South Dakota Vacation

After much planning and preparation, We started Our family Vacation leaving Saturday Morning and driving about 350 miles to our first overnight stop at Sioux Falls South Dakota. Leaving early the next morning, driving I90 towards Rapid City , We stopped for one touristy attraction at Mitchell, home of the corn Palace! The corn palace was alot more than We expected and My family found it very interesting. Spent a little more time at Mitchell than planned so Our arrival in Rapid city was later than expected. It also was very hot across most of Western South Dakota topping off at 106F--yuck!!
Monday morning was our only planned guided tour and it was very enjoyable. We started at Fort Hayes for a "cowboy" style breakfast ,then boarded a tour bus for Mount Rushmore, the Needles Highway, Custer Park, Coolidge Lodge ? and Crazy horse and several other stops, finally ending back at fort Hayes for a chuckwagon supper and show. Long day but ,fun!
On our own We also enjoyed Deadwood,Keystone , Hill city and Custer! Katie went Horseback riding and all of Us rode a ski lift, toured the wax museum, Us adults did very limited gambling and Our kids swam in the various hotel pools and waterparks as much as possible!!
It was a very fun trip and We already have been discussing next Years!
I have a Yaesu FT2800 2m rig in our van and also brought My Handheld. I am very spoiled by the amount of activity I monitor locally- even public service channels are very active here. Most of Our trip ,the radio was very silent except for an occasional 146.52 simplex QSO. During part of a very windy road in the Black hills requiring My full attention, several local hams were on the local repeater.
Also by Salem,South Dakota while heading towards Mitchell, south of I90 I observed a QTH with about nine towers of various heights. The only Salem ham I could find on QRZ was W0SD.
Looked like an incredible contest station!
73---Tim ( South Dakota was fun,but glad to be back home)

The Pot of Gold!

Nice double rainbow with My tower and VHF antennas in the foreground. This picture was taken several days ago after another very heavy rain. My Daughter Kathy was able to take this great picture. No pot of gold so far, but I think the reward is just the beautiful scene!
This summer is fast winding down and antenna projects are at a standstill. I've given much thought to priorities and now I think maybe "less is more" will become My new goal. Having a big tri-bander in the air would be wonderful but at this point I am very happy with My big dipole and HF6V vertical for HF and my two Yagis and vertical for VHF seem to be adaquate. I also have a G5RV Jr. and 10/12m vertical in the air.
My 260 ft. dipole is fed with open wire feed from a tuner,so it is very much the classic muti-band antenna. I mostly use this one now on the 160 and 80m bands and use the Butternut HF6v vertical from 40-10m, even at times 6m to finish off the HF bands. Can I bust thru a pile-up like I maybe could with a beam and amplifier? No! Most times with patience and timing I can make the QSO if need be.
I still have some elements in place for a tri-bander-- rotor,feedline, tower on the ground and untested older tri-bander in storage. Still have time this year or next year or maybe never. We shall see-- I do think this year I will start downsizing in the basement-- just feels right to do so!!
Remember My new motto--Less is More!!
73---Tim

The Perp and the primary

The Perp is of course on the left and

the victim- Our beautiful specked sussex "jenna". We have a game camera setup by the coop and this fox was captured on film several weeks ago. After that defensive measures were taken to limit our chickens exposure to danger,but because they are free ranging on our entire property, options are limited unless they are not permitted to roam outside the coop. So happened last night was Primary voting in Minnesota so We did our Civic duty and upon returning home it started to rain. Rainy weather always seems like the time when predators are most active during daylight hours. By time we checked on the birds,all were already roosting in the safety of the coop-except Jenna. Looked everywhere and didn't find any evidence till this morning when My Wife and kids were walking the Dog. Another picture of the Fox was on the game camera too. Chickens presently are under "house arrest" till one of us can be out with them!

On another note- Primary in Minnesota-- media quoted a good turnout! Yeah- 16%-- what the?? Where is the 50-75% a democracy should have to be considered a good turnout? Sorry-had to vent!!

Ham radio time has been limited to several nets and some casual chatting with the locals. I have been checking out what need to do cable and equipment wise to utilize My new Yaesu FT-950 for PSK31,RTTY and SSTV. I also need to make up a cable for use with My homemade headset/footswitch setup. I might modify My exsisting kenwood 850 setup--I'll see.

73 for now--Tim

Band Activity

I was in the shack between chores and checking the bands only produced-- quiet. Very little activity. Checked propagation and seen the SFI at 84 and this chart with the big spike. Several contests are happening this weekend, one being the CW NAQSO Party. Checking the CW segments shows some 20m activity, but not much else.
73---Tim

Summer flying by!

Another funny chicken related picture! Our chickens are having a great free ranging summer, no predators so far . Our game camera did catch a great picture of a Coyote during ther night. Hope it stays away during the Day!

My headache is now a thing of the past- another doctor appointment and My blood pressure seems to be under control.Nine days is a record for having a headache- hope that never happens again!

Already August and all My planned antenna projects are on hold. This month is going to be very busy so antenna and ham projects are on the back burner for now. Listening to a local HF net I participate in most Saturdays -- almost My turn....

73---Tim

A Headache

I've had a Headache that won't go away for a week now. After a constant night and days worth I did go to the doctor and found out after many smug years of normal blood pressure I have now joined the ranks of millions with "High blood Pressure"!! My Mother,brother and sister have dealt with this for years, I guess now its My turn. I've been put on a diuretic to try to bring it to the more normal range, I hope My head clears soon. I've never needed to ever take this much Tylenol, finally even resorting to Tylenol with codiene-- that seems to dull it enough to get by. I don't consider Myself overweight and do excercise but not maybe enough. I don't ever add salt and eat sensibly. I think genetics might be against Me!
What does this have to do with Ham Radio? Well for Me it means no desire to listen to static till My head is better. Been too humid to do much work outside so no progress on antennas. I remember reading an article in one of the Ham Radio publications about the need for all Hams to stay in shape. Hmmmm....
73-Tim