August
Having spent a good part of the summer cleaning up after Field Day, I have had little time to manage keeping our new Facebook site up to date. Sorry, folks. I don’t even have my own radio back on line.
We are in the middle of giving our house a face lift…painting, and man, does that suck the life out of you, especially when it is 95 degrees with 80% humidity. We have a good division of labor, I do all of the sanding, scraping and caulking and my wife does the painting, unless it requires a ladder…which most of the house does! So, while preparing the house for paint, I thought, this is a good time to re-route all of my antenna coax leads. This has become a basic nightmare. I built my shack, as many of you have over the years, I am sure. I got a radio and needed an antenna (or many antennas), threw up some wire and coax. Over the years, the wrong coax type was assigned to the wrong antennas, so I really need to re-think the entire farm. Plus, I have coax coming into my house from three different locations; three different ground potentials, three potential nightmares for lightning. Now, you tell me! I mean, isn’t that really what this hobby is all about? Learning, fixing, rebuilding – and trying to do it all before you blow your place up!!
I have caught Karlovitis (named after our very own Greg Karlove). He cannot throw anything out till he has re-purposed or rebuilt it. So, I have a Diamond motorized antenna mount for the car…and of course, it finally died. I tore into it and there is this tiny D.C. motor that drives the entire thing. I thought to myself, this ought to be easy to replace! Well, it isn’t. They want a replacement motor for $75 and the entire device cost about $100. Argh. I think I will just get a NMO mag mount and use the Armstrong method. Greg and I have about a half dozen projects lying around here looking for hard to find parts. I am losing patience, however and might just start throwing things out!
Meanwhile, for about a week, I got super depressed with the news that AES was going out of business. I thought to myself, “Is this the beginning of the end of ham radio?” And then Ham Radio Outlet came to the rescue. I have been to their stores in Phoenix and have bought things from them over the years, so I am glad to see the Milwaukee location will live (although, really? Chicago isn’t big enough to support a ham radio store? Whatever). Then, news came down that Hara was closing…and perhaps just in time. This last Hamvention was pretty disgusting. I won’t even go into the seminars anymore. The floors are just terribly filthy. The chairs are uncomfortable, that is, if you can get one. The interior selling floors are still the reason to go and so I am thrilled to see that they are going to be back…someplace nearby. Dayton traditions will live on.
This week, I need to find my way back up to Camp Makajawan to collect our ham radio gear. We have had some of our HF gear on loan all summer while the camp counselors (a college kid who is a ham) has been teaching the scouting ham radio merit badge. Last summer they had 65 scouts go through the program. And, suddenly, summer is almost over!
I am now getting ready for our public service season. The North Shore Century is September 18…and the Chicago Marathon is already deep into production meetings (October 9 is the event date). We are still looking for volunteers for both, so if you have an interest in either of these events, drop me a note (rob@roborrproductions.com). This has me back trying to find locations to install some new repeaters. We have been trying to build a new UHF machine for the south side to better support the Marathon. We purchased the repeater, built it and applied for a coordinated pair, and then the site we had secured decided they didn’t want us. I cannot tell you how difficult it is to find repeater sites anymore. First, you have to explain to people what they are and why we need them – and they all see dollar signs because almost every roof top today has a cell site that provides rich revenues to the owners. Public service or not, we are competing with the big boys for good repeater sites. If you know of anyone one around 35th and Michigan that might have a tall building available…drop me a note!!
So, that is a rambling QSO from the K9RST shack. Hope you are all having a great summer and have found your way to a radio more than I have!
73, Rob K9RST