Posts Tagged ‘Personal’
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August 17th, 2015 | 
Author: The day started sunny and bright. As soon as I walked outside at 7:00 AM, it was easy to tell it was going to be a hot one. Summer! I love it!
I set out one of my 12 Volt SLA batteries on a patio chair in the backyard and hooked up one of my small solar panels to get it charged up. I had used the battery as a power source so I could program the Juentai VHF/UHF radio in the house, as well as to do some test transmissions. At 20 Watts out, I depleted the battery rather quickly, so I took the opportunity to use sunny days both yesterday and today to get it back up to full capacity.
I had gone to Mass on Saturday evening, so I used the quiet time (and "cool" morning) to install the Jeuntai into the Jeep. I mounted it "sideways" to the front console in the Patriot, where the transmission gear shift stick is. This is a really lousy photo, but it will show you what I mean:
I had to go to Home Depot to get some shorter sheet metal screws. The ones that came with the unit were about 3/4" long. I put my hand up and in behind the housing/fairing and could not feel anything vital behind my proposed mounting area, but I still wanted shorter screws. I got some 3/8" ones that did the job magnificently. The unit will sit a few inches from my right knee, but it is completely out of the way and non-interfering with the operation of the car. Not that I use it that much, bit it's great to have VHF/UHF in the car again.
Shortly after, I went down the basement shack to see if I could work any lighthouses during International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. The bands were terrible! I managed to hear and work one - W8F, the Fort Gratiot lighthouse at Port Huron. Michigan. QSB was terrible, but I gave Stan a 579 and he gave me the same.
Then at 1:30 PM, I left to take a short drive over to Dave KD2FSI's house. Dave was hosting the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club's Digital Rookie Roundup effort. He had his two Yaesu's hooked up and raring to go. He also had on display a Heathkit transciever that he recently bought at the Sussex County Amateur Radio Club Hamfest in July. Talk about pristine! Dave "lifted the hood" and let us take a look inside - it looked like it was built yesterday. It is immaculate, and looks like brand spanking new. And on the table next to it was an HW-8.
The bands were as terrible at Dave's house as they were at mine (surprise!). There wasn't a lot of Rookie RTTY activity, so Dave graced us with demos of PSK31 and the other digi modes and we had a great time shooting the breeze. Marv K2VHW and Drew W2OU were there in addition to a couple of Dave's neighborhood friends. I think between Dave, Marv, Drew and I, we gave his friends a good enough rundown on Amateur Radio that they could have passed the Tech test had we given it to them!
I had to leave at around 3:30 PM as I had promised my son Joey and my wife Marianne that I would accompany them to the community pool this afternoon. They've made use of the pool a lot this summer, and I haven't - so I promised I would go today. As I was leaving Dave's house and saying my good-byes, Dave says to me, "Make sure you don't leave without your radio." All I could do was shoot him a "?????" look. "The HW-8 ..... it's yours."
I was speechless. He had said that he had read somewhere (guess where?) that the HW-8 was my first QRP rig and that I had very much regretted parting with it years back. He had his son scour eBay for a good deal and acquired it for me. I was still speechless. I managed to croak out a "Thanks, Dave - you shouldn't have". But that is soooooooo inadequate. Dave has a heart of gold and as much as that HW-8 means to me, Dave's frienship means even more. I can't ever re-pay his generosity, but that sure doesn't mean that I'm not going to try - somehow, someway, someday.
As you can see, the rig is in pristine condition, besides the writing on the power supply, there's not a mark or scratch on it. Whoever had it made one modification that I can tell, they traded out the original RCA connector that was used for the antenna connection with an SO-239 - so that's perfect! This baby is going to get a lot of use. Yes, it's a HW-8, but I now have one back in my hands, and it's also a testament to the generosity of a great Ham and better yet, a great friend.
I did go to the pool with Marianne and Joey and even went in the water. I stayed at the shallow 3 foot end as I never learned how to swim as a kid. Even so, Marianne, Joey and I stayed there for about two hours, enjoying the cool water and we played a game of catch with this "Wubba" pool ball (small, soft, floats, unsinkable) that Joey had purchased when we were up at Lake George.
The evening was rounded out with a delicious dinner of grilled Teriyaki chicken, baked taters and corn, all consumed while leisurely sitting around the patio table in the back yard. We were able to enjoy the cooler evening air and each other's company.
