VERY short winter visit, but I can even do without that.

I love warm weather.

Ken

jagco

03-05-2009, 02:37 PM

We are feeling a little southern today. It's 50 now and getting into the 60's today. We're supposed to hit 70 tomorrow. Not bad for March in IL.

KC1BUD

03-07-2009, 02:12 AM

Jim,

I am really in a bind. I no longer like the real cold, but I am not crazy for those late summer days here that approach the 90 and even sometimes the triple digets and 100% humidity.

All thanks to a trip to a south east Asian country some 38 years ago. I like the more moderate temps of the spring and fall.

One Country Boy

03-07-2009, 08:29 AM

The weather has been just great here the past couple of days. High of 81 yesterday with lows in the high 40's and sunshine. Wind out of the south, coming off the Gulf of Mexico. Time for me to get out and get my antenna work done, but not today, have a reunion to go to.

A lot of hams gathering near Chipley, FL today at Falling Waters State Park for the annual Falling Watres Picnic. A tradition that has been gong on for 30 years or so.

Everyone remember to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight. Time to start DST again. I thought it would never get here. Have a good weekend folks.

Radio

03-07-2009, 04:16 PM

Friday the 13th we are going camping! :hide: Wish us luck!

Dewinterized the 5th wheel, loaded up scattered stuff and non-perishables. Tossed the TS-570 and a Astron 35M under the bed. Don't know if I'll get on the air or not, my brother and his wife are taking their TT and we're all headed to Red Top Mountain SP.

Give me a 20m freq ya'll like and I'll try to holler at you. He's a ham, too, so maybe the girls will want to go off and do something while we try out the TW-2010 again.

:mic:

jagco

03-08-2009, 12:45 PM

Friday the 13th has historically been a lucky day for me! You'll be fine camping on it.

We got some hairy weather this morning. I woke up to tornado warnings on my WX radio, so I turned on the 2M for the area nets. Heard of a church being destroyed in one town and some billboards down near another. I'm sure we'll hear more as time goes on. Yesterday, I was thinking it would have been a great weekend to camp....maybe not.

One Country Boy

03-09-2009, 07:57 AM

Good morning all. OK, OK, I'll stop fussing about the cold weather. The high was 86 here yesterday with a low of 54 this morning. It won't be long until we hit the high 90's and the humidity stays at 86%. Hope you have a great time on the up coming Friday the 13th Camping trip Wade. My wife says 13 is her lucky number.

Speaking of warming up, "'spring break" is here for our beaches. Florida DOT put in a couple of new bridges and a flyway across St. Andews Bay to handle the excessive traffic for this time of year. The bridges run between Panama City and Panama City Beach. DOT just turned on their new cameras for traffic watching. Click HERE (http://tmc.baycountyfl.gov/) to take a peek. Doesn't look bad right not but you will see some accideints as the weather gets warmer.

I know with the warmer weather Andy is ready to head back up to his summer hide-out. We have to be in Calera, (think I spelled that correctly) Alabama on the 26th to have our RV Dealership make a few corrections to the Jayco 5'er. Nothing serious, a few minor corrections to be made in preparation for summer.

One the satellite receiver to play through to the bedroom and down into the basement storage. We use one receiver in the living area and I can't get it to play through to the bedroom. It is wired different from the previous Jayco we had. I could probably do it myself but we paid them for it so we will let them deal with it. Besides, if I screw something up, and I'm capable of doing that, then I void my warrenty.

Plans are to be in Dallard, GA on the first of July. Will be there for at least a month, then on to other parts of the Great Smokey Mountains. The ONLY bad part is leaving this new grandchild for the summer.

Our neighbors are home for awhile. He and I plan to get in some bass fishing this week. If it's good, I'll post some pics. If I don't report, you will know I'm not braggin'. The general rule is, if you don't see any pics, don't ask. Hi Hi...:D

I better get going, have one of those semi-annual doctor's appointments in Panama City. Post something and let us know what you are up to and plans for the summer please. I know there are a few that are still of the working group (bless your hearts) but what's going on this summer for you ? Take care all and have a great day and week.

One Country Boy

03-13-2009, 09:54 AM

Good morning all... Where's everone ? Weather must be warming up and everyone out and about. We had a low temp of 54 degrees here last night, the high yesterday was probably 80. Wow, such a drastic change in a few days. Wonder how you guys in the north are warming up ?

I've got all my antennas down right now. I'm putting up a new 75/80 meter Double Bazooka and feedline. I cut my old 80 meter inverted "V" down for 40 meters. Hopefully I'll have them both prunned perfectly and will not need a tuner in most places. I think there is a lot of efficiency loss by using the tuner. Hope to have them and the other antennas back up in time to go fishing before dark. The XYL has gone shopping with a friend so it's just me and "Hank".

A week from tomorrow were hooking up and headed to the Birmingham, AL area. Have an appointment the 26th in Calera at Burton Campers to have a couple of things done to the 5th wheel. Thought we would leave a few days early and enjoy the warmer weather. Probably will not be in a hurry getting home either. Anyone know of any good CG's in that area ? We have stayed a lot at Birmingham South in Pelham, they have all the good stuff, wifi, etc... :)

Better get out and go to work on these antennas. Have a great day folks.

jagco

03-13-2009, 04:32 PM

I'm never on that early in the morning. My health problems and/or all my meds cause me to sleep a lot. If I get up by 10a.m., I am doing better than usual.

One Country Boy

03-29-2009, 02:47 PM

CQ CQ de W4EWA ~

Hi fellers,

We pulled into Frank Jackson SP (Opp, Alabama) about 11:30 this morning. I cannot say enough about this park. Is small (only 23 sites), wooded, large sites with great cable TV, WiFi (on site) and full hookups. All but 3 or 4 sites are water front. I'll try to get a few photos uploaded later. I highly recommend this place if you are in the area. I've not seen much mentioned about the park in other forums.

Will set up ham gear in awhile for 2, 20, 40 and 80 meters.

CORRECTION: There are 23 waterfront sites. There are others that are not on the water.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA

jagco

03-29-2009, 08:35 PM

Looking forward to the pics :)

One Country Boy

03-30-2009, 09:10 AM

The low was 42 here this morning. It sure is great to see some sunshine. According to the weatherman it's suppose to start raining again. Dothan, AL reported in excess of 10 inches of rainfall this past weekend.

We've met a lot of folks headed back north after spending the winter in the south. Several have said it still too cold to go home and are staying longer.

73,
Jim

CQ CQ CQ ORR

de W4EWA

w3zi

03-30-2009, 09:21 AM

We did Everglades NP last weekend. Lots of gators -- will upload some photos.

Trying to see if I can free the weekend up Apr 25-26 to get on for the Florida QSO Party. Thinking about a Mobile Operation from several counties. If you have not tried it, the QSO Parties tend to be more fun for me than the typical contests given I dont have the with Big Gun power and Antennas etc.
73
Mark, W3ZI

One Country Boy

03-31-2009, 06:46 PM

The little Wx Radio has finally quieted after a busy afternoon of alarming here in southern Alabama. More tornados, hail, rain and straight line winds of 70 mph. No serious wind here, thank God.

We may have to start a thread on how to eleiminate noise in my HF receiver. It is strong. A 20db over S9 on 75 meters in some locations. Higher bands are better but still there. I strongly suspect some of it is coming from the RV's PS/converter/battery maintainer. I've done some elimination but not tackled the PS yet.

The antenna set up is below.
231

Wade uploaded a photo of a wooden bracket he mounted to his rear ladder awhile back. I mounted a piece of light weight angle iron with predrilled holes in it. It's mounted with nylon wire ties (wire ties and duct tape are the solution to all problems) on each side. I was in a hurry so did not use the u-bolts. Mounted to the angle iron is a Diamond dual band mobile antenna, using a trunk lip mount. Atop the ladder is my Hustler 52 inch stainless steel shaft with 75, 40 and 20 meter resonators.

Radios are a Kenwood TS450SAT and Kenwood TM251.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA

Andy N1ORK

03-31-2009, 08:24 PM

Jim, do you know the model number of the power unit? Is it a wf 8955? If so, I had the same one and it put out RFI on 80, 40 and 20m about every 70kc and it would drift slightly and also change frequency as I turned the 12vdc lights on and off.
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

04-02-2009, 11:35 AM

Radio

04-02-2009, 03:34 PM

Try running the radio of an independant power source, like a car battery or an AC supply. That will eliminate all RFI input via power lines. Then kill the breaker on the 12 converter, and that will eliminate noise via antennas.

That should help figure out where it's coming from.

One Country Boy

04-02-2009, 09:57 PM

I pulled back home today. Came home a day early. It's done nothing but rain the entire time we've been gone.

Wade, when I get the 5er set back up here at home (didn't have time this evening) I'm going to start doing some of that. I appreciate the suggestions.

We had to get on back to shuffle a few things around. It is flooding here and the water is up into our back yard from the Apalachicola and Chipola Rivers. Neither of those rivers have crested yet. I've got to move some things around. I'll try to post some pics.

It's nice to be home.

Thanks.

