In which I will repeat myself ad nauseam: Just Not Much Happening Around Here!
Got off my duff and made myself a 10-meter dipole antenna, tried to "tune" it and finally mounted it on the roof in an inverted-V. Seems to work okay but not the greatest as the MFJ HF/VHF SWR Analyzer (model MFJ-259b) I was using to tune the antenna isn’t working right. Probably hasn’t been "tuned" itself in the past couple of years. But I’m not getting much SWR (feedback) according to the SWR Meter in the radio and I can talk to folks so I’ll leave it alone until I get an antenna tuner. Which a friend is giving me one tomorrow that he got for free and hasn’t used. Cool! It’d be nice if I could get all of that 100 watts actually getting out! Next I need to get a better power supply…
Did answer my first CQ yesterday (Friday). K7IDX about 10 air-miles North of me. KB3KOV out in Export, Pa joined the conversation and we heard each other really well. Not bad for a home-made slightly out of tune antenna that’s "pointed" East/West! The 10-meter band has been opening up a lot lately and I’ve heard (but have yet to talk to) folks from Georgia, Argentina, Brazil and a few of the South-Western states. Tried answering the QSL(?) but wasn’t heard. Oh well. Will try again.
Also trying a program called BPSK31 that allows us to type CW (Morse) back and forth. Got the receiving down pat but haven’t figured out how to send YET. It appears to be working (radio transmits) but no one hears me. I know I’m missing something…
Not much else going on. Average daily boring routine of keeping the house clean and SWMBO happy. Still downloading our favorite shows the morning after they air. Smallville is still my favorite (lots happening! Clark told Lois about himself but she already knew.) along with NCIS, CSIMiami and some others. SWMBO likes having them available for when she’s ready to watch them and they have NO commercials. Now if we could just figure out how to get rid of those ads at the bottom of the screen (VERY INTRUSIVE!!!).
Weather has been steadily going downhill. Waiting for a storm to hit later tonight that should last through tomorrow. Supposed to be lots of wind and wet. But we’re supposed to have another "La Nina" this winter so I might as well get used to it.
Saw some "Impeach Obama" protestors last week in Belfair. Would have joined them but SWMBO and I were on our way somewhere and I couldn’t stop. They were all gone by the time we got back to town. Obama is the worst President I’ve ever seen. This Congress we have is the worst I’ve ever seen. Our Senate sucks. Washington’s Governor needs to step down and Senator Murray should have to pay back all of her salary to the people of Washington state.
But don’t get me started.
BTW, if y’all see a post from "John" or "Uncle Herman" that’s my Uncle. He has a lot of "right" ideas about our political system and it’s participants that I totally agree with so I’m trying to get him to post somewhere other than Facebook; where really only family members see what we’re posting. And they don’t seem to much care for our opinions. Sort of. (Sometimes I think they’re too busy with Farmville and sending smoochies to each other…)