CQ CQ CQ all ORR Net Members - K

[jagco]

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]

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]

Looking forward to the pics

[One Country Boy]

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]

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]

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.
rvantennas.jpg

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Andy N1ORK

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

I don't know Andy. I'll have to do some checking. Maybe it's on the face of the PS. I'll look.

Jim

[Radio]

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]

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]

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]

work

bleh


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


that is all. carry on

[jagco]

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

[One Country Boy]

Originally Posted by jagco

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]

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]

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!
73
Andy - n1ork

[One Country Boy]

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]

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.

[One Country Boy]

Originally Posted by jagco

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.

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]

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