Jim

One Country Boy

04-06-2009, 05:41 AM

Good morning ALL,

Flood waters are still high here in the Florida Panhandle on several rivers amd streams. Law Enforcement and other agencies are out working day and night to assist those in need and protect lives and property. Several shelters have been opened in our area for those who have had to evacuate their homes.

No damage here at home. The only loss we've had is that of some of our firewood having floated away from the back yard. We keep wood stacked for outdoors cooking and to carry on RV expeditions. We arrived back home a little late to save all of it. Easy to replace though. At home, the thing most serious to me is snakes. The rising water gets them on the move and looking for new places to stay. I have to admit I have a lot of respect for them. In other words, they scare the heck outta me. There's nothing any meaner or more nasty than a "mad cottonmouth".

What's happening with you ?

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA

aintgotnun

04-06-2009, 07:06 AM

work

bleh

we are moving over to VoIP this week so this week is going to SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that is all. carry on

jagco

04-06-2009, 01:01 PM

One Country Boy

04-06-2009, 04:57 PM

My only excitement is I'm getting a cataract removed tomorrow. They're telling me it will only improve my vision a little as I have ischemia, two anyerisms(sp?), and laser scar tissue from diabetic retinapathy, all in that same eye. But....every little bit helps :)

Good luck with your cataract surgery Jeff. I had both my eyes done in the year 2000. They would not do both eyes at the same time. I had to wait 6 weeks between surgeries. I did not have the other problems you have, but if you have cataracts bad enough to have the surgery, you should still notice a huge difference. I could see better in 6 hours and ready to have the other eye done. Serious cataracts block a tremendous amount of light. With my surgery it was like someone turned on a light for me. Colors were more vived, sharp and clear. I didn't realize that I had not seen "true white" in years. What I thought was white was a dull gray or brown before the surgery. Cataracts normally come on so slowly, you don't realize you are going blind until you are almost in the dark. With the implants I no longer had to wear glasses. I had worn glasses since I was 18.

One other thing and I'll stop bending your ear. The surgen will give you 2 or 3 types of drops to place in your eye. One is an antibiotic I think. The other is a steroid so your eye will tolerate and adapt to the implant. Be sure to use those drops as you are told. A friend who worked in that field told us that most problems arise from patients not using the drops as prescribed.

Good luck with it Jeff, we will be thinking about you tomorrow. Please give us a report when you can.

Jim

donnie

04-08-2009, 01:06 PM

KI6UQI saying good morning to the net.
Newest member checking in.
Weather in So Cal is partly cloudy and temp aboput 67*.
Other than that Ill turn it back to Net Control
KI6UQI clear.

Andy N1ORK

04-08-2009, 02:11 PM

:welcome: Welcome aboard Donnie. We're just starting to see warmer WX here in CT. Nice bunch of folks here on the ORR net. Look around, there's lots of good info here too! :havefun:
73
Andy - n1ork
:radio:

One Country Boy

04-09-2009, 12:02 AM

About to head for bed guys. Thought I would take a look to see what was happening.

Good to have new members on the forum.

We had a low of 36 this morning, the high today was 73. It's suppose to start warming up again. Hopefully this was our last cool snap prior to summer.

Will be waiting to see how Jeff did with his cataract surgery.

73's ~

CQ CQ de W4EWA

jagco

04-09-2009, 12:12 PM

One Country Boy

04-09-2009, 02:39 PM

The cataract surgery went great. I am now 20/60, in that eye, which is what it was with glasses before. The doc said to just pop that lens out of my glasses, since I still need them for the other eye. New glasses won't make that eye any better, with the other problems. I'm happy with the clarity I have now though.

:bounce:Glad the surgery went well for you Jeff. It's not a terribly bad surgery. It took more time for my prep then for the actual surgery. The doc like listening to country music (like I) while doing his job, so we got along fine. I bet you have a lot more light coming into that peeper now ? Never regreted having it done.

Nice sunny day here today. Temp up in the high 70's. We still have water in the back yard from flooding. It is dropping but very slowly. About 3 inches per day.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA K

jagco

04-10-2009, 01:30 PM

Very rainy here, yesterday and today. It's supposed to clear up around 3:00 P.M. local, and be sunny tomorrow.

Andy N1ORK

04-10-2009, 03:06 PM

We just got back from a successful fox hunt just before the rain started here. Supposed to rain through Saturday evening. 63 deg. now and it's gonna get down to a high of 42 by Sunday. But the warmer weather is coming (so they say).
Happy Easter everyone!
73
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

04-10-2009, 04:30 PM

Warming up here too Andy and rain on the way. I see where there have been more tornadoes in the SE.

A Happy Easter to you and yours as well ...

Jim

One Country Boy

04-13-2009, 09:14 AM

Bad weather on the way again here today. Looks like some serious hail reported by doplar radar. "Radio's" area (Atlanta) is officially over the drought. They appear to be getting more rain today. The last I heard Lake Lanier is still 9 ft. below normal lavels.

Without posting a new thread, I wonder if any of you are familiar with the Kindle 2 and/or Sony Book reader ? Thinking of purchasing one for my wife. Not sure wich is best ?

The wx radios are going off. Sever wx watch in effect.

Hope everyone had a good Easter,

73,

Jim

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA K

One Country Boy

04-21-2009, 08:02 AM

Beautiful Wx here the past few days. Sunny and the temps up in the high 70's and occassionally the low 80's.

Where is everyone ? Guess most of you are outside during the day like I am, now that "Spring has Sprung".

Florida QSO Party this weekend. I hope to do some participating in that. It will have to be Saturday, the wife has plans for us on Sunday.

I was just browsing around the photo gallery. Some nice photos have been added. I forget to keep an eye out there. We have some good photographers on ORR.

Hey Andy, when is it you are coming to Florida ? I have a good friend (and fellow ham) that is on vacation up in the NE. He keeps texting me and and emailing me some beautiful photos of Maine. He and his wife flew to Boston about a week ago. They rented a car and are driving up to Maine and returning. They are having a great time. I'm ready to go do some RV'ing how about you. You full timers don't count. :waggle:

How is everyone ?

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA K:headphones:

:hello:

AE5BI

04-21-2009, 09:01 AM

Every day is camping!

jagco

04-21-2009, 11:33 AM

We just had a beautiful weekend camping at Giant City SP, in Southern IL. A group of 51, from our church, had a campout together. We had a dutch oven potluck Saturday night. I will try to pot some pics some other time. Just had a few minutes to check in before I go to the doc.

w3zi

04-21-2009, 02:03 PM

Wife was here and we decided to go see Mickey Mouse. Camped at Disney World (Fort Wilderness) over a long weekend and we got back yesterday. Celebrated our 31st Anniversary. This is our second RV trip to Fort Wildnerness Campground and we had a great time. Missed the FL QSO Party though.
73
Mark W3ZI

One Country Boy

04-21-2009, 02:40 PM

QUOTE:
Wife was here and we decided to go see Mickey Mouse. Camped at Disney World (Fort Wilderness) over a long weekend and we got back yesterday. Celebrated our 31st Anniversary. This is our second RV trip to Fort Wildnerness Campground and we had a great time. Missed the FL QSO Party though.
73
Mark W3ZI

Congrats on the Anniversary Mark !!! :DWe probably should be congratulating your wife instead. :poke: OK, OK, just kidding.

I think the FLorida QSO Party comes up this weekend, doesn't it ? Yep, this weekend: http://www.floridaqsoparty.org/ . I'm in a rare county maybe I'll get 'em standing in line. Hi Hi...

One Country Boy

04-21-2009, 02:43 PM

Every day is camping!

I just knew there would be at least one to rub it in. :bleh:

TXiceman

04-21-2009, 07:30 PM

Between Friday evening and Saturday Noon, we had close to 6" or rain. Yesterday and today were picture perfect and getting warmer. I think we have SUMMER coming.

Ken

w3zi

04-21-2009, 07:50 PM

GL in the QSO Party Jim. Hope to get on the air a little bit but dont think I will get to serious with it. I think my wife deserves an Oscar or something

73
Mark

One Country Boy

04-22-2009, 09:47 AM

Between Friday evening and Saturday Noon, we had close to 6" or rain. Yesterday and today were picture perfect and getting warmer. I think we have SUMMER coming.

Ken

Lot's of rain Ken... We've had a lot here as well, but nothing like that recently. The lakes are still very high here but no longer into the yard as it was.

aintgotnun

04-22-2009, 07:12 PM

One Country Boy

04-23-2009, 08:53 AM

The cap and relay on my fridge went out this past weekend. Kept hearing a clicking sound so I finally looked up the prob and found out what the deal was. $100 later......... Hope I get the new parts in before my compressor fries.

Glad you found the problem there Greg. Hope your parts get to you quickly.

I tracked down the noise I've been getting on HF in the 5'er yesterday. It's all coming from the PS and Inverter. Turn all that stuff off and it's quiet as a mouse. I've got to fix that before I can work any lower frequencies on HF. I think I'll begin checking all the grounding first.

Anyway, that's an entirely different thread.

