Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
Insurance rebate check
Travelers March 1st $1800.00
Solar attic fan box.
Termite inspection date.
Make Dentist Appointment
Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th. I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
Fill batteries in cave.
remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
Power supply for audio recording on Sundays Get battery packs from storage. Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software. Why doesn’t it carry the power over to QRZ.
Recycle Batteries #3
Look for another Subpoena. (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
Fix Jacoby account
TurboTax 2024. Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR. Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
Wells Fargo Advisors
Good Will
Hand truck
Fertilize the lawn
Repair the eves on our home
Replace back door of garage
Repair window in garage
Replace seal under garage door
Locate part number for Door seal.
Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate. File estate taxes.
Put tape over door seals on Blue.
Research Lawyer for Arizona
Three band 10, 20 and 40Meter Inverted VEE antenna to be somewhat Omni.
I definitely fell down on the blogging this week. The beginning of the week was a bit of chaos trying to nail down prescriptions and daily tasks. Wednesday, I managed to get seriously hurt and that triggered shingles. I went to a doc in the box on Friday after the pain was getting unbearable. That’s when we found out that the rash across my back was shingles. Saturday still in pain went to the emergency room to get an xray of my hip to rule out a fracture. (Which I seriously thought it was.) They did a CAT and it didn’t show anything which is terrific news. They also gave me some Tramadol for the pain. Yea. I was still in significant pain on Sunday, so I went home right after setup.
Spent some good time working with the HF radio this week. Checked in on the WW net most every morning and made some 200 contacts on FT8 with HRD providing the logging. The antenna is now safe to operate with the ariels high enough off the ground they cannot be easily reached. Even though the ariels are insulated, it’s possible to get a small RF burn on them. I spent a good deal of time tuning them, it turns out that the distance between the 10M and 20M ariels is a critical tuning distance.
Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
Insurance rebate check
Travelers March 1st $1800.00
Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
Solar attic fan box.
Termite inspection date.
Child Fund letters.
Make Dentist Appointment
Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th. I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
Fill batteries in cave.
remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
Power supply for audio recording on Sundays Get battery packs from storage. Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software. Why doesn’t it carry the power over to QRZ.
Recycle Batteries #3
Look for another Subpoena. (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
Fix Jacoby account
TurboTax 2024. Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR. Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
Wells Fargo Advisors
Good Will
Hand truck
Fertilize the lawn
Repair the eves on our home
Replace back door of garage
Repair window in garage
Replace seal under garage door
Locate part number for Door seal.
Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate. File estate taxes.
Put tape over door seals on Blue.
Research Lawyer for Arizona
Monday
Ham + Pea Presidents day.
Grocery shopping today.
Tuesday
Got onto the radio with Paul and checked in on the Waterway net. 2 Hrs LOL
Kathy went to Dental to get some braces. We ended up going to Longhorn for lunch because of timing conflicts.
Wednesday
Cleaned out Blue Focus back seat in preparation for getting it serviced.
Killed the wireless router for Home Assistant with the microwave. It popped the bedroom ARC Fault breaker and that took out the router. I ended up standing up a wireless router on my desk to run Home Assistant during the night.
Ordered some RF cable to move the backyard antenna.
Thursday
Didn’t make it onto Waterway nor did I talk to Paul this morning, he was working his “Honey Doo” list.
Tried to reload the firmware onto the Mango router, it was still being difficult. I ended up tossing it into recycling and replacing it with a spare.
The humidifier was off, apparently I didn’t turn it back on after the fiasco with the breaker. The humidity is below 40%, which is low in the wintertime.
Bought a pair of drum spurs, they look old. (But all I need is the ends anyway.) Played Bingo with the elderly. Watched Hallmark movie with the wife. Made some FT8 contacts while looking for a cure for my feet. Updated my Daytimer pages in my daily book.
Friday
Joined Paul on the Waterway Net this morning. Played around with FT8 trying to figure out how to properly adjust the power settings. With a full waterfall it’s almost impossible to adjust the frequency, adjust the power and know which phase the transmit is in.
