Day: February 12, 2024

1. Buy air filters 16x25x1
2. Bass Drum feet
3. 25′ microphone cords
4. Clean disposable filters.
5. Take stuff to storage.
6. Repair the brakes on Blue.
7. Repair radiator on Blue.
8. Clean out Blue Focus.
9. Add lightning spar on backyard antenna.
10. Check silver spare tire.
11. Wells Fargo check
12. Research new smoke/fire/CO detectors.
    Draw fire detector wiring diagram.
13. Insurance rebate check
14. Travelers March 1st $1800.00
15. Safeco Feb 10th $2200.
16. Solar attic fan box.
17. Termite inspection date.
18. Child Fund letters.
19. Make Dentist Appointment
20. Marriage Retreat registration by Feb 28th.
    I think we are opting OUT of staying the night.
21. Fill batteries in cave.
22. remove Heat2 Temp and Humidity.
23. PCC on forehead needs to be looked at.
24. Replace dryer vent with one that closes off the outside air
25. Power supply for audio recording on Sundays
    Get battery packs from storage.
    Buy mini USB DC converter and check for noise?
26. Configure Ham Radio Deluxe software.
    Did get it configured to reach into my LOTW.
27. Recycle Batteries #3
28. Look for another Subpoena.
    (They may not ask us anymore because of a chain of custody issue.)
29. Add relay to refrigerator UPS to charge from Solar.
30. Check on Home Owners insurance for storage.
31. Fix Jacoby account
32. TurboTax 2024.
    Signed in and started my 2023 taxes.
33. Buy more solar panels in case of NATO WAR.
    Sweden is seeking to join NATO.
34. Change owner of church Public Storage locker.
35. rebuild Attic fan power switchbox.
36. Wells Fargo Advisors
37. Good Will
38. Hand truck
39. Fertilize the lawn
40. Buy a water hose
41. Repair the eves on our home
42. Replace back door of garage
43. Repair window in garage
44. Replace seal under garage door
    • Locate part number for Door seal.
45. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
46. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
    File estate taxes.
47. Put tape over door seals on Blue.
48. 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 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.

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

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.