Looks like another beautiful day here. A bit foggy this morning and some temperature inversions I suspect. Two-meters is wide open this morning. I'm listening to North Georgia, South Florida and Texas on 144 MHz. I could probably work "Radio" on 2 meters this morning.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA K K

One Country Boy

04-24-2009, 08:50 AM

.
................
I tracked down the noise I've been getting on HF in the 5'er yesterday. It's all coming from the PS and Inverter. Turn all that stuff off and it's quiet as a mouse. I've got to fix that before I can work any lower frequencies on HF. I think I'll begin checking all the grounding first.........

I made a mistake there. The RV does not have an inverter. Only a converter. I could not understand why it would have an inverter. Don't tell my wife I was wrong please, er, ahh, make that mistaken. :worthy:

By-the-way, my son (N4XCI) called me the other morning wanting to know what brand refrigerator we had in the 5er. Chris is a Deputy Sheriff and had just worked a fire. A fire had totaly destroyed a travel trailer not far from our location. The Fire Marshall assigned to the case determined that the fire was caused by the refrigerator. Probably one of those Dometics that was on the recall list. According to the Fire Marshall there have been several RV fires in our area caused by the frig problems.

One Country Boy

05-02-2009, 05:55 AM

The cap and relay on my fridge went out this past weekend. Kept hearing a clicking sound so I finally looked up the prob and found out what the deal was. $100 later......... Hope I get the new parts in before my compressor fries.

Did you ever get your frig in the RV repaired Greg ?

I was complaining about the cold weather awhile back. It just doesn't seem that long ago. The high here yesterday was in the low 90's.

We're headed over to the Blue Crab Festival (http://www.bluecrabfest.com/) at Panacea later this morning. Never been to this one but understand it's nice. It will be a good outing and a chance to consume some fresh Florida seafood. C'mon over and stroll the streets with us.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA K

One Country Boy

05-07-2009, 08:38 AM

Any of you guys that might operate 75 meters, are you experiencing high noise levels on certain frequencies ? I'm told by friends in the area (within 25 miles) they are having lots of QRN on 75. Wondered if it was local to our area or widely heard ?

jagco

05-07-2009, 03:58 PM

I don't typically run 75 meters for some other "noise" I've encountered there. As stated, in another thread, about the rudeness on the QRZ forum, I think the same guys hang out on 75........

One Country Boy

05-21-2009, 09:24 AM

Good morning,

Have not made a post on this thread in awhile. Sitting here drinking my coffee and listening to the "Loafer's Net" on 7262. We've had constant winds here for several days now and very cool temperatures for this time of the year. All this due to a low pressure area centered down in So. Florida (right Mark ?). The NWS had been watching this system for awhile, thinking it had possibilities of developing into something more tropical. We've had gust here to 35mph mostly out of the North and Northeast, blowing in the cool air. Unusual weather for this time of year.

This wind is credited with starting a fire at Topsail State Park (http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/wildfire_in_walton_county_state_park/mbb7716709/), a little west of us. Topsail is one of the most popular state parks in this end of the state. A tree was blown down on a power line at the park starting the fire. The link above has details from a local TV station. The last I heard, no structures were damaged, but 100 acres in and around the park were destroyed.

This low pressure area has begun to move, so maybe things will get back to normal here and we'll get back to "global warming". Hi Hi

That's about it from here. Do we have further check-in's for the thread ? What's going on in your neck-of-the-woods ?

73 fer now... CQ CQ CQ ORR members.. de W4EWA

W6ZKH

05-21-2009, 10:24 AM

One Country Boy

05-22-2009, 09:13 AM

I kinda wish it was abit cooler here Jim, as in the past week, we've had low mid/upper 90's and low 100's.... course, we dont have the humidity like you do, but did get some monsoonal moisture afew days ago that jumped the humidity up. Think today it is only suppose to get to 97 or so... cold wave.... My garden sure loves it though...

It has not reached a 100 here yet but been within about 3 degrees on a couple of occassions. You are correct about the humidity. The humidity is what makes it tough on folks here. That's why the YL and I "run for the hills" in the summer. Our plans have changed some. We planned to be up in the mountains the 1st of July but postponed it and plans are now to be there the 1st of August. We've just got a lot to do here. Not to mention the new GrandBabe across the street. Hi Hi

CQ CQ CQ CQ ORR de W4EWA K K K

w3zi

05-22-2009, 08:13 PM

Hi All Well looks like we are getting into our cycle of humid mornings, muggy afternoons with the boomers off the ocean at 400pm. You can almost set your watch. Been off the air for a few weeks. Very busy here with the job. Was surprised with a opening on 6 meters last night about 800pm. Worked two guys in Maryland with my Tarheel on the bumper. 73 Mark

One Country Boy

05-23-2009, 07:10 AM

Been off the air for a few weeks. Very busy here with the job. Was surprised with a opening on 6 meters last night about 800pm. Worked two guys in Maryland with my Tarheel on the bumper. 73 Mark

Been missing you and Andy. It's time someone checked up on your behavior. I hate I missed that 6 meter opening. I've been looking for one to put the TS2000 to the test on 6 meter SSB.

Maybe Andy will come in here and explain his absence. We'll see what kind of story he comes up with.:eyebrow:

CQ CQ CQ ORR members de W4EWA

Andy N1ORK

05-23-2009, 08:20 AM

I've been around Jim, just busier than a one armed paper hanger. I'm usually logged in here and read all the new posts when I get a chance. Doing this from the camp in NH today. Have the ft857d hooked up tp the ldg z100 and the g5rvjr (up about 25' in the trees). Been making some contacts and got a61bk in Dubai yesterday on 20m. No more inverter QRN in the park model (don't use one now) so the noise level is down.:bounce:
Maybe we can try to QSO from here later today. The wi-fi is pretty good now, so I'll turn on the chat window a little later today. Need to help our neighbor extend her TT awning and other stuff this morning.
The temp is 54 now and it is cloudy up here in Freedom, NH. Should get up into the 60's this afternoon. We'll begoing back to CT on Tuesday AM.
Have a good day and maybe we can catch each other today or this w/e.
73
Andy - n1ork/p
:radio:

One Country Boy

05-25-2009, 07:58 PM

The drought is over here. We received 5 inches of rain today and more in the forecast. I saw some photos circulating around the WWW of the Daytona Speedway flooded. Some places in south and central Florida got as high as 24 inches of rain.

We purchased a new computer yesterday. It will be the YL's primarily. I'm going to put this one in the radio room and interface it to the ham gear. The new one has wireless in it. I've decided I'm going to run them both wireless. It will be easier than routing another cable to the other room. The speed I get with my LinkSys Router is plenty fast for our applications on the net.

Hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. 73,

Jim

jagco

05-26-2009, 11:35 AM

We got that much rain here too. It ran from 1 to 5 inches all over the area, but some places north of us got 11 inches. We got 5 here.

w3zi

05-26-2009, 01:29 PM

Hey Jim - You get that Blackberry tied into the DXCluster and you wont miss any you will know when 6 meters opens up.
73
Mark

One Country Boy

05-27-2009, 07:19 AM

Hey Jim - You get that Blackberry tied into the DXCluster and you wont miss any you will know when 6 meters opens up.
73
Mark

Never crossed my mind to do that Mark. I'll be a walking DXCluster. Some sort of cluster anyway !! Hi Hi.. :banana4:

One Country Boy

05-27-2009, 08:09 AM

The rain seems to have finally moved out after days of it here in the southeast. We certainly needed it. We got a little more than requested in places.

I was e-mailed the following photos by a friend last week. I would be happy to credit the photographer but I don't know who took them. This is the Daytona Speedway after flashflood warnings were posted in that area. Some areas near there received 24+ inches according to the Weather Channel.

One Country Boy

05-27-2009, 08:23 AM

One last photo:

aintgotnun

05-27-2009, 03:26 PM

well I guess they could race speed boats at Daytona :D

One Country Boy

05-27-2009, 06:19 PM

well I guess they could race speed boats at Daytona :D

Good idea Greg.

One Country Boy

06-16-2009, 01:04 AM

CQ CQ CQ

Where's everyone ? I've not had a lot of time here either. Too many projects. That's about to switch to mostly inside projects, under the AC. Heat index here is suppose to be 111 degrees here tomorrow.:hot: Summer has arrived.

Will be towing the RV to a dealer about 2 hours from home tomorrow to have the roof cleaned and treated and a general wash job. Too hot to get out and tackle that right now and need to start getting ready for our 2009 Summer Trip.

What's going on with the rest of the gang ?

CQ CQ CQ ORR Members de W4EWA

Andy N1ORK

06-16-2009, 05:10 AM

One Country Boy

06-16-2009, 09:22 AM

SOS here Jim (Same old stuff). Been going back and forth to the camp in NH. Made a few contacts from there, like Russia on 40m, which was pretty cool! And a few 6m :radio: contacts in the vhf contest last w/e. Getting planning ready for Field Day with the local club here W1BRS. I'll be working 10m SSB, so hope to catch some of the ORR members on the air.

WX up in NH and here has been cooler than usual. :cold: In the high 60s and low 70s and usually cloudy with an occasional shower. Same thing predicted this coming w/e when we bring up the Grandkids. Oh well, it's only water.

