It’s Been A Minute…
It occurred to me that I haven’t been posting to ye olde blogge very often and I think that is largely because Life is doing that Life Thing where time is at a premium and I have mostly been playing radio in between other things. No real experiments lately and no really exciting stuff to post. On top of that, the weather that we’ve been “enjoying” in NE Ohio provides very little incentive to go outside. Well, until recently.
Something started to crack in January and I needed to get out. I don’t do well with cabin fever and we haven’t been out to do much hiking because hiking in -5dF isn’t my idea of a great time. My face isn’t particularly pretty, but I’d prefer that I not freeze it off anytime soon. In desperation, I turned to the Jeep.
Operating Mobile
I’ve said a dozen times that I really don’t enjoy operating from the Jeep. It’s cramped and I hate sitting in the parking lot. That said, earlier in the winter I installed the IC-7100 in the Jeep and was ready to use it for activations as needed. So that’s what I did!
I’ve been frequenting my very local park: US-9401 aka The Cooperrider-Kent Bog State Nature Preserve. It’s a very, very small park with a boardwalk and a couple of benches. The only option for activating the park is from the vehicle. There are too many trees and there is no way to be out of the way of other park visitors. It’s a Class A POTA Nightmare Site.
During the summer months, it’s a popular place for people to grab a walk on their lunch breaks. There are plenty of people talking on phones and walking the very tight loop around the bog while swatting at bugs. In the winter, it’s mostly work trucks parked waiting for their next appointment or the occasional smoke break for someone. In situations like that, it’s easy for me to keep myself out of the way. Again, the parking lot is only big enough for about 8 vehicles in total with room to turn around.
Useful Gear
The biggest improvement to my mobile experience came from a moment of inspiration as I was cleaning out my shack/office. Years ago, I got a couple of sets of crab clamps to hold my mast to my bicycle when I’m doing that whole Ham On A Bike thing (see also Jim, N4JAW the Original Ham On A Bike). One of those clamps allows me to mount my paddle base to the grab bar on the passenger side of the Jeep. This is better (for me) than strapping the paddles to my leg or doing something with a clipboard. It’s really a neat solution.
I still have my camera clamp that allows me to mount the IC-705 to the same bar. It’s a pretty great solution to working in the Jeep.
Wait. The IC-705? I thought I just said I had the IC-7100 in the Jeep. Yeah. Well. The head unit isn’t playing nice. I think it died on me. I cracked it open and there was nothing obvious going on in either the head unit or the main transceiver. A change of cable didn’t produce any results either. I’ll keep poking at it until I get tired of it and then perhaps send it off for service. We’ll see.
Anyway! The paddles and the IC-705 mount nicely in a temporary fashion and keep the radio right in my face. The other neat addition to my kit is the Rite In The Rain hand desk. It is very, very rare that a commerce site recommends something that I actually click on – much less buy – but here we are. It’s a seemingly waterproof box that holds pencils, notebooks, and a couple of cables. It’s also a really, really great clipboard with a hand strap that is useful. It’s also the perfect size for what I’m doing.
Activations
Activations have been great despite the cold. I’ve picked up some regulars who are always there when I need them. That’s fantastic when it’s chilly outside. Which brings me to some interesting observations.
I like to give honest signal reports. All of them are subjective, but I have a methode and the meter on the IC-705 to help me along. That said, I’ve noticed that there are hunters who will hang out until I call QRT (which I always do as I try to be a good operator). When a hunter jumps out of the snowstorm like a yeti as I’m trying to close up shop I will, of course, do the contact. But I’ll be real: that operator is always magically “5NN” because that’s really fast to send. I feel almost bad about it, but when it’s cold and the weather is becoming an issue, I gotta move on!
Over on the Ham Radio Mastodon, Ian M0TRT suggested “QRT WX” as a modified Q-code of sorts to say, “I’M FREEZING TO DEATH HERE! GOTTA GO RIGHT NOW! THANKS!” I might start using that. There were other suggestions, but I’m not sure any of them parsed as well as that one.
Speaking of Ian, you have checked out Spothole, right? If not? You really should.
QSO Map
I’m not going to post a bunch of QSO maps. I’m just going to lump all of January and February to this point into one map because it looks neat and I’ve got those Life Things to do that get in the way of cropping pictures almost as much as it gets in the way of doing activations.
Final
This is a way of saying that I’m back in the field and back on the blog. I have a post coming up on a piece of software that I use all the time, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading along!
Oh… And I got in two activations between composing this post and getting it onto the blog. I don’t know what kind of powerful illness my kid brought home but it wasn’t fun. Cannot recommend. Anywho, back up and around and hopefully on the air soon!
72!
