Category: Uncategorized
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Mill Bluff Trifecta! and a few random notes
Saturday morning I was up early and managed to get out for a hike before the sun was up; Mill Bluff State Park was my choice. I avoided the three deer crossing the highway and made it to the park just a bit after dawn. Since I had so much time I thought I would…
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Omnibus and variorum in K minor, Op. 7_1beta
re: Field Day 2023 The December issue of QST arrived a while ago and I invested maybe 15 minutes looking through the fine print for my score: 440 points. I think that my claimed bonus for Public Information Display was rejected; not unfairly mind you, it was a bit skimpy. Eh, surest way to fail…
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An amusing juxtaposition
seen on the kitchen table yesterday. Nothing, otherwise; certainly no radio; home DIY is absorbing a lot of time as a project draws to a close. Maybe next week, right? (rueful lol) Thanks for visiting! Please leave a comment if you get what I found amusing in that picture, or if you just have a…
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happy anniversary, driftlessqrp!
It’s been a year, today! Onward to many more years of hiking, and radio, and blogging here!
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Touch paddle project, with updates
October 24th: I want to start off with a word of praise for UPS; yesterday evening my package was in Louisville KY; this morning at 5:30 it was in Rockford IL; but I lacked faith, I didn’t believe it would get here today … and there it was on my doorstep at 3! Thanks, UPS!…
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A non-QRP post
DIY stuff around the house has been taking up a lot of my time these past few weeks, with a proportionate decrease in park activations! I keep on thinking about sort-of-related things that might make interesting posts though, so here are a few of them for your entertainment: circa 10/13/23: Interesting reading, and maybe a…
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I made a knee board
This is a great example of the kind of “just good enough to do the job” work that I do when I am in a big hurry; this whole thing took me one hour to make. First, how big to make it? A couple of minutes with a tape measure and (in this order) my…
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Wildcat Mountain, K-1480, again
On the roll from Monday’s more-than-successful semi-spontaneous activation at Dell Creek SWA, today I dropped in at Wildcat Mountain State Park while I was in the neighborhood. It was a beautifully springlike day here in the Driftless Area, or at least it evolved into one from the sorta-wintery overnight … I was actually in shirtsleeves…
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Dell Creek SWA, K-4281
I needed to visit the Home Depot in Lake Delton today, and I really wanted to do another activation, too. I brought the dream and the reality together by stopping at Dell Creek State Wildlife Area, K-4281 along the way! Once I found an access with parking, (off Town Hall road, north of North Avenue),…
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Coulee Experimental State Forest, K-5578
Woke up this morning thinking “activate a new park today”, but which one? In the end I decided to try Coulee Experimental State Forest, K-5578 again. (for my previous attempt, click here). It was an ideal day for a wire antenna and I quickly hung my 20 meter dipole from some sapling trees and turned…
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Slingshots
I have always liked a slingshot of one kind or another as an aid to getting a wire up in a tree. I still have the Wrist-Rocket that I bought from L. L. Bean back when they were an obscure sporting-goods store in Maine, and it has served me well all of those years, (allowing…
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Wildcat Mountain, K-1480
Well I got lucky with the weather on Tuesday; though it was 26 degrees overnight the forecast called for a daytime high in the upper 40s. I decided to keep everything simple, so equipped with plenty of hot coffee, I headed for Wildcat Mountain State Park, K-1480. Setting up the Buddipole 20m vertical took about…