73 for now
Andy - n1ork

Well I said the heat index was suppose to be 111 here today, it was 120 degrees yesterday I learned. That 111 is for the coast, it's much warmer/hotter 25 miles inland, as we are.

Sounds like some comfortable wx up there Andy. I'm ready to head for the hills of North Georgia and North Carolina. I remember now why we like it so much up there this time of year.

I've not worked a Field Day in awhile. That was always fun. I've been hearing Russia on 40 meters here also Andy. Down in the CW/digital portions of the band. You probably worked them in the Extra Class section, correct ?

Better get busy. Have to go get some diesel and hook up the RV for our Chipley trip this morning.

~ 73 ~

CQ CQ CQ ORR Forum Members de W4EWA

TXiceman

06-22-2009, 10:44 AM

I am home sick today and will sit in front of the radio a bit to kill time. Let me know if anyone is on the air.

Ken

jagco

06-22-2009, 12:13 PM

I've just kinda been in a funk lately, wishing I was camping :)

TXiceman

06-22-2009, 12:43 PM

To hot for camping here...supposed to hit 100dF today.

Ken

KF5BET

06-22-2009, 06:24 PM

Working on the other house. Just about finished with the hall bath and the front foyer. Hopefully will finish both of these rooms tonight. Then it's on to the laundry room (lots of work in there...plumbing, drywall and millwork). After that, all that is left is painting in the bedrooms. Needless to say, no camping for us. We haven't been camping since early May.

Been hot here..Today was 98 with heat index of around 101. No rain for at least 6 weeks. Hopefully we will get some rain soon.

As for radio... I am supposed to go look at an Icom 740 Wednesday along with some other radio gear. Will let you know.

73's

Galen

One Country Boy

06-22-2009, 09:49 PM

I am home sick today and will sit in front of the radio a bit to kill time. Let me know if anyone is on the air.

Ken

Sorry I didn't see your post earlier today Ken. I've been inside most of the day. Too darned hot to be out. Heat Index about 110.

Hope you are feeling better.

Jim

One Country Boy

06-22-2009, 09:52 PM

One Country Boy

06-23-2009, 11:03 PM

I received some one inch and half inch tinned copper ground braid today. Boy they don't give that stuff away. I'm going to run the one inch stuff from my antenna mount on top of the roof ladder down to the RV frame. Hopefully this will improve my mobile operations. I also received my bracket for mounting two Ham Sticks in a diapole configuration. I'll be testing the Ham Stick Diapoles in a few days I hope.

I've got to get busy isolating the noise I'm receiving on 75 and 80 meters and see how I can eliminate it. That's a thread of it's own.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA

Big-O-Duramax

06-24-2009, 02:10 AM

One Country Boy

06-24-2009, 07:19 AM

HEllo W4EWA,
I am starting a cross country road trip on 6/27/09, Oregon to Virginia. I am on 40 meters HF, and 2 meters, and Skype (KC5-EBM). IF our on 40 meters HF give me a frequency and I will give you updates as I cross the USA. Currently in Portland, Oregon

OK Duramax.... Will do and welcome to ORR. Glad to have you. Good luck with your trip and be safe out there.

One Country Boy

06-25-2009, 01:53 PM

HEllo W4EWA,
I am starting a cross country road trip on 6/27/09, Oregon to Virginia. I am on 40 meters HF, and 2 meters, and Skype (KC5-EBM). IF our on 40 meters HF give me a frequency and I will give you updates as I cross the USA. Currently in Portland, Oregon

I hang out mostly on one of two freqs on 40 meters. 7230 for the most part. Other than that, 7251 for the South Cars nets.

One Country Boy

07-20-2009, 07:19 AM

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA,

All going well here. The wife and I had to postpone our summer trip up to the North Georgia Mountains again.:bigcry: The original plans were to spend three months up there this year. We're down to the month of September (only) now. A few unforseen things arose, so we felt it was better to postpone again, rather than to get up there and have to return. The thought also crossed our mind of the possible loss of at least one months camping fee. Anyway, we're set to leave now toward the end of August and keeping our fingers crossed.

A little break in the temperatures here the past week. Not cool, but cooler. A nice break from the 105 temps we had been experiencing. We took a ride over to our county RV park on the golfcart about sunset yesterday. I had to actually put the winshield up because the wind was a little cool on us.

There's a possibility we'll be working on getting a tower up here in the next few weeks. A young fellow in the neighborhood is out of work and several of us have been using him to do odd jobs to help him out and to also help us. He's got a good strong back and an eager worker. he's done tower work as a profession in the past so maybe I can get him started setting my tower up. I don't plan to go that high, probably about 40 ft.

I see where Mike got a new HF amp. How's it working for you Mike ? Sorry I missed you on the spotter this weekend.

Are you at the "hideout" Andy or at home in CT ?

Tell us what's going on in your world please ? Should be getting a report from Radio on his last trip. I like them pik-chures.

73,

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA:radio:

Andy N1ORK

07-20-2009, 07:38 AM

Hey Jim,
Good luck on the tower! 40' is just about right for your terrain. Maybe we'll be able to connect then. Just got back to CT on Sunday to do the lawn, put out the garbage for pick-up today, do some odd jobs at home before going back up to NH on Thursday. Plan to visit the ARRL today. My pal, W1RGC, is giving tours there now, so I thought I'd go up and bust his butt a bit.:jitter:
73 and have fun in GA
Andy

One Country Boy

08-31-2009, 08:40 AM

CQ CQ de W4EWA

No posts to this thread in awhile. See if we can activate it. Hurricane season has been quiet here in the SE. One tropical storm came through a few weeks back. The Weather Channel made much about nothing and I usually enjoy watching them. Some of their reporting was totally wrong.:whistle: Maybe that will be the last of the storms for this year.

We have reservations in the Ocala Nat'l Forrest next week for about 5 days. We may leave anytime. No wifi and cell phone service is poor I'm told. Good thing I have the ham gear. Ham gear may stop me from seeing "pink elephants". :jitter:

Maybe the HOT weather down here will cease before long. It's still hot and humid.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWAhitchka, FL

Andy N1ORK

08-31-2009, 11:17 AM

Have fun in Ocala Jim. We'll be home for the Labor Day W/E (Grandaughter's Birthday) but will be coming back to NH soon after.

k8zfj

08-31-2009, 06:49 PM

have fun in Ocala !
Wish I was going to Ocala too, since my Dad lives in that area, but I think that's a trip worth saving when its a bit cooler up north !

One Country Boy

08-31-2009, 09:03 PM

have fun in Ocala !
Wish I was going to Ocala too, since my Dad lives in that area, but I think that's a trip worth saving when its a bit cooler up north !

You ever start down this way Randy, give a holler. There are a number of campgrounds in the Ocala National Forest. It is loaded with clear freshwater springs that flow into the St. Johns River. Lot's of places to cool of jumping into those springs.

k8zfj

09-01-2009, 01:42 PM

Most certainly will holler, Jim; we might be down that way for turkey day in Nov.

One Country Boy

09-29-2009, 09:59 AM

We woke up to a cool 65 degrees here in the Florida Panhandle this morning. Very nice and low humidity. A cold front passed through about 1 am. We got 1/2 inch of rain, with lots of lightning. The Fall temps feel good. The low looks like it was 63 degrees.

CQ CQ CQ de W4EWA

AE5BI

09-30-2009, 11:28 AM

It is still only 57 here. I am glad for the cool weather but my feet are cold! I must be getting old.

One Country Boy

10-01-2009, 09:19 AM

It is still only 57 here. I am glad for the cool weather but my feet are cold! I must be getting old.

I can relate to that.:) It got down to 56 here this morning. I drug out the long sleeved shirts yesterday and put on a pair of long pants. It's tuff getting used to these long pants after wearing shorts for several months.:D I like the cooler wx though. The humidity is down to about 43%, where it had been running about 85%. We will be building a fire in the fire ring in the back yard before long and shucking raw oysters around it.

Andy N1ORK

10-12-2009, 06:47 PM

OK, Got back from visiting the In-Laws in Canada and winterizing the park model in NH for the winter. Took 2 gallons of the pink stuff. Also 2 snow braces in the Add-a-room. Took down the 2/440 j-pole but decided to leave the g5rv jr up this time. Be curious how it holds up for the winter. Got back to the home QTH in Manchester, CT about 1500 local, unpacked and had to mow the lawn before the rain tomorrow. Now it's time to relax have a cold one:beer: and start planning for next Spring:rv: Hope everyone is doing well and had a great summer. Got some kits to build for the winter, so between that and my volunteer work I'll be keeping busy .:havefun:
73

aintgotnun

10-12-2009, 08:25 PM

What's "winterizing" ??? ;)

Andy N1ORK

10-13-2009, 07:46 AM

That's what you guys down south do when it gets below 50 degrees F.
:bounce:

wa8yxm

10-13-2009, 08:46 AM

Officially 39 here in Davison, MI as I type. Motorhome sensors said 41

I"m going to have to write an article on antennas one of these days I suspect..

