South Texas Weather

We arrived in the Valley the day before yesterday and the weather is gorgeous! Our trip down was uneventful except for filling this motorhome up with gasoline! I find myself just kind of holding my breath to see how much it takes.

We are actually located in La Feria, Texas, a small town between Harlingen and McAllen. If you aren't familiar with this part of the World, it's called "the Valley" because it is part of the Rio Grande River valley. There is no scenery here to speak of except that South Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico is about 30 miles away. Since we are only about 10 miles from the Mexican border, a lot of the "Winter Texans" go over there to shop and sightsee. We used to but, because of the drug wars, don't any more.

Yesterday I got my HF antenna up and it works fine on 20 meters. I think that's probably the only band I'll work while we are here. The antenna is a Buddipole and I have it mounted on a painter's pole about 16' high. I'd like to have it higher, of course, but it ain't gonna happen!

Back to the weather, it was about 75 degrees yesterday and supposed to be near 80 today. I can live with that.

Photographs

Well, I've embarked on a task which everyone tries, I guess. We have boxes and boxes of photos, most of which are literally thrown into a box with no organization or notes.

These photos have been accumulated from my mother, my wife's mother, and many other sources. I knew I was in trouble when I looked at a picture which had been in my mother's collection and the notes on the back were in my grandmother's handwriting! She had obviously acquired them when grandmother died and added them to her stash.

So, we have established some rules. First, if the quality of the photograph is bad, it goes in the trash. Second, if neither Louise nor I know the people in the picture, it goes in the trash. Third, if it is the sixteenth copy of the same photo that we've run across, it goes in the trash. I should point out that the only exception to this rule would be photographs which might have some historical significance. I haven't thrown away any tintypes! Of course, I haven't run across many of these either.

If a picture makes it past these strenuous guidelines, it then gets scanned and filed on the computer. My children are NOT going to inherit a box of old photos, only a hard drive filled with stuff they probably are not interested in! At least there will be a bit of organization to it - plus they can get rid of it by hitting the "delete" key.

I figure I'm probably 10% of the way into this project. I'll probably get sidelined and it will never get finished. Oh well, as my brother is fond of saying, "It is what it is". I always thought Milt was a profound person.

Habitat for Humanity Truck

The other day I wrote about the Habitat for Humanity truck and commented that I would post a picture of it when I got it done. Well, thank goodness, it is done and here is the picture. I don't think I want to take on any more that complicated!

South Texas

We are getting ready for our annual trek to South Texas, aka "The Valley", aka the Rio Grande Valley. We will stay there as long as it it cold in Oklahoma!

The Valley is an interesting place. It has absolutely no scenery, only mild temperatures. Typically, the temps in the Valley are about 30° warmer than in the Tulsa area. If its 30° here, it will be 60° there, enough reason to travel that way.

Some observations: the place is full of OLD PEOPLE! When you go into a restaurant or bar, everyone in there except the wait staff is over 65. Since old people are notoriously bad tippers, I would hate to have a job like that in South Texas.

In the Valley, you are very close to Mexico, usually 10 miles or less. Louise and I used to make frequent trips across the border to shop and watch the other old people shopping. In the past couple of years, however, we have decided that Mexico might be a bit more hazardous than we like. When you cross the border in Progreso (near Harlingen), the first thing you see is a soldier with a machine gun in an armored personnel carrier. It doesn't give you warm, fuzzy feeling.

You are, however, close to the beach. South Padre Island is only about 30 miles away and we do make several trips to the Island every year to sight see and eat at the restaurants there.

We are going to be staying in our new (to us) motorhome this year. It will be a bit different but should be a lot of fun. We'll let you know in future posts.

The Sign Job From Hell

Well, its not really that bad but it has been a challenge!

When Dan and I had the UPS Store in Sapulpa, we decided to augment our sales by getting into the cut vinyl sign business. We did that for a couple of years until we sold the store. The new owner didn't want the sign equipment so I brought it home and put it in a spare bedroom. For the past several years, I have "piddled around" with it, doing signs for friends and for charities and non-profit entities.

