Last night a couple of hams expressed a desire to go the green radio route

and I am putting together a little package for them about my experiences with the little manpack rig. When I am done with it I will email it to interested parties upon request.
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Rained last night and I stayed off the air as T-storms were passing through. It is overcast now and today's project is to get a piece of coax to get the IC 718 up and running. This will be interesting. It arrived yesterday and it was really a frustrating day as UPS was running very late.

Seems I waited and hung around all day expecting to have to sign for it and went inside to make lunch. I turned around and saw the truck pulling away and ran downstairs to hop in my pickup to chase him down as they have a rep for hitting the door with one knuckle one time and then slapping a sticker on the door and driving off if a signature is required.

When I entered the garage there was the package.

Go figure. A wasted day of hanging out. Oh, well. At least I did get the vent for the little room I wrote about yesterday finished.
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Yesterday in my quest for a length of coax I called a communications place and got a big deal on how their coax was made of pure gold and the connectors were platinum. Truth is, I think he sensed I was a ham with a new rig and therefore desperate for the cable. He acted like a hammerhead shark and went straight to his copy of 'Handbook for Gougers' and opened it to chapter 6, 'Hams with new rigs' and priced the cable appropriately at about a month's pay and a first born son.

I thanked him and later tried Good Old Boy Dave's CB shop and he want's about a quarter of what the communications shop does, and it is better cable and comes with the ends installed for a buck an end. Go figure.
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Today ought to be interesting.
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When the rig arrived yesterday I broke out the power supply and hooked it to the 320's charger and topped off the battery. I might go commando tonight and 'go guerilla' tonight, maybe take the slingshot and launch a wire into a tree or something and try make contact with someone. We'll see.
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I'm glad I got into this radio business as it keeps me occupied. Last summer I was bored and sat around a campfire and drank beer too many nights. I really wasted a lot of the summer. It is good having something worthwhile to do and a damned sight healthier. Neighbor Bob is worrying me a bit as he has seemed to have gotten himself into a funk and has been there for a while. He misses the nightly fires and doesn't seem to be interested in much else, which sucks. I am not going back to that, though.

Besides the fact that I am learning something, my health is at stake here. You can't sit around sipping beer all night and not eventually pay for it.

This summer I have chosen a more disciplined life style and it has started to pay me back in spades. I have gotten up earlier and gotten more done and that is a good thing.

I think this is going to come to a head of sorts soon and I am going to have to explain that you can keep going ahead and learn something and keep plugging away or you can put it into 'park' and sit there.

I have opted to stay in gear and keep going. As I enter old age I plan on staying active and learning.

WHat he does will be his choice. I do not want to become a living dead person right now and refuse to do so. Still, it is hard to see a friend who was so active put it into park. Damned hard. It makes me want to cry.

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In other gnus, the grandfather club guys asked me if I'd commit another major felony and I agreed. The lid will come off of the pickup and a couple of kids are going to get a ride through farm country in the back of an open pickup through the backroads of America for an evening.

I did this last year and I guess the little kids told the their bigger siblings so one of the teenagers is coming along which is a plus as there will be some leadership there. I'll have a word with him beforehand. Although the kids were good last year, I'll be able to relax a bit more with a teenager in the bed with the youngsters.

While I think that hauling kids around casually in the bed of a pickup is probably not the brightest idea in the world, no kid in the United States should go without memories of a ride through the country on a sultry night in the back of an open pickup.

WHile I try and lead a reasonable and responsible law-abiding life, there comes a time when a man has to hoist the black flag, spit on his hands and slit a few throats. Time to clip the mistletoe to my shirt-tail.

Incidentally, I have discussed this with only one grandfather as discussing it with two would make it a conspiracy and turn this into a fedreal beef.

I can see how that one would play out.

Joliet Federal prison. Clang! goes the cell door.

"Kid, wha are you here for?"

"Conspiracy to take a couple of kids for a pickup truck ride through the country."

And they all laughed and went away from me, so I added "And creating a disturbance."

And they all came back and we smoked cigarettes and discussed robbing banks, stealing cars and shootouts with the Feds. (Thanks, Arlo)

Probation time:

"I think you people have a lotta damned nerve asking me if I've rehabilitated myself for taking someone's grandkids for a ride in the country!"

Three minutes later: Clang!




my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/