I normally push either 100 watts into 100' of copper (Rig to nearby tree) or to a Hustler 4BTV, or to about 35 feet of mostly 1/2 inch copper pipe (the first 5 are #10 copper wire) or to whatever I can string up. Alternative is 25-50 watts in digital modes.. Works great

One Country Boy

10-13-2009, 10:36 PM

22:30 local time here and it's 72.3 degrees outside. Humidity is 88%. It's suppose to cool here in a few days. We had some cool wx last week, but it didn't last long.

Andy N1ORK

10-14-2009, 04:58 AM

37F at 0600 and a chance of S**W on Friday. Gotta come down south this Winter, gettin' too old for this cold cr*p.:cold:

One Country Boy

10-16-2009, 09:13 AM

The low here last night was 71 degrees. A cold front went through about 0300 hours (local), thunder storms and some wind. The low is suppose to get to 47 degrees tonight. It is currently 73.9 at 0900. Temps are suppose to drop rapidly.

"Never kick a cow chip on a hot day."
~Will Rogers

jagco

10-16-2009, 10:40 AM

It's been getting down in the 30's here in Illinois at night. I had cataract surgery Tuesday, so I haven't had much outside time. The surgery went very well though :)

One Country Boy

10-16-2009, 11:37 AM

I had cataract surgery Tuesday, so I haven't had much outside time. The surgery went very well though :)

I had cataract surgery in 2000, never regretted it. I would have been blind by now. Had real aggressive growth. 20/20 today, it's great.

I've been working on networking the computers in the house. Have them running wireless and all three networked together through a LinkSys wireless router. Now can do file sharing and all use one central printer. I've learned a lot. Still a long way to go. I think I'll connect my son, across the street, so I can access some of his photos of our grand. Ha ha... I guess that could be done, he can see my signal from the wireless. Oh yes, it is running secured.

Almost noon and it's 73 degrees. Wonderful !

Dizzy-Dick

10-18-2009, 11:26 AM

Glad your surgery went well. I will need that done soon. I now see 8 moons and all lights have a large (and beautiful) halo. Christmas lights get prettier every year (hi-hi).

KF5BET

10-18-2009, 09:02 PM

We got the cold snap here a few days ago. When I left work Friday it was 91 and I have no idea how high the humidity was (but it was up there). Saturday morning it was 60 and we opened every window in the house. Was excellent weather.

jagco

10-19-2009, 01:51 PM

.......Saturday morning it was 60 and we opened every window in the house. Was excellent weather.

It's supposed to get up around 70 here over the next couple days. Hadn't even thought about opening windows, but that's a great idea :bounce:

One Country Boy

10-21-2009, 08:17 AM

The low here was 58 this morning. It's warmed back up some. Highs are running about 78 to 80. Nice weather.

jagco

10-26-2009, 11:57 AM

We had a really nice day, yesterday, except for a little afternoon rain. I am so tired of rain, but today is nice too. It's around 60 right now.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Dizzy-Dick

10-26-2009, 05:06 PM

So far today we have received a little over 2" of rain and still raining. A cold front came in and hit the warm, humin air coming off the Gulf and PRESTO, rain. I believe Houston and Galveston got more rain, since they are closer to the Gulf than we are here in Cut & Shoot.

The temperature dropped from the 70's during the night to the cool it is now - 61 degrees. Should clear off tomorrow.

73's

One Country Boy

10-27-2009, 09:08 AM

That weather has moved over our way Dick. We are under a tornado watch until 18:30 CDT. My son and some of the others connected a weather radio to our local repeater. Pretty neat. It has a 15 minute beacon reminding us of the tornado watch. It's programmed to alert on any bulletins effecting our county and a neighboring county.

The low here was 63 degrees last night, currently 72 degrees at 0900 CDT.

Andy N1ORK

10-27-2009, 01:01 PM

Take care down there you guys. Hope all goes well.
73
Andy - n1ok

Dizzy-Dick

10-27-2009, 01:37 PM

Yes, take care over there. Duck and cover. Oh, that's right, that was from the fifties (grin).

Anyway, hope your area is spared any damaging weather. It has not cleared off here like it was suppose to and the temperature is still quite cool at 59 now, was in 52 when we got up. At least there is no rain. If the sun would come out, it would warm up fast.

73's

KF5BET

10-27-2009, 11:09 PM

Batten down the hatches...that looks like the same stuff that flew over us yesterday. We got a lot of rain, but thankfully not too much wind (hoping for the same for you...wind wise that is!)

One Country Boy

10-28-2009, 02:34 PM

It was not too bad. Received about 1 inch of rain. The rain cleared about noon yesterday and then a few more small showers in the late afternoon and evening. No lightning and very little wind to speak of. Our low temp was 67 last night and it's up in the mid 80's in the sunshine today.

Six and two meters have been open here this morning. Not sure where the 6 meter FM was coming from but 2 meters was from the north and south. I was listening to Orlando and Tampa areas to the south and North Georgia and Tennessee to the north. A 145.21 repeater in the Atlanta area was coming in full quieting for about 5 hours. Listened to many QSO's on that machine.

Dizzy-Dick

10-30-2009, 10:25 AM

donnie

10-30-2009, 10:52 AM

Not to bad weather wise in So Cal.
Sunny and in the low 70 s this morning @09:30a.m PDT.

One Country Boy

10-31-2009, 09:25 AM

Lots of rain here. Started Wednesday with 2.25". Thursday, by supper time we had 4.25", and since my rain gauge only holds a max. of 5", I dumped it out. Checked it at 06:00 this morning and it had another 2.5". That is 9" total in 48 hours. Actually, we needed it. Expecting it to dry out today. That cold front put temps down into the lower 50's this morning, Brrrrrrr.

73's

I saw something about that on the news Dick. Those poor folks up in Arkansas and some other places with homes flooded.

Here is this mornings shot. You can see the heavy cloud layer behind this front (narrow band). More rain coming in off the Gulf in southern Mississippi coming this way. The front is about 40 miles to the east of us right now. The low here last night was 72, it's 80 degrees right now.

One Country Boy

10-31-2009, 12:08 PM

The front just passed our QTH. The wind became active and the temp dropped 8 or 10 degrees in about 5 minutes. Hard to believe, but true. We had gone outside, the humidity was very heavy. When the front went through, the humidity also dropped rapidly.

wa8yxm

11-01-2009, 11:47 AM

We hit 35 last night here in Batesville, IN. where I"m parked for the week. (leaving in 7 days) A couple of days ago the high hit 77, I was walking around in T-SHirt.. Today it's the medium heavy coat (The heavy coat.. Which I hope never to wear again, is good from below freezing to below the point where you do not ask "C or F"

jagco

11-02-2009, 01:56 PM

It's really been wet here in IL too. We got about 4" here over the past few days. It was really nice yesterday and today. Highs around 60 and very clear. Some of the bottom roads are still flooded and farm fields are badly flooded. They showed a pumpkin field, on the noon news, that was like a lake with pumkins floating around.

Dizzy-Dick

11-04-2009, 05:48 PM

Wow!!! A beautiful day here today. In fact our local channel 11 news weatherman has a rating from 1 to 10 for the next day's weather, and last night he gave today am 11 on a scale of 10. . .

Hay, where is everyone? A year or so ago, there were a lot of active threads.

Heard how high the price of gold is going? Does anyone want to go prospecting with me????

73's

Andy N1ORK

11-04-2009, 06:34 PM

Nice day today Dick, spent it helping a fellow ham blow oak leaves into the street. The pile is 3' high and 150' long. He needs to cut down some of those oaks. Still need to do my own gutters, but after the leaves are all down. May get some rain and snow showers tonight. 45F now gonna get into the low 30's tonight. Need to go now and log into a local ARES NVIS net on 3.965 mhz in a little while.
73 y'all
Andy - n1ork

KF5BET

11-04-2009, 09:42 PM

Was really nice here in South Louisiana today...mid 70's for a high and mid 50's for a low tonight. Spent the afternoon out in the backyard throwing up some wire...

Dizzy-Dick

11-06-2009, 09:52 AM

Three beautiful days in a row. Rated by our weatherman as 11, 10, 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Moisture may move in this weekend. Depends on what all happens in the southern gulf with the tropical disturbances.

Have a good weekend
73's

One Country Boy

11-08-2009, 10:48 PM

The weather has been great here in Florida for the past week. Sunny, low humidity and temps just right. Looks like it's over beginning tomorrow. Tonight is the first time I've seen my new Wx Monitor scrolling across with a Hurricane Warning on it. Ida is supposed to go in arouns Mobile or Pensacola, west of us and then turn and come our way. Hopefully all we will get is some rain and less than hurricane force winds.

Hobart Duncan

11-09-2009, 11:31 AM

After a mild summer in Southern California (not too many days over 100), Wanda and I are set for a welcomed winter and spring seasons.
WX now is 69.5 and calm. All vehicals are being preped for Spring and looking for someplace to go.

One Country Boy

11-10-2009, 10:46 AM

Looks like the worst of Ida has past us, although the center of pressure has not passed yet. Our barometer is still falling here. Our paper box is across the street but the wind has subsided for now. We received about 4 inches of rain so far with some good gusts overnight and the power failed at one point.

We are about a frogs hair NE of the "Y" in Panama City on this current overlay.

