Tuesday, March 21, 2006
A good night and generally great day.
First off, on my way home I get a call from a familiar voice. My mom.
I got to be my mom's first contact. She's now KI6DAR!!! Way to go Mom!!!
Woooot! (Happy dance time!)
Second, Cody ran the county wide net. He jumped in about 2 seconds before I was going to. Then I got to run the SLV ARES net. 11 check-ins. Good deal.
Next Greg, KI6CK and I had a good CW QSO, at a useful speed, with reasonable copy. Happy happy!
Also did a Morse Runner, 10 valid in 15 minutes. Not quite up to normal speed, but got into several nasty pile-ups. Gotta figure out a better way to deal with them...
Lastly, checked out something I was curious about... CW weight. My call seemed "light" but I wasn't sure. So I found a weight checker on the internet and entered a couple of local studly contesters and my CW guru.
K6XX, "Bob" blindingly good contester 54
KQ6YV "Hap" a CW guru 70
KG6AO "Tom" general local dude 60
KI6CK "Greg" another contester 58
AE6RF some guy in the mountains... 48
Chuckle. Lower is better in terms of how long/hard it is to send.
++++++
I've got so many projects going people sometimes wonder which end is up. So... Here is an off the top of my head list of (just ham) projects at various stages of completion...
PAC-12 antenna: Almost done, needs ribbon cable radials assembled
House front antenna: Needs put up on eaves. Needs ladder and helper.
G5RV Jr antenna: Needs 20' mast installed on back fence.
Short term 40m vertical: Shoot 1/2 wave 40m vertical into the oak tree.
Medium term 160m antenna: Up oak tree, over to other tree, up, up into island tree.
Long term 80m loop: Around property roughly 15-20' up.
Saab: Drill hole for 2/70 and install Yaesu FT-8800
Saab2: Mount for ham sticks and install (?) HF rig
Saab3: Install APRS
Truck: Drill hole for Antennex 2/70 antenna
Truck2: Figure out mount for ham sticks
Truck3: install Icom-706MkIIg and scanner
Truck4: Permanently mount APRS
Build 40m dipole (including ladder line and coax) for FT-817 kit
Make 40m end-fed 1/2 wave for FT-817 kit
Make 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6 m ribbon cable counterpoise for FT-817 kit
Get HF Winlink running from the Com Van
Get JNOS running on RF
Help get internet to K6BJ shack.
Install cheesy Telpac node at K6BJ shack
Join FISTS and ARS
That doesn't count, work, kids, and the house.
Oh boy!!! :D
Bedtime before I get too stressed by thinking about it all.
First off, on my way home I get a call from a familiar voice. My mom.
I got to be my mom's first contact. She's now KI6DAR!!! Way to go Mom!!!
Woooot! (Happy dance time!)
Second, Cody ran the county wide net. He jumped in about 2 seconds before I was going to. Then I got to run the SLV ARES net. 11 check-ins. Good deal.
Next Greg, KI6CK and I had a good CW QSO, at a useful speed, with reasonable copy. Happy happy!
Also did a Morse Runner, 10 valid in 15 minutes. Not quite up to normal speed, but got into several nasty pile-ups. Gotta figure out a better way to deal with them...
Lastly, checked out something I was curious about... CW weight. My call seemed "light" but I wasn't sure. So I found a weight checker on the internet and entered a couple of local studly contesters and my CW guru.
K6XX, "Bob" blindingly good contester 54
KQ6YV "Hap" a CW guru 70
KG6AO "Tom" general local dude 60
KI6CK "Greg" another contester 58
AE6RF some guy in the mountains... 48
Chuckle. Lower is better in terms of how long/hard it is to send.
++++++
I've got so many projects going people sometimes wonder which end is up. So... Here is an off the top of my head list of (just ham) projects at various stages of completion...
PAC-12 antenna: Almost done, needs ribbon cable radials assembled
House front antenna: Needs put up on eaves. Needs ladder and helper.
G5RV Jr antenna: Needs 20' mast installed on back fence.
Short term 40m vertical: Shoot 1/2 wave 40m vertical into the oak tree.
Medium term 160m antenna: Up oak tree, over to other tree, up, up into island tree.
Long term 80m loop: Around property roughly 15-20' up.
Saab: Drill hole for 2/70 and install Yaesu FT-8800
Saab2: Mount for ham sticks and install (?) HF rig
Saab3: Install APRS
Truck: Drill hole for Antennex 2/70 antenna
Truck2: Figure out mount for ham sticks
Truck3: install Icom-706MkIIg and scanner
Truck4: Permanently mount APRS
Build 40m dipole (including ladder line and coax) for FT-817 kit
Make 40m end-fed 1/2 wave for FT-817 kit
Make 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6 m ribbon cable counterpoise for FT-817 kit
Get HF Winlink running from the Com Van
Get JNOS running on RF
Help get internet to K6BJ shack.
Install cheesy Telpac node at K6BJ shack
Join FISTS and ARS
That doesn't count, work, kids, and the house.
Oh boy!!! :D
Bedtime before I get too stressed by thinking about it all.
