QRP in the Driftless
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An October retrospective, and a November omnibus
Soup weather It drizzled all morning, but as the temperature dropped it has turned into snow. Big, healthy flakes, coming down ever heavier. My most urgent project at the moment is outdoors, so it’s a chance to catch up with the blog, while enjoying a bowl of sausage-and-lentil soup. Lots of little items, in no…
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Winter is here
Thanksgiving Day in the Driftless; overcast, breezy, 20s outside. Inside, a chicken roasting with kale and root vegetables. Huge salad, butternut squash, 2 kinds of soup; almost all local, some from our garden. Went to the spring earlier for fresh water, then hiked a mile or so on a county park trail just to enjoy…
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“five-two”
I’ve been thinking of a few emcomm-related posts to put up, emphasizing some of the basic-basics of being prepared for the unexpected. Here’s another one: Today’s brief excursion into emcomm is about the importance of the 2 meter calling frequency, 146.52 MHz. If there is no communications plan, then the plan is “five-two”. I have…
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A tale of resiliency and recovery from Helene
Thomas Witherspoon (K4SWL) who blogs at https://qrper.com/ lives in the Swannanoa area of North Carolina which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene late last month. His series of posts from there is well worth reading and are collected at this link: Helene Aftermath
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The “pink card” :
or, always be prepared for emergency communication. Reading a post by K4SWL about his experiences during (and after) Hurricane Helene got me thinking about ham radio’s more serious side: being the when-all-else-fails backup mode for communications when the infrastructure goes away. I could go on at some length about all the different ways that we…
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Mid-September omnibus
Word cloud I think I see the problem: Blue skies Here in Wisconsin on a clear, not-too-humid day with fresh wilderness air the sky can be as blue as the sky in a Miyazaki film. Touch paddles 1.1 Serpent! Kickapoo River Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!
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Hiking the McGilvray Road “7 Bridges” trail
I was recently able to arrange a whole day to devote to “things I feel like doing” as distinct from “things I need to do”, and I chose to visit Van Loon State Wildlife Area, a bit north and west of Holmen (a northern suburb of La Crosse). Why this, particularly? I was looking for…
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Winter is coming
and I don’t mean that in some dark, apocalyptic Game of Thrones way. It seems like every passing day brings some new sign of the change of seasons. It’s over two weeks since I saw the first bright red fallen leaf while I was hiking. Last weekend, at Camel Bluff, I noticed that the sumac…
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Van Loon State Wildlife Area, US-9870
When I finished hiking the 7 Bridges trail it was almost 1 pm, and definitely lunchtime! Fortunately I had brought a cooler and was able to recharge on sandwiches and cold liquids, and (fighting off post-lunch laziness) I was ready to start the other part of my plan for the day: activating US-9870, Van Loon…
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Another antenna project (oh, no!)
A few weeks ago I found the remains of one of the original telescoping whips that came with my Buddipole set. They were made of brass, and took a lot of damage from blowing down in the wind. The stainless steel 17-foot whip I replaced them with has proved much more durable. Examining it with…
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Compasses
I have seen so many changes in navigation technology over the last half-century or so; it’s really quite amazing … back in high school I learned map & compass land navigation; a few years later I was studying celestial navigation with sextant and chronometer at the Planetarium for a sailing trip that never happened. 25…
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Touch paddle project
Updated! This project got started in October last year and is finally (mostly) finished! After the first failure came a redesign, and some very intermittent work on it. A few days ago I started to work toward wrapping it all up: I salvaged the touch sensors and paddle pieces, gently cutting a saw kerf in…
A backwater of the Mississippi River in the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge on a gloomy, chilly day in early November, viewed from the Lower Diversion Dike Trail.
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