KF5BET

11-11-2009, 12:27 PM

Hey Jim:

Hope you guys are doing ok...Hopefully you didn't get too much rain or wind...What on earth was IDA thinking when she reared her head this late in the season...jeesh! I had already packed away all of my hurricane supplies!!

One Country Boy

11-21-2009, 09:02 AM

Good morning Gentlemen,

Looks like rain on the way here today. We have been having some beautiful weather this past week. Mid to high 70's during the day and mid 40's at night. It hasn't gotten cool enough to disturb my tomatoes, they are still producing.

Our group gave it's first exams last weekend. Thanks to some VE's from out of town. Fifteen new hams walked away, one new General and one upgraded to Extra. It's nice to have new hams in the county. Many of them are volenteer fireman, EMT's and Paramedics. My son, N4XCI has been doing some presentations and recruited these new folks. Three of the new Techs were Father, Mom and Son. The entire family got their tickets on the way.

What's happening in your part of the country?

Andy N1ORK

11-21-2009, 09:32 AM

WX has been pretty good here also, in the 50s last week and the next week coming up. A couple of chances of rain coming up, but not too bad.
Did my first VE session last Thursday. Also had 13 attendees from various CERT/EmComm teams and two walk-ins. 13 passed the Tech exam and two passed the General. No Extras this time. I was not aware of all the paper work even with 5 VEs sharing the work. Since I was the new VE, guess who got to do most of the paper stuff?
73 y'all
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

11-21-2009, 09:54 PM

Dizzy-Dick

11-21-2009, 10:11 PM

Not very nice here in Cut & Shoot, TX today. Never got out of the low 50's with drizzle most of the day. Suppose to improve tomorrow. They are predicting it to be in the 70's and clear. Hope so.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone,

Andy N1ORK

11-22-2009, 05:56 AM

Good to know Ham Radio is still growing Andy. When a person passes his exam, do you file the results electronicly? I was wondering what the usual time is for a new call sign to be posted on the FCC site.

It's a little better for us since we hand carry the forms to the ARRL VEC in Newington the next morning and they do the inputs. Depending on how backed up they are, it could be up to a week to get the FCC calls. I've seen it take 2 weeks once.

73
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

11-23-2009, 10:33 PM

It's a little better for us since we hand carry the forms to the ARRL VEC in Newington the next morning and they do the inputs. Depending on how backed up they are, it could be up to a week to get the FCC calls. I've seen it take 2 weeks once.

73
Andy - n1ork

The guys here got their calls from the FCC site today Andy. That was 8 days including the weekends. A couple of them were on 2 meters tonight. All the calls were KJ4QQ*. The last letter increasing for all 15 of them. One has the call KJ4QQQ (yuk).:)

KF5BET

11-25-2009, 09:01 AM

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone....Hope you all have a great day and don't eat too much Turkey...and be safe if you are traveling..We are on our way to Fort worth today.

Dizzy-Dick

11-26-2009, 12:29 PM

Happy Thanksgiving from us in Cut & Shoot, TX. WX is cool and clear.

73's

TXiceman

11-26-2009, 06:17 PM

Dizzy, you are too far from me....Cypress, TX and we camp at the campground in Cut & Shoot since it has change to better owners.

Ken

Dizzy-Dick

11-26-2009, 10:02 PM

Dizzy, you are too far from me....Cypress, TX and we camp at the campground in Cut & Shoot since it has change to better owners.

Ken

Ken,

Which campground in Cut & Shoot do you camp at? There is one (new) on 105 where 1484 intersects and one south of 105 on Waukegan Road.

There are at least 4 repeaters that you can reach from there.

The hams in this area get together every 4th Saturday at Ryan's at the entrance of Wal-Mart. We get there about 08:00 and sit in the back room.

73's

Andy N1ORK

11-28-2009, 07:27 AM

Ok, so how many of us got up early Friday to take advantage of some of the sales?
:poke:
I woke up at about 0230 and was at W-Mart at 0315 trying to grab one of those eMachine laptops (not netbook) for $198. I managed to get one to give to my daughter and was wondering if anyone else has experience with this model? It has an AMD X2 processor, Win7 home premium 64, 2gb DDR2 ram, 15.6" screen and 160gb HD.
No radios this year, but hope to win another FT-60 at the radio club Christmas party raffle.
Wishing everyone the best in this Christmas Holiday season, good Hamming and a healthy and happy New Year!:radio:

KF5BET

12-04-2009, 07:50 AM

Supposed to snow here in South Louisiana tonight. My youngest has a soccer tournament tomorrow with her first game at 7:30am...Ought to be interesting...

One Country Boy

12-04-2009, 09:44 AM

Galen, looking at the weather radar, it appears there is snow in the southern LA area now. The low here was 41 last night and currently 47 degrees with heavy overcast.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas. We didn't get up early for "black Friday" Andy. We did do a little shopping later in the day. It was not near as crowded as we thought it would be.

I guess we will not do any more RV'ing until after the first of the year. Too many things going on between now and New Years. This is a good time of the year for camping, with the exception of the damp weather here in the south.

By-the-way Andy, is this avatar better?

Andy N1ORK

12-04-2009, 11:35 AM

By-the-way Andy, is this avatar better?

Much better! The other one was downright scary:alien:
Snow in LA?? We had 67 and sunny yesterday and it's 50 and sunny today.
Wishing everyone the best of this Holiday season! [If we had a Santa smiley, it would go here]
73 :radio:

TXiceman

12-04-2009, 08:04 PM

We had plenty of the snow in Houston area earlier today. Luckily it stopped while it was still above freezing, so we won't be in too bad of a shape tomorrow. Bridges and over passes will be iced.

Enjoy the snow in southern LA.

Ken

KF5BET

12-07-2009, 07:38 AM

Well the snow lasted for about 2 hours and then it was gone. The kids went nuts and really had fun running out in it. It had rained most of the day so none of it stuck.

They pushed the soccer game back to 9am but it was still pretty cold. They lost, but had a great time anyway.

We did not go out shopping Black Friday as well. We stayed home and watched movies instead. Had a really good Thanksgiving and looking forward to Christmas! The girls have most of the decorations up and it looks really nice.

BTW...I like the new avatar as well Jim. I agree with Andy...the other one was a little scary!

Hope everyone has a great day. Will be a wet one here, but the temps are supposed to be in the 60's.

WD8QBQ

12-07-2009, 08:18 AM

Hi, Hi, everybody, reading the mail and checking in from northeastern Ohio.

The temp. is 30F with lite SNOW falling.

The bus is in the barn ready and I have the itch to go!

I have been lurking and trying to see where I fit into the group. Can't help but notice that not many are online very often.

One Country Boy

12-07-2009, 08:53 AM

Dog-gone-it !!! We missed all the snow here. It snowed plenty to the west of us, Pensacola and Mobile areas.

The low here was 40 last night at around midnight. It actually warmed up later during the night. It's currently 55 outside and cloudy. More rain expected for tomorrow. The rivers in our area are at flood stage and the water only lacks a couple more feet and will be up into the back yard.

I know everyone has their Christmas shopping done. (Not!)

Good to see the activity on the forum. We are a little slow on traffic but the group hangs in here and that's good.

One Country Boy

12-08-2009, 09:19 AM

Good morning all. It's warmed back up in the panhandle of Florida. That usually means rain on the way. Low here last night was 58 degrees, it's currently 61 and rain is expected.

I've got a project to take care of in the next few days. I'm on Dish Network. I normally put one of the 3 receivers, we have in the house in the RV on trips. In the 5er we have now, I cannot control the receiver with the infrared remote from the bedroom. I bought a dual receiver off eBay with a built in DVR. One of the receivers is controled by VHF. Hopefully I can use the VHF control from the bedroom to control one of the receivers. The first thing I've got to do is activate the equipment with Dish. I have to make a few mods in the RV to route wires in the cabinet, but should not be a problem.

The dehumidifier in the camper is working overtime these days to keep the humidity down. It fills the water catch bucket pretty quickly.

Have a good day out there. What's going on with you?

AE5BI

12-08-2009, 09:30 AM

What percent humidity do you try to maintain? I usually don't run mine unless it is over 50%.

One Country Boy

12-08-2009, 11:41 AM

What percent humidity do you try to maintain? I usually don't run mine unless it is over 50%.

Hi Steve (I think that is the name),

Nice to see you. Right now I have it set at 50%. I sometimes run it at 60 to 65%. Getting it too dry in there can be as harmful as too much humidity, as I'm sure you well know. Here in Florida we normally have a high humidity. This time of year is even worse. I can open the door on the RV and it jumps to 70 and 80% in a few minutes. The humidity righ now outside is 89%.

Good to see you. Where are you located right now?

WD8QBQ

12-08-2009, 07:55 PM

One Country Boy

12-08-2009, 10:19 PM

Hi Jim and anyone else lurking. Jim, I see you are not too far from Tallahassee. My daughter is a sophomore there at FL, State. She says it rains there every day in the late afternoon:eek:, that's a very beautiful part of FL.

Still cold here, but I think we missed the storm bullet, I hope. Not really too bad this winter "yet".

