Basic blog

...is silly.





That is all.

This past weekend, my teammate and I rode our bikes from Portsmouth, NH to Ogunquit, ME and back again in support of Breathe New Hampshire. Read about our ride here!

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Old Man Winter is knocking on the door. He dropped an ice storm in our lap last night. Look at the accumulation on the radio antennae on my truck, from my commute home last night:





The top picture is of the FM radio antenna, which is stiff enough to stay upright at speed. The bottom two are amateur radio antennae, and the ice accumulated and "froze" them into the position they are swept back into while going down the road, even while sitting still.

Lots of power outages across the State. The Concord Monitor was reporting about 300,000 people without power, and it may not be restored to all until some time next week. I had no power when I left home this morning, hopefully it will be back on soon or I will have to either empty the refrigerator into coolers outside and see if we can store the frozen food in someone else's freezer, or see if I can resurrect my generator for some temporary power. Fun, fun, fun.

Yesterday morning, my wife suggested that we hike up to the summit of a local mountain. Even though I had just done the 2-day bike ride, I was up for it so we started preparing. We loaded the kennel into the back of my truck and secured it with some straps so our Husky would have a safe and secure ride. We also packed a lunch and plenty to drink into a backpack, and packed some water, food, and collapsible bowls into a saddlebag for the dog. We gathered some extra clothes, my camera, handheld amateur radio, and whetever else seemed like a good idea and we set off for Rollins State Park.

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I went to the Spring edition of the Near-Fest hamfest today. The weather was on the raw, cool side but the rain held off until late afternoon or early evening, at least. I toyed with the idea of bringing my camper down but it doesn't have a furnace in it yet and I was expecting it to be pretty cool so I decided against it. I'll go down again tomorrow morning to scout for any deals and be there for the door prize drawing at 1:00. My chances are twice as good as they would normally be - I found someone's ticket on the ground when I was walking around. They had only put a first name on it and it was in a spot where there was nobody around so I had no way of knowing who it belonged to, so I filled it out with my info and dropped it in the barrel with the one I got when I paid admission. I felt bad for the person who lost their ticket, but I guess they should have taken better care of it.

I didn't really need anything ham-related, but the hamfest is as much a social gathering as anything. It's sometimes the only time you get to see people face to face that you may talk to frequently and you never know what you're going to find, anyway. As is often the case, I spent more on food than I did on other things. I had a cheeseburger and a cup of coffee for $6 and later on a bowl of apple crisp for $4. Admission was $10. I bought a selection of 7 good quality hand tools out of box with an assortment of mostly cheap junk for $1 each:

1/4" x 6" Master Mechanic flat-blade screwdriver
6" Proto adjustable wrench
7/16" Proto 12 point combination wrench
13 mm S-K 12 point combination wrench
21 mm S-K 12 point combination wrench
12 mm Craftsman 12 point combination wrench
19 & 17 mm Craftsman double open end wrench

Hard to pass up good tools for cheap. I also grabbed a 12V fluorescent work lamp that needs the cigarette lighter plug on the cord fixed and a Yaesu belt clip out of a freebie box.

Important things I've learned to bring with you to the hamfest are:

Comfortable shoes
A good-sized backpack
Cash - preferrably a variety of denominations
A 2-meter HT to keep in touch with your friends and in case one of you finds what someone else is looking for
Extra clothes, including rain gear and warmer/cooler clothes than the ones you're wearing
A wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off

I hope the weather is better tomorrow. I'll have to jot down the number of the battery in the bike computer that was on the Trek MTB when I got it - I saw a vendor that had a very good assortment of button batteries and I haven't been able to find one that fits it yet. Late in the event is also a good time to score deals, because sellers are much more motivated to sell stuff so they don't have to drag it home with them.

Fun times. The Fall edition of the hamfest is in October.