A couple of years ago, a friend in Stillwater, Gordon Sloggett, asked me to do the signs for a trailer for Habitat for Humanity. Gordon was active in that organization (and still is) and I was happy to do the job. A couple of months ago, I got a call from the woman who runs the Stillwater ReStore project and she asked me if I would do a delivery truck for them. ReStore is a kind of "thrift shop" for building materials and other items and is a part of Habitat for Humanity.

At any rate, I agreed to do the signs for the truck and it turned out to be a much bigger job than I had envisioned! I had done about four fire trucks in the past but they were nothing compared to this one. Louise has been helping me and we worked both days last weekend installing vinyl. We still have a few pieces to do but we found out yesterday that the truck has broken down and is in the shop! Now I don't know when we'll get it finished.

When it is done (if I'm not totally sick of it), I'll post a picture.

OMISS Nets

In September, 2009, shortly after I got my General License, I was roaming around the hf bands, not really having a lot of success in talking to faraway places when I stumbled across a net where people got on a list and, when their turn came, they could call one or two other people on the list.

The net was called the OMISS Net, short for Old Man International Sideband Society. My first day on the net, I made six contacts including people in Georgia, New York, and the Isle of Man! I was really impressed. By March, 2010, I had received my Worked All States Award without even really trying hard. Two years later, I have over 1400 contacts on OMISS in every state and several foreign countries.

Some people question why you would want to participate in a net where all you do is exchange signal reports, and it does sound a bit odd, I admit. However, after two years, many of the people on this net have become like family and it is very reassuring to turn on the radio and hear their voices. I've had the good fortune to meet many of them at Dayton and other places and I even run an occasional net when we are in town.

If you are a ham radio operator and get a chance, check out our website at www.omiss.net and find out more about us. We are nearing 8000 members and growing rapidly.

Wierd Object

Does anyone have a clue what this device is? It is labelled Heathkit Heat Sniffer, ne-2112. The knob goes from off on the left to on and says "Set for Zero Beat". The little LED at the top is labelled "beat indicator".

Tower Moving

Yesterday I helped a friend, W5GGW, move a tower he had acquired. The tower was a three section crankup model about 70' tall. Fully retracted, it was 25' in length which was why Gregg needed me with my long trailer. The biggest problem was that it was in the back yard of a house with the only access through a 3' gate.

Letting it down was kind of a "controlled fall" but the tower survived the crash with no damage and we were able to get it moved to his house. I need to help Gregg bone up on his physics a bit so that he can rig it better next time. Putting it up at Gregg's house will be a snap since he has no fences in close proximity to where the tower is going.

The only other exciting thing that happened yesterday was the Pokes beating the Sooners! Go, Pokes! This was the first time in eight years that this has happened. If we hadn't gone to sleep when we played Iowa State, we would be heading for the BCS Championship game now! Oh, well!

73 All

160 Meter (Skywire) Antenna

After listening to several people who had loops, I decided that I had to have one. I got it up about a year ago and it has been a wonderful antenna, so good that I took down my modified G5RV.

A short description: it is 536 feet long and is about 25 feet high.It has five sides and one of the corners is attached to my tower. The feedline from it to the house is 450 ohm ladderline, which is very similar to the old television flat wire we used when I was a kid. It runs through a 4:1 balun which is mounted just outside the window and then uses coax to connect to the tuner.

There is only one problem with this antenna: it is very difficult to tune on 160 meters. It works great on 80, 40, and 20 but the band it is designed to work best on is a flop! I'm not smart enough to figure out what is going on but I'm gonna start changing parts till it gets better. This is also the way I work on cars, by the way.

Here is a copy of the antenna performance from 0.5 to 8.0 mHz. You can see that there are "lobes" at about 3.8, 5.5, and 7.2mHz, but none in the 1.8 to 2.0mHz range (160 meters). I gotta learn more about antenna design and performance.

Dog Followup

Looking at some of the old blogs, I noticed a story about Herb, the dog who stayed with us for a week or so. He was a neat dog and we would have loved to keep him but, unfortunately, we found his owners.

Because of him, we did decide to get a dog so now we have J.J. He is about two years old and came from the Small Paws Rescue group. He is a lot of fun and makes me wonder why we waited 14 years after our last dog died to get another. Oh, well.

J.J. loves to go for rides in the Jeep and goes with me every day to the post office. My son, Dan, and I joke about our lack of masculinity driving around with a little white poodle looking dog but, at age 65, I don't really care.