JIM

Florida State is a good school Jim. Not in such good shape with the pig skin this year though. I'm not a foorball fanatic, but I pull for the 'Noles. I would have liked to have seen Bowden retire with a winning team, but it's not going to happen. Let's face it though, he's long overdue in my opinion. We're about 75 miles from Tally via the roadways. Much closer "as the crow flies." I have a lot of friends and also relatives living in and around Tallahassee.

We're having a heat wave here. It's 69 degrees right now. Looks as though the rain has moved out of here and all headed to the northeast.

KF5BET

12-08-2009, 11:20 PM

It has warmed up here nicely! I had to run to Wally World tonight to get some batteries and went out in my shorts... it's a wonder we are not all sick.

Rained almost all day. Hope tomorrow is better.

Got to start my Christmas shopping pretty soon! Hopefully I can get it done fairly quickly.
I don't think Santa is bringing me any ham stuff...oh well.

Once the new year starts, we are going to enclose our carport and make a true garage. When that happpens, I am going to take over the storage room and make it my man cave (that will be my Christmas gift...even if it will be after December!)

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Will check in later.

73's

AE5BI

12-09-2009, 11:26 AM

Thanks for the info Jim. We are still in the SF Bay Area. Humidity isn't as high here as the SE but still high enough to do damage if we don't keep it under control. They are calling for snow here tonight!

Yep, Steve.

One Country Boy

01-10-2010, 08:22 AM

Morning all. Thought I'd warm up this old thread. The low here this morning was 22 degrees. Now we can stand some of that, here in Florida we are just not prepared for it to continue. We've had freezing temps here for about 3 weeks I think now. It was 25 degrees here at sunset yesterday. Suppose to get even colder tonight. I know many of you are experiencing the same, especially in the NE.

My inverted "V's" have contracted so much, the SWR went up.:)

Andy N1ORK

01-10-2010, 09:02 AM

9F this morning, up to 16 now (We're havin' a heat wave a tropical heat wave...) but at least it's sunny and not much of a breeze (keeps the wind chill down). Supposed to get up to 42 by Thursday. Whats the forcast down in FL for the 26th? Hope it's warmer by then. Will try to make the EL net on Monday.
73
Andy - n1ork

wa8yxm

01-10-2010, 10:52 AM

I seem to be a regular on the Before Breakfast Club.... 3.793 MHZ. I'm usually on around 2-3 am Eastern (The net officially starts at 3am)

This morning here in Fair Play SC where the average low temp is 31 degrees (that's the low for the year) per Inn-Accuweather.com it was 25 and calm when I joined the net and 24, still calm, when I logged out at 8:20 UTC (3:20 eastern)

My water hose froze.. Don't yet know if it thawed.. no damage (or freezing) inside the rig however.

One Country Boy

05-14-2010, 07:31 AM

Good mornng Gentlemen;

I thought I'd attempt to revive this thread. Up having my first cup of coffee here this morning. Reading the local news paper (http://www.newsherald.com/)on-line and listening to 3950 KHz on the TS2000 and a few stations from time-to-time on the 2 meter and 440 rig. Who says I can't multi-task?:) Going to check into the net here on 3950 in about another half hour.

The weather has been just great here the past week. Getting a little warm here in Florida. It will not be much longer before we head up to the North Georgia mountains to escape the heat and humidity. Some of our friends are up there as I type and say it is cool.

When we came home from Thomasville, GA last Sunday, I went down on our neighbor's dock and threw a beetle spin with a little ultra-lite spinning rig I have. I caught 3 of the largest bream I've ever caught. I'll post a photo of the first one I caught, although I think the last was a little larger. It was sure fun playing those fishes in the water.

What are you folks up to today and what plans do you have for the summer ? Those of you that are fortunate enough to be retired I mean.

Here's my big fish:

Andy N1ORK

05-15-2010, 06:15 AM

AHHH, so that's a Bream..........nice fish:fish:, oh yeah, you too Jim.:whistle:

One Country Boy

05-15-2010, 07:54 AM

AHHH, so that's a Bream..........nice fish:fish:, oh yeah, you too Jim.:whistle:

Well thanks Andy. As you can see I dressed for the occassion.:whistle:

Yessir, that's a Bream. Don't you have those up there? He really had a dark color from the dark water he was in but his breast area was a brilliant red. The cell phone photo does not do him justice.

Here's the second one I caught. Those are 2" x 6" board he is laying across. His color is a little different then the first. He's a different variety of fish also. But still a bream. Hi Hi

We are headed down to the "Tupelo Honey Festival" in awhile. This area of the Apalachicola River is the only place in the world where Tupelo Honey is made. It come from the Tupelo Gum Tree that grows in the swamps wild. This honey, when pure, does not crystalize and turn to sugar as other honies do. It is used by diabetics as a sweetner or like eating candy without adverse reactions. Now that I've educated you on Tupelo, I think I'll get ready.:hello:

KF5BET

05-15-2010, 08:39 PM

What bait did you use Jim? We couldn't catch anything on our camping trip last weekend.

Maybe they didn't like hot dogs I dunno!!

One Country Boy

05-15-2010, 10:30 PM

What bait did you use Jim? We couldn't catch anything on our camping trip last weekend.

Maybe they didn't like hot dogs I dunno!!

Hi Galen, I was foolin' 'em. I was using a beetle-spin on an ultra-lite rig. They were just hungry. Probably would have eaten a hot dog as long as it had mustard.:D

One Country Boy

05-16-2010, 08:48 AM

Good morning Gentlemen. A low of 66 degrees here in Dixie last night. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for today and tomorrow. Current radar pic below. Everyone likes pics.:D

We put our boat in the water yesterday and did a little riding on the Dead Lakes, Chipola and Apalachicola Rivers. Let me tell you it was hot. I got a little sun on my "snow white legs". I could tell when I put them between the cool sheets last night.:jitter:

I'm going to get out today and install my Icom V8000 in the tow vehicle. I've not had a VHF rig in a mobile in awhile. Will be nice to get one back on the air while rollin' down the road.

What's happenig in your world today ?

CQ CQ CQ ORR Members K

KE5ZRT

10-24-2010, 04:13 PM

6 days till my wife and I purchase a used RV and move in full-time. We have zero experience so we are anxious and excited. We've considered this for years and now our child is 18 and nothing is holding us back. I will be workamping with my Federal job at Amarillo and hopefully I will be able to transfer to Colorado Springs soon. The weather is decent here with highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s, but a cold front is moving in this week. We have sold EVERYTHING we own, so even if the weather turns cold by Saturday the move will only take an hour or so. I think I have my antenna and base installation all figured out...now I just need all of the stars to line up!

Thanks for checking me in. Back to net control. KE5ZRT Clear
:hi:

KurtJan

10-27-2010, 03:43 PM

Been a long time since Jan and I were on here. Lots happened. Daughter got married and now the camping season is almost over for us in the great north. High winds the last two days have made it interesting. So windy I think my RF was scattered :)

73,
Kurt/N9ZMO and Jan/K9JNE

Radio

10-27-2010, 07:28 PM

Been a long time since Jan and I were on here.

Welcome back. :hello:

I know the feeling and I'm supposed to be in charge around here.

KE5ZRT

10-27-2010, 08:01 PM

Now only 3 days left until we are officially full-timers! We have sold everything we own and we are currently living out of a cooler with lawn chairs as furniture. Everything is set and ready to go!

Radio

10-27-2010, 08:06 PM

Keep us posted as to your adventures!

KE5ZRT

10-28-2010, 06:00 PM

We picked out a spot at a local RV park in a far corner so we don't upset anyone with our pets and minor repairs, hamtennas, etc. We went ahead and rented a lot for a month and we move in in two days. We found a hidden expense that we hadn't considered...we were asked to provide shot records for our two dogs. We hadn't ever gotten that done. So we took them to the vet and $130 later they are now fit for public consumption, lol!

KE5ZRT

11-22-2010, 06:12 PM

We have been full time RVers for almost a month now. It has been a challenging month as the coach we purchased is a 1987 model and we have found numerous necessary repairs:

The charger converter and house batteries need to be replaced
The furnace is occasionally not working. I have fixed 2 separate issues with it, and now there is a third problem--most likely the circuit board. (I'm going to replace the whole furnace with a much more efficient catalytic heater--a Wave 6 should do nicely) :cold:
The water heater is not working (needs a new circuit board and/or gas valve) Cold showers have been invigorating :eek:
The roof leaked during a recent rain/snow storm and I replaced the AC seals and siliconed the windows :rain:
The coil spring airbags are blown and need to be replaced ($85 and a simple repair job)
We need a new awning--Apparently you should not extend the awning in 30mph wind--That was a greenhorn mistake! :bag:
The awning we had needed to be replaced anyhow, and I think the RV looks a little more sleek without an awning. Most of the small windows already have small awnings, I think I will put another small awning over the one window that does not have one and call it good enough.

All of these maintenance issues have prevented me from getting around to installing the 144/440 beam and rotator that I want, so I have finally, temporarilly, installed a j-pole to get me by for a little while. In spite of all of these complications, or maybe because of them, my wife and I are still thrilled and excited to be fulltimers. Call me crazy, but this may be one of the best decisions we have ever made.