We went to Longhorns for lunch, met up with the woman that got into an accident, and she’s got a job as a School Bus driver! We gave Terresa several 20’s for “Pay It Forward”. I did not see Lizbeth today.
Drove to the candy store for a roll of antenna wire, it was a bad move to do that during rush hour though.
The coax did come in to properly ground the coax at the mast of the antenna. It will also allow me to push the antenna closer to the center of the yard.
Saturday
Checked into the Waterway Net with my Uncle while sipping on a cup of coffee.
Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
Insurance rebate check
Travelers March 1st $1800.00
Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
Solar attic fan box.
Termite inspection date.
Child Fund letters.
Make Dentist Appointment
Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th. I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
Fill batteries in cave.
remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
Power supply for audio recording on Sundays Get battery packs from storage. Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software. Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
Recycle Batteries #3
Look for another Subpoena. (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
Fix Jacoby account
TurboTax 2024. Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR. Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
Wells Fargo Advisors
Good Will
Hand truck
Fertilize the lawn
Buy a water hose
Repair the eves on our home
Replace back door of garage
Repair window in garage
Replace seal under garage door
Locate part number for Door seal.
Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate. File estate taxes.
Put tape over door seals on Blue.
Research Lawyer for Arizona
Monday
Whew, it’s been a really busy day! I spent almost the entire day on the radio! It’s raining outside and my radio wants to do a long tune on frequencies it didn’t a day before. According to Google Foo, the antenna appears to be longer when it’s raining. I pulled the extensions off the antenna to improve the performance, but it still did a long tune.
On waterway.net this morning, it’s been a adventure. They came back with I was off frequency, I paused because that’s just about impossible with this radio. Another HAM helped me out and he said that I needed to adjust my TX Microphone equalizer. (Personally, I thought that the default settings would match the equipment sent with the radio.)
I managed to get my General License on Sunday.
I spent an hour configuring my TX SSB audio, there are no less than 20 settings on this radio to fine tune the TX level and bandpass.
I did a power test with Paul and his receive degrades at 5W to a 57. But still, that’s a tiny bit of RF to reach him.
Antenna propagation looks pretty good at 5W with WSPR.
Now I have to keep track of the modulating frequency AND the transmit frequency since the Automatic Tuner is 2KHZ wide. (Meaning FT8 can be 2.7KHZ wide.) I’ve decided to shoot the middle, Tune at 1500+7.074MHZ=7.075500MHZ
40M is MUCH different than 10M, I am surprised that no one East or West of us heard me? 15W40M at night reaches across the horizon!It appears that I can tune the entire band without the 8″ extension, it just takes longer to tune.
Tuesday
At 4AM I cannot reach Europe, but I can reach the entire USA on 15W.
It’s a one way conversation in the morning from Europe.
Joined the Waterway Net with Uncle Paul. My changed microphone settings were received well by participants in the Net.
We ended up taking a shower, then a nap before eating lunch at Longhorns.
I opened the doors on Blue Focus to dry out the insides. The cold dry air was perfect and when I closed up the car the air would have been even drier. I also put the four solar panels on the Blue Focus battery to give it a bit of a charge.
12:44 Back home and clearing the backlog of things to finish. Added the two contacts I talked to on the Waterway net.
Now that I am running 90W SSB, I decided I needed to insulate the ends of the 40M aerials so that they are out of reach from inside the fence. (They were already too far inside my yard to be reached across the fence.) I used some tubing that I had laying around to cover the aerials. I believe that the wet string caused the antenna to detune slightly this morning. The extensions are also an issue because of the yellow flags on the ends.
Pulled the extensions off the 40M antenna for tomorrow’s waterway Net.
I added a wire tie as an insulator to the end of the extension. That keeps the wire completely inside of the tubing covering the lower part of the aerial.
