Summer has arrived!!

This is another picture from Our Disney trip. Can you spot the hidden Mickey??
Well the nice summer weather finally arrived after many weeks of fog and rain. Now its a race to keep the grass and weeds at bay! It sure is growing fast!! I don't mind mowing but it does bite into My time and limits most hobby activities. Ham radio and metal detecting are almost non exsistant. Typical for this time of the year!
I was very busy with activities this weekend and had zero time to even check out the local field day activities. I heard of two different operations in the area- both within ten miles of My home QTH!! I guess 6m was open both days!
I worked a long day yesterday- 7am-11 pm taking care of trouble on the System( communications). Driving around later in the evening, I was able to pass driving time chatting with several locals on 146.52. I've always been very lucky that the activity in this area is so busy on several repeaters and simplex frequencies. A visitor to 146.52 mentioned the lack of activity traveling around the Midwest on '52. I salute My fellow area Hams!!-- Thanks for the many daily QSO's
73---Tim

Doing My "Elmer" part!

I finally was able to help My Nephew with his antenna project. He already had installed a Hustler 6BTV ground mounted vertical and did very well! Coax to the shack, radials and even guyed it. He assembled it to the dimensions in the DX engineering guide but it would not tune using the Kenwood 850 auto tuner. So I brought My MFJ antenna analyzer and We soon determined it was resonant below all the amateur bands. This was actually not bad news since this probably meant as a unit-antenna,radials,coax and grounds were working well. If it showed resonance all bands with no adjustment I would suspect an issue. A ground mounted vertical in aperfect world will have an impedance around 32 ohms- so will never show a perfect SWR when its working well. Resonance is another matter-- adjusting the slip tube distance from the trap only fine tuned it up a bit so We next tried adjusting the trap location. This did bring it upwards within the bands but at the CW portion for all but 10 and 15m. Since We wanted the voice part, more adjustment was needed but I was on a time frame and was already late.
I left but assured him I'd be back-- He also has now aquired a external tuner so He can tune the antenna although on several bands its a compromised setting. We have tried 75 and 40m to contact each other but only slight whispers on 75 were heard. The bands have not been good early evening but might improve for a better QSO.
I'm happy with Our progress but can't wait till I can help bring the other bands into better tuning range.
73---Tim

Too busy for Radio!!

A picture from Our recent trip to Florida. Harry Potter fans will recognize the Hogwarts Castle at Universal studios. The Harry Potter theme park was very well done . I even enjoyed several Potter rides!! That says alot for an "old" guy!!

We took time to have a garage sale on memorial weekend . The preperation and actual sale ate up several weeks or more. Work has also been very busy .The Girls also finished last day of school--summer vacation for them!

I will be missing the VHF contest because of prior commitments-- a little sad but truly enjoy the HF contests better. Will miss the gang at the contesting station--- bummer!

Still have many radio related irons in the fire,but way too many summer projects to complete first! Typical Summer for Me!

73---Tim