Thank you all for your advice and kind words of encouragement throughout our adventures this last month.

http://www.openroadsradio.net/attachments/photobucket/img_7600_0_77751a9f03ed05d878416595220481d1.jpg

73

WD8QBQ

11-22-2010, 09:17 PM

Chris, glad to hear your still enjoying. I think you have a rig with good bones and the things you are experiencing are common to any coach that has set idle for any time. All your repairs are making you a better owner as you will be familiar with all your systems. When you are done you should be trouble free for quite some time. With the modernizing, upgrading and repairing you will have a nice home for many years to come. The unfortunate thing is that the weather is fighting you, an earlier start was probably not possible for you so now you must bite the bullet.

Get set up for HF amateur radio and you won't have time to "twitter"!

:havefun:

One Country Boy

12-18-2010, 12:49 PM

Hi Folks,

I'm embarrassed at not having been on here in so long. Please don't scold me too hard.

Let me say Merry Christmas to all and I've not met several of the newer members. Hello and welcome.

I need to go back and catch up on some posts. I'm way behind. I'll be back.

WD8QBQ

12-18-2010, 06:26 PM

OMG, where have you been? Thought about you as I passed close by your town on the way to Destin for Thanksgiving. You have been so uninvolved here I was afraid to make contact.

JIM

One Country Boy

12-18-2010, 06:46 PM

Hi Jim,

Dog gone it, sorry I missed ya. I was probably right here. We were down in the St. Pete/Tampa area in November, but were back the week prior to Thanksgiving.

Andy N1ORK

12-19-2010, 04:11 PM

One Country Boy

12-20-2010, 10:39 AM

You are right Andy... Too much time on FaceBook. Would not be on there so much if I didn't have the FB App I carry around on this BlackBerry.

I'm ashamed of you for "telling on me.":whistle:

One Country Boy

12-24-2010, 07:00 PM

Hello All,

We had one of the hottest summers in history here in Florida and the Fall Season has already set records for cold temperatures. If you don't like the weather, stick around, it will change.

My XYL was good to me as usual. I got my presents early and got them in line last night. I am so pleased and proud. A MFJ-998 Intellituner and a Ameritron ALS-600. Both are working just great. I asked Santa for the ALS-600 for some added power in the RV. I'm hopeing to make room for it in the 5er. I don't want to load it too hard. With 40 watts of drive, I'm getting about 400 watts out. Very nice pieces of equipment and have the station I've always wanted. I will have to get an antenna for the RV now that will handle the added power.

Certainly hope that everyone has a good Christmas. It's not about the toys, that's an extra. Remember the meaning of the season, and it's all for the kids.

"One Country Boy" <----- One BIG Kid :whistle:

One Country Boy

12-31-2010, 04:38 AM

Good morning all... It warmed up to 70 degrees here yesterday and in the 50's here tonight. We're in for a warming trend with some rain coming. I mentioned to the wife tonight, if it keep this up, I'll be ready to load the 5er up and hit the road.

Let me wish everyone a Happy New Year... I hope 2012 will be a prosperous one for all our ORR Net Members. Please remember to not drink and drive and don't let a friend drink and drive.

Andy N1ORK

12-31-2010, 05:47 AM

Let me wish everyone a Happy New Year... I hope 2012 will be a prosperous one for all our ORR Net Members. Please remember to not drink and drive and don't let a friend drink and drive.

Thanks for the 2012 wishes Jim! I'd like to wish everyone a Happy, Heathy and Prosperous 2011!
73:beer:

KE5ZRT

12-31-2010, 08:35 AM

Howdy from Amarillo everyone! Today's forecast is 37 degrees with winds 25-35 mph...COLD!!!! I know, I know, since I am a full-timer I should travel south, but no-can-do. I am also a workamper with a full-time government job in Amarillo. My wife and I have made many repairs to the 1987 Southwind we recently purchased: New charger converter, new house batteries, new AC gaskets, new vent free propane furnace, 10 meter vertical installed on ladder rack, dual-band j-pole installed on 10' mast with a High Sierra hitch receiver fold-over mount. We removed the two swivel captains seats from the living room, leaving only the couch which makes a lot more room! Our two dogs are getting more accustomed to RV living as well--fortunately the RV lot we live in is all grass and there is a large vacant field next to us as well.

8 weeks ago, we had zero RV experience and we have learned a lot in the last 8 weeks. I learned something new just last night--When running the tap water to prevent overnight freezing, it is important to open the grey water tank! No harm done, but if I had slept an hour later the shower basin would have overflown!

Thanks to all of you and your helpful advice! 73

KF5BET

12-31-2010, 02:09 PM

Happy New Year Everyone:

Hope everyone has a great year in 2011.

I pulled out the old garden this morning and will get it ready in a couple of mnonths. We had a pretty good garden this past year with lots of tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, squash, okra, jalapenos and cucumbers. We had beautiful green bean plants but not one bean was produced.

The weather is supposed to be near 70 today but rain is scheduled to come in sometime this afternoon (hence the early morning yard work).

No new ham gear this year, so the ham fund has been reactivated. I am hoping to finish my shack in the next couple of months and move in to a permanent setup.

Again Happy New Year to all and please be safe!

WD8QBQ

01-01-2011, 05:17 PM

Yeah, Happy New Year for 2012 also, just in case I don't make it that far.:worthy:

Mainly though Happy and Healthy 2011 guys and gals. are there any gals on here??????????? :hide:

JIM :dog:

ke5zru

01-01-2011, 08:56 PM

Yep. There is a gal on here....howdy from KE5ZRT's XYL.

Happy New Year to you too! :)

73
terra

KE5ZRT

01-16-2011, 03:46 PM

Yesterday, the temperature in Amarillo was up to 58 degrees. That's the nicest day we have had in a while. Terra and I decided to go for a bicycle ride, but we didn't want to leave our dogs at home alone in the RV. So, a trip to Wal-Mart was inevitable. I bought 2 plastic dog kennels and wire tied them to my bicycle baskets and off we went for a nice 10 mile bicycle ride. It all looked goofy--baskets, dog carriers, and a dual band 36" whip, but it was quite enjoyable!

http://www.openroadsradio.net/attachments/photobucket/img_7863_0_4e84feb2b539903323a833cb1260d027.jpg

One Country Boy

01-16-2011, 09:06 PM

I like the dawg carriers Chris. We just bought 2 new bikes. I'm going to have to see if I can do something like that for our little mutts. We hate to leave them in the RV and they love going with us, no matter where we go. They are two very loyal and loving Daschunds.

One Country Boy

01-20-2011, 07:15 AM

Good morning gang... We've had a little break from the winter weather here in the Florida Panhandle the past few days but not planning on it lasting long. It's suppose to be back down into the 20's for several days starting this weekend.

Up drinking coffee, reading the newspaper (on-line) and listening to the "Old Goats Net" on 3940 KHz. Hi Hi Oh yes, did I mention I had let the pups out to do business and fed them breakfast. Hi Hi... My my, isn't retirement great. Now if I can just not wake the XYL.:whistle:

Hope all is well out there, I don't see a lot of activity on ORR. Where did all our west coast and folks out in the west go?

I'm going to try to finish up a few things in the shack today and get it cleaned up some. I've got a 4 position antenna switch I need to get mounted on the side of the radio desk/cabinet here and a couple of components to get put back into line.

Have a good day all. 73...

AE5BI

01-23-2011, 11:20 AM

One Country Boy

01-23-2011, 05:39 PM

Hi Jim,

We are still here (West Coast). Just hard to keep motivated when the park won't allow HAM operation. Weather here is great, like summer yesterday! Mid sixties, clear and sunny. I even sat outside after sunset and played the guitar for a little while.

Another guitar picker... I just found out Andy also played. I bought a used one at a pawn shop a few months back. I've always wanted to learn to play. I've got to get serious about learning the chords. I was always a persussionist, but still had a pretty good ear. I think Andy got a new guitar for Christmas, we'll have to get him to tell us about it.

The weather here has been lousey. Cold and damp. Typical winter weather, but not for Florida. I was watching some documentary the other night that says these very cold temps (lower than average) we've been having are being caused by "Global Warming". I'm still scratching my head on that one.

It was 25 here last night and has been down in the lower 20's. We've had more cold and freezing nights then I can remember. "Global Warming", go figure.:whistle:

Andy N1ORK

01-23-2011, 05:55 PM

Hi Jim,

We are still here (West Coast). Just hard to keep motivated when the park won't allow HAM operation.

How would they know you are operating? :radio: As long as you're not causing RFI you should be ok. If they ask, tell them it's just a short wave reciever. If you're just doing 2m repeaters, I can't see what the issue could be.
73
Andy - n1ork

One Country Boy

01-24-2011, 08:34 AM

BTW Stphen, good to hear from you. Seems I forgot to say that.

I was curious, sort of like Andy mentioned, have you had some issues in the park from operating? I usually don't operate a lot and when I do, they are usually short transmissions (checking into nets or short QSO's with friends back home). I know a lot of the parks we visit have poor grounding on their cable systems, etc. Open lines, etc...

If you don't mind, what experience have you had?