Radio surgery, part 3 – QRP in the Driftless

Xiegu X6100 battery replacement, and a sampler of other stuff going on …

First, the battery stuff:

Cutting and peeling away the Kapton tape on the old batteries reveals soldered wires; whatever the tab material is, solder will wet it (with suitable flux).

These are the new batteries. I just peeled the spot welds away from the pads on the battery management boards.

I’m thinking about using these connectors when installing the new batteries. Might make the job easier the next time I have to do this.

There’s a computer occupying my electronics bench right now, I need to get that out of the way so I can finish this battery change job. Watch for the next post!

Activating US-12077 again

It’s always a good day to get out in the park for a bit of POTA! 15 contacts in about 45 minutes is not too bad!

A new sign up at Buckhorn! I saw a black bear crossing the road there last year.

As I was packing up my stuff the bright sun on the BNC connector brought out the abraded texture, product of dragging across gravel and blacktop.
I thought it was amusing.

A set of rackmount handles for the 6100

Something to protect the face of the radio.

They included a hank of paracord to weave a carrying handle.

Also included, a cap for the BNC connector. Note the center pin; this is the kind that’s meant to short an input, **don’t key up the transmitter with it in place!**

Autumn is moving right along

Fall colors are still few and far between; this was near the Elroy – Sparta Trail.

Night-before-last was the first frost, last night was the second; 28 degrees F in both cases. Will that get the trees to change color?

Wildlife notes: lots of deer, several turkeys, a bald eagle snacking on roadkill.

Lots of ag equipment on the roads; a field of corn one day is a field of stubble a few days later. Manure spreaders spraying the bare fields. Lots of hay laid up for the winter.

Another nice rocky bluff; this one is by Weister Creek.

A “woolly bear” caterpillar crossing the road.

Slight difficulties with drainage

The cleanout port in the basement, sporting a brand-new plug!

Probably the less said, the better. It backed up, I routed out tree roots, all good! Now I am the happy owner of an electric drain snake, woohoo!

Too many distractions. I know there are other things I wanted to post, but I can’t think of them right now; I might add on to this in the next few days.

Thank you for visiting driftlessqrp!