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Old 12-31-2010, 02:09 PM   #241
KF5BET
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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!
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Old 01-01-2011, 05:17 PM   #242
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Yeah, Happy New Year for 2012 also, just in case I don't make it that far.

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

JIM
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Old 01-01-2011, 08:56 PM   #243
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Yep. There is a gal on here....howdy from KE5ZRT's XYL.

Happy New Year to you too!

73
terra
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Old 01-16-2011, 03:46 PM   #244
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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!

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Old 01-16-2011, 09:06 PM   #245
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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.



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Old 01-20-2011, 07:15 AM   #246
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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.

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...




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Old 01-23-2011, 11:20 AM   #247
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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.
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Old 01-23-2011, 05:39 PM   #248
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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.



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Old 01-23-2011, 05:55 PM   #249
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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? 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



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Old 01-24-2011, 08:34 AM   #250
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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?



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Old 01-24-2011, 05:59 PM   #251
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I have never had a problem with amateur radio in any rv park, but then I don't ask and would fight back if challenged.

JIM
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Old 01-24-2011, 06:40 PM   #252
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Lows in the high teens tonight and light accumulations of snow are expected. The RV park is filling up as drivers are coming in off of the road. I am looking forward to warmer weather and spring thunderstorms! We are attending our annual SKYWARN certification class at the beginning of February, and I am already getting excited.

As soon as the government returns a small portion of the funds they have skimmed from my till all year, I will have my first HF radio! I've struck a deal with a local elmer friend for an Icom 718 and an LDG Z100 auto-tuner for $400. I have already ordered a full set of MFJ HF Sticks (minus 30 & 60 meters) and I have about 200' of RG-213. Now I just need to decide how to mount them. I live a mile from 5-6 truck stops and 2 CB shops, so I have a lot of options for hamstick mounts! I am strongly considering bolting the mount to a steel rib in the dead-center of the fiberglass roof. I think as long as I seal things up well, it will be OK on my 1987 Class A.

I am looking forward to working some of you on HF real soon!
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Old 01-24-2011, 10:10 PM   #253
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LLLLUUUUCCCCKKKKYYYYYY....Hope you enjoy the new rig set up!
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Old 01-30-2011, 11:22 AM   #254
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We were here for a year, happily operating 20 and 40M before they gave us a copy of the rules. There may have been a time when I would have made an argument but I have chilled out over the years. Now that I know the rules I choose to obey them rather than give all us Hams a bad name. The other factor is that I keep thinking we won't be here long enough to worry about it but I have been thinking that for two years now. We still use our radios when we move the rig, it's pretty handy to be able to talk to your spotter when you are fitting into a tight spot. Anyway, that's the whole story. Lame I know. If we have a major earthquake and I am passing wellness messages out to relatives I bet I would be able to talk them out of that particular rule! I see an antenna on one of the rigs in the park and I am hoping I can catch them at home and meet them, it'd be nice to have an eyeball QSO, maybe refresh my memory on how to operate a radio.
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Old 04-22-2011, 08:50 PM   #255
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Sorry I haven't checked in in a while. I spent every spare minute for about a month and a half studying for the Amateur Extra Class Test and I passed with a score of 88% on April 2nd! I have been studying Morse Code. I found an application on my Droid phone that turns it into a portable Morse Code tutor and within 2 weeks I have learned characters A-Z and 0-9. I still have not learned any of the special characters yet. My goal is to be able to compete in the ARRL CW Rookie Roundup by December. I would also like to be able to pass the code proficiency test. I've also been fundraising for Walk MS with the Panhandle Amateur Radio Club's Team PARC. My wife Terra, KE5ZRU, and I are the communications coordinators for the MS 150 Bike Tour in our area which is coming up in July, and we are starting preparations for that. I have scheduled a lengthy vacation beginning in May and ending in June. For 6 weeks, I will be working 2 days each week and taking off 5 days a week. I usually work 0400-1230. With storm season coming up, I don't want to worry about how late we are out spotting weather for SKYWARN weather nets. Last year, Terra and I caught 12 tornadoes, and we hope to not miss any opportunities this year. We are still enjoying the full time RV life. I am in the process of building a 4 band hamstick dipole antenna, which will be great for RV use, as well as EmComm use. I will put together a post with full details of the antenna build when it is complete.

73 y'all!
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Old 04-23-2011, 04:24 AM   #256
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You've been a busy boy Chris! Congrats on passing the Extra and your CW work. You and Terra keep safe chasing those twisters and we're all looking forward to seeing the HamStick dipole.



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Old 04-23-2011, 08:55 AM   #257
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I agree with Andy. You have been one busy person. Congratulations on the Extra Class again. I'm pleased to hear that you are learning the code. You will never regret it. Good luck on the Rookie Roundup in December. I'm sure you will do well.

You and Terra send us a pic or two of your storm chasing adventures. That would be interesting to me. Be safe out there.



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Old 08-31-2011, 06:18 AM   #258
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It's been a while since I last checked in. We've been very busy still with Field Day coordination and also with communications coordination for a charitable bicycle race with the MS society. The storm spotting vacation was a bust, we didn't have a single storm in the entire 6 weeks that I took vacation. The multi band hamstick antenna that I was designing was also a bust. I learned that the hamstick antennas were too close together and they caused interference between the bands. However I was able to salvage the hamsticks and I created individual hamstick dipoles for each band and that works great on a pushup pole mounted to my ladder rack. Next month I am putting together a parade float advertising amateur radio for our ham radio club. And in October I will be helping out with another bicycle race event. I will share photos of the parade.

I hope you all had a great summer. 73
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Old 08-31-2011, 12:36 PM   #259
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Curious how you will run the multiband ham sticks? Stack more than 2 on the same pole/mast? I'm in the process of making some hamstick dipoles and was thinking of mounting several on the same pole/mast....stacked??
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Old 09-06-2011, 05:48 PM   #260
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Curious how you will run the multiband ham sticks? Stack more than 2 on the same pole/mast? I'm in the process of making some hamstick dipoles and was thinking of mounting several on the same pole/mast....stacked??
I apologize for not being clear, but the stacked multiband dipoles did not work at all. There was too much interference between the resonators. I am now using single band hamstick dipoles with very good results.

Here's a link to another thread here at ORR where a multiband hamstick project of mine did work fairly well...
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