I need to figure out how my 10M aerials work above 28.3 MHZ in the evenings when 10M is dead. I tried to remove the extensions and almost got bit from a brown recluse spider. He/she was hanging out in the insulator. I am hoping even if it did attempt to bite me that it’s tiny fangs couldn’t pierce the skin. (Hoping) It did appear to try to escape on my first attempt, it disappeared completely when I tried to take a picture of it. Then the issue is “WHERE IS IT!”
Six FT8 contacts today!
Wednesday
Spent almost three hours on the radio this morning. Joined my uncle on Waterway this morning, then we met on Keels to Wheels. I tried to get onto SCARS, but was too timid to make it. I think my uncle would have preferred that I had gotten a little more aggressive. I did join Waterway and SCARS clubs today.
We took a good nap and then started making dinner when we spilled the chicken into the sink. Longhorn made lunch for us today.
Back home worked on E-Mail and tuning 40M band on the radio. I am pretty sure the plan is to run the radio without the 8″ extensions on 40M as the radio doesn’t need them. (And I need the efficiency for SSB)
House church takes up most of the evening on Wednesday.
Back home, checking the news and my radio for tomorrow.
Thursday
Joined the Waterway Net in the morning with my Uncle. We decided to go to Longhorn’s for lunch after the invite yesterday. We took a nap AFTER our lunch to allow us to get to Longhorn’s at 11AM. It was a very pretty day yesterday afternoon. We spent most of the day trying to get our prescriptions in order. We watched the end of the chocolate Hallmark movie “Sweeter Than Chocolate” we started Wednesday.
Friday
Checked into the Waterway Net, I forgot to send my full callsign. I was trying to write a script and completely eliminated my callsign LOL. Also, I’ve been in 2M for over a year and they don’t send callsigns that often.
Printed a new page for my day timer. Then spent an hour making a new one LOL.
Cleaned the driveway and maybe 1/4th of the living room.
Took a few minutes and did some tests with 40M radio tuning. I have got to get more practice with these nets. I have to remember to close the gate, even though the aerials are covered with tubing.
Played with JS8 Call for a couple hours while I had a bit of dinner. We entered the restaurant reviews for Longhorn, I did three and the Wife did Valentines Day.
Time for Hallmark! We watched “Betting Bride” tonight for our evening entertainment.
Saturday
Got onto Waterway HAM HF NET this morning with Paul.
We discussed at great length what we’re going to do today.
I’ve given a LOT of thought about my back yard antenna and lightning. There’s two vulnerabilities with the RF cable outside coming from the antenna and one more from the ground under the wire. The antenna on the roof as a lightning spear that’s actually the copper wire running the length of the antenna pole. I want to replicate that onto the back yard antenna.
Lunch was meatloaf, it was a little greasy, so I don’t think we’ll have that again.
Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors. Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
Air in Silver’s tires.
Air in van’s tires.
Insurance rebate check
Travelers March 1st $1800.00
Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
Solar attic fan box.
Termite inspection date.
Child Fund letters.
Make Dentist Appointment
Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th. I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
Fill batteries in cave.
Bags for church.
Repair Heat2 ESP8266.
remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
Power supply for audio recording on Sundays Get battery packs from storage. Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software. Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
Recycle Batteries #3
Look for another Subpoena. (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
Get exercise pads from storage.
Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
Fix Jacoby account
TurboTax 2024. Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
Mount HA#2 and Pi-Hole.
Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR. Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
Wells Fargo Advisors
Good Will
Hand truck
Fertilize the lawn
Buy a water hose
Repair radiator on Blue.
Repair the eves on our home
Replace back door of garage
Repair window in garage
Replace seal under garage door
Locate part number for Door seal.
Repair the brakes on Blue.
Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate. File estate taxes.
Put tape over door seals on Blue.
Research Lawyer for Arizona
Living room is still storage, it’s about 50/50 groceries and “Stuff”
Monday
Listened in on the “Waterway Net” this morning with my Uncle. We chatted for a while and that took up 2Hrs this morning. I need my General license to transmit on 40M (7MHZ), hopefully I’ll pass the test on Sunday.
2 cups of coffee, 4 Eggs, breakfast sausages and orange juice for breakfast.