So, yeah, on a scale of 1 to 10, today was about a 30 - heck, maybe even a 50!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
A long time coming….
This blog post is LOOOOONNNNGGGG overdue and for that I’m truly sorry. I suppose when one builds some sort of following via social media and through blogging and podcasting and then just vanishes the concern may arise. Please allow me to take a moment to provide some explanation.
As many of you know I was actively pursuing a QSO a day in 2014 and having an absolute blast operating in the ARRL Centennial QSO Party. While my podcast had suffered a few months of neglect, I was active on Twitter and actively blogging about my progress with the QSO a Day and the ARRL Centennial operations. All was going well until mid August then everything changed. The life (and world) my wife and I had created just simply crashed around us in a devastating manner.
My wife and I do not have any children. She and I were both raised around animals and grew up with dogs and cats in our lives. While I had spent much of my adult life without animals, this all changed when I met my wife and she moved to the US. I became the daddy of two cats (Socks and Moustey). Socks and Moustey traveled to the US (Denver) on a British Airways Boeing 777 and in their long life had managed to live in three different countries (Belgium, England and US).
We lost Socks in the fall of 2008. At the time he was 15-16 years old and had lived a good life. My wife had given him the very best life a pussy cat could ever want. At the time of Socks’ passing, Moustey was also 15-16 years old and we were concerned if she remained the only cat in our house that she might suffer. So we adopted a kitten and named him Skye.
Now, after about two years we realized that Moustey really wanted a more relaxed and less stressful life from what Skye (being 2 years old) wanted. So we adopted another kitten (Mickey) in 2010. Mickey and Skye were best friends and Moustey was allowed to gracefully retire for the most part and our little family was happy and content.
Moustey passed away on August 8 of 2013 at the age of 23 years old. About 30 minutes after Moustey left us to go to the Rainbow Bridge, I received a call from my mom that my grandmother had passed away. This all happened the week before my wife and I were scheduled to fly to Belgium to visit her family. August 2013 was not a great month. But as we would soon discover, August 2014 was going to be even worse.
Mickey began throwing up. Now this is just something cats do and if you are a cat person….you know this. So after the second day we decided to take Mickey to the vet. We took him to our local vet and he was examined. The vet could find nothing wrong. He performed an x-ray and scan. No blockages detected…basically nothing detected to give any cause of alarm. We were sent home with some medicine and told all should be fine in 24 hours.
24 hours later Mickey was not improving. He was not eating and he was not drinking. My wife and I decided to take him to the 24 hour animal hospital. After about 30 minutes, we were told what they thought might be the cause and for the first time in my life I heard the term dysautonomia.
Dysautonomia is a disease which attacks the central nervous system and causes it to malfunction. Additional scans and x-rays were performed of Mickey’s esophagus and stomach. Basically the disease prevents the esophagus from delivering food into the stomach and also fails to prevent the stomach acids from flowing up the esophagus. Basically causing an extremely bad case of acid refux.
There are many other symptoms which Mickey exhibited. Sort of the final test to determine if he had Dysautonomia was his heart rate. His heart rate was very low and when given a dose of atropine (which normally causes the heart rate to increase) his stayed low.
We were told Mickey only had a few days (at best) to live and we took him home with us and spent about four hours with him before we had a service come to our home to help him pass away peacefully.
While I dearly loved both Mickey and Skye very much, Mickey was my little buddy. He would follow me all around the house. I taught him to play fetch when he was just a kitten and we were very close. Mickey was only 4 years old.
Of course, panic started to set in and we asked the hospital if it was possible for Skye to also have this disease. They told us it was very rare and while we were very sad to have lost Mickey, we were both determined to show a brave front around Skye and knew he would also miss Mickey very much.
Just a few days after we said goodbye to Mickey, Skye began throwing up. We called the hospital and they reassured us how rare it would be for Skye to also get this. And we should understand that Skye is grieving as well and to relax.
Well….less than a week later we were saying our goodbyes to Skye. He also developed this cruel disease. Skye died one week after Mickey. Skye was 6 years old.
We all face the certainty of death. We are born and we will die. The same applies to cats. While we grieved for Socks and Moustey….we accepted the fact that it was their time. They lived a long and good life. But this just simply is not the case with Mickey and Skye. They were taken from us far, far too early.