Filled one with coffee, it was still 150 degrees 14 hours later.
Dropped off the car at Firestone and we were running out of time to make any kind of dinner. We have a cooked turkey in the refrigerator but there’s no fixings to go with it. So, off to lunch at Longhorn’s with Tiffany and pick up the car from Firestone customer car care after we get back home.
The new microphone stand appeared on our doorstep. It will replace the one I gave away.
Had a can of soup with crackers for dinner
Lots of practice tests today getting ready for Sunday.
We watched Hallmark movie “Timeless Love” for our entertainment tonight, it was cute.
Tuesday
Got up early enough to get onto Waterway Net, I did not hear KK4SAC check into the net today. Reset my radio to WSPR and had a couple muffins for a snack.
Got my first 100% on a practice test this morning. Took a shower and I’m back to taking practice tests.
Went to THD and got a step stool after our nap. Read the news and worked on my radio for a little while. Turns out that I CAN transmit on 40M in the CW portion. I tried to tune the antenna at the bottom of the 40M band and it failed. I moved up to the top of the CQ portion and the radio successfully tuned. It was getting dark, but I thought I could put the extensions on the aerials before it got too dark to mount them. (I was wrong.) By the time I got to the Western Aerial it was really dark. The additional 7″ I added to the aerials was sufficient for the radio to complete a tune cycle at the bottom of the band. It appears that the radio needs the antenna to be LONGER than needed. (Inductive)
Watched a Hallmark movie “Be My Valentine”, it has a limited life though. (Three more days)
Wednesday
Sipp’n on a cup of coffee waiting for the Waterway net to get started at 7:45. Wow good propagation today.
Worked on my antenna this morning, I need to separate the 40M aerials into two lengths. The shorter length that can be tuned to the upper portion of the 40M band and a pair of extensions that can be tuned to the lower part.
Thursday (Cold Again)
Took a shower while the heater was warming the home. (Bathroom gets nice and toasty.) Sipp’n on a cup of coffee while making this post. I need to get some pants on and pull the extensions off the antenna for the morning nets.
Listened to my Uncle check in on the Waterway Net 7.268MHZ, he was 599 today. Listened to SCARS 7.251MHZ for a while before turning down the volume.
Time for another practice exam….
Cleaned up two tubs out of the living room and put the solar panels on the van to charge the battery.
Watched another Hallmark movie for our evening entertainment.
Friday
Up at 06:30, put a VNA on my antenna without the extensions and measured the performance of the antenna. (I want to be ready for Sunday)
07:45 Listened to my uncle check in on the Waterway Net 7.268MHZ, he was 58 today. He did a call out for KQ4GEL letting them know I am taking my test on Sunday.
Took several practice tests and watched the Hallmark movie “Christmas Train” with the wife for our evening entertainment.
Saturday
Slept in until 8, I’ve not been sleeping very well. We went to Longhorn’s for dinner and then to Wally World for groceries. Took a good nap then a couple more practice tests for tomorrow.
Made plans for my test tomorrow and then watched the end of the movie “Christmas Train” with the wife.
Sunday
Helped run the sound board, let my partner take the reins as much as possible.
Headed home about 12:30 to take a shower and a nap. 13:10 got up and got ready to drive to the test site. 13:50 arrived at the test site a little early. 14:15 Passed my HAM General License test and headed over to Longhorn for lunch. 15:15 headed home for a nap.
I tried to get onto WSPR with my new KQ4GEL/AG callsign and the software can’t use the suffix /AG. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how well my TX is reaching other stations. Normally I’d use WSPR, but that isn’t working with /AG. JS8 to the rescue, with its heartbeat networking I got a pretty good idea of my antenna’s efficiency at 40M.
Stations that received my 15W signal at roughly 0dB average.
Since everyone seems to be well above -15dB I dropped the power to 10W.
The center between the grey lines is a little bit east from my station.
I assume that I’ll get a message from the FCC within a day or two.
I guess the thunderstorm helped with the propagation.!