Unfortunately, we do not know what caused Dysautonomia to come crashing into our lives. Most vets still say it is rare for the disease to pass from one to another. I guess we suspect food. But as I said, we have no proof.
Anyway….my wife and I still struggle with this loss. It may sound strange, but when I started to think about getting on the air, or doing anything amateur radio related….I thought about my cats and it made me sad. Yes, I’m still sad and I know that ham radio isn’t the cause of anything and I know my interest will return. But this is why I’ve been mostly silent.
Thank you for understanding and thank you for reading.
73,
Jerry
KDØBIK
After 25 Years
As a teenager my cousin exposed me to shortwave listening. As many of us will say, it was magic to be able to sit in my bedroom and hear signals from around the world. I was mesmerized. I couldn't wait for the mailman each day to see if a QSL card might arrive. However, there were no local hams, learning morse code seemed impossilble, so I never pursued my ham license until years later, when I came across a Gordon West course in the local Radio Shack. The course cover proclaimed that a novice license was good for 10 years and you could talk on 10 meters. I bought the course, my 12 year son listened along as I did, we learned the code together.
So fast forward 25 years, what has changed? I supposed in many ways things have changed a lot. Things like:
- Internet
- Enhanced Digital Modes
- Online Confirmations
- Equipment functionality
I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but the efficient access to information is much easier now. QSL routes used to be one of the great mysteries of the world, in fact, INDEXA used to have a net on 14.236 that dipensed the lastest QSL route news. Setting schedules required weeks/months of letter writing. Increasing your DXCC count meant turning the dial, find the pile-ups and then back down to figure out the split, find which DX station might be on and then jumping into the fray . Logging was manual and data mining your log for forgotten contacts was a laborious task, but just as rewarding. DXing news came in weekly newletters not daily emails.
But there are some things that haven't changed:
- The concern over how to fund expensive expeditions
- Frequency cops
- QRMer's
- Complaining about the cost of getting a real QSL card
- The thrill of receiving that QSL card
- The excitement of a new one
- The magic of wirelessly communicating around the world
- Dayton, Friedrichshafen, DXCC, IOTA, WABA, etc....
Like some many things, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Here is a toast to the next 25 years, God willing.
ARRL Centennial Paddle
If the shirt I’m wearing had buttons, they’d all have popped!
My two kids, Joey and Cara had a half day at school today. A friend’s sister drove them home, so early this afternoon I started a text conversation with Joey:
Me: Home?
Joey: Now we r.
Me: Good! You got a ride.
Joey: Yes!
Me: I guess Cara’s happy.
Joey: Yes she is. Guess what place I got in science fair.
Me: 1st
At this point, I wasn’t getting an answer, so I texted again:
Me: ???
The reason I wasn’t getting an answer is that Joey was sending me this photo:
If this golf shirt that I’m wearing had buttons on it, they’d all have popped by now. I am so proud of Joey and Cara, they are both great kids. God has truly blessed me.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
Call CQ
The other night I actually called CQ on 20 meters. In short order I had a nice pile-up of Europeans, then someone spotted me and the pile-up increased significantly. Everyone must be watching the cluster, thats why the bands are quiet. I think we should all make it a practice to call CQ with some regularity. Tune the bands to see how much DX you can pick up without the cluster. How long will it take you to work DXCC without the cluster, or how many countries can you work in month by calling CQ. If we all do a little of this, the lower end of 20m would came alive again.
Also, a very Happy 239th Birthday to the Marines! Semper Fi, Marines!
Lastly, a Happy Veteran’s Day to my Dad. I was rummaging through some papers in my desk when I came across the Certificate of Condolence that the White House sent upon his passing in 2001. My Dad was a WWII Army Vet who loved to talk about some of the European “sites” he saw during his tour in Europe (including the Passion Play at Oberammergau). He never spoke about combat, though – not uncommon for his generation, it seems. I also came across his wallet sized copy of his Discharge Papers. He was not an Amateur Radio operator, but he was a graduate of the Signal Corps RADAR and Repeater School (which probably explains in some way, my love for Amateur Radio). I also noticed for the first time that he was a recipient of medals for Combat in the European Theater, as well as a Good Conduct medal and one other. He NEVER spoke about those.
For all the Vets who have passed – Eternal rest, grant unto them Oh Lord, and may Perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the Faithful Departed, rest in peace. Amen.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!