More camera pictures

Spike buck,possible mountain lion ,wish its tail was shown but its ears look like a previous mountain lion picture caught on same game camera. I included the racoons because I haven't seen 3-4 on the camera before.
 

CQ WW SSB contest 2021

 I had several issues with software and equipment which kept Me from participating in the RTTY part of this contest in September so I was anxious for the October SSB contest. I updated N1MM logger and also made sure My TSQL certificate for LOTW was also up to date. My equipment is My old standby Yaesu FT-950 at 100w into a Butternut HF-6v ground mounted vertical for 40,20 and 15m and a 10m mono bander at 25 feet for 10m. 

   I started this contest at 0000 UTC but only was able to operate for a while before Our kids showed up. We haven't had a chance to catch up on their work life and other subjects so after a very enjoyable several hours it also was time for shut eye for Me. I would have on and off times thru the weekend to contest and luckily conditions were good with 15m and 10m open most of the contest.

  I soon decided 10m was My band of choice- a directional horizontal antenna in the air offered a more enjoyable contest effort. My vertical antenna has good ears but for most of the contest it was a struggle to be heard. It might be because of high powered stations at the far end and My small 100w signal return to try to make contact but a bean and 10m propagation levels the playing field.

 Sunday found me trying to fill in some easy north american zones on 40m and other bands which get forgotten during the DX zone chasing. I don't think any new DXCC were added and I missed several like South Africa I heard but couldn't break the pileups but that was okay.Maybe next time. I ended with 117 contacts,33 zones between the bands worked for a score of 26,292. 

  I'm looking forward to the ARRL 10m contest in December and hope propagation is as good as it was this weekend.

73--Tim

 

Night time game camera pictures

 Bobcat and fox. camera also shows many birds and squirrels during the day and Deer all day long. Fun to capture all the activity we don't normally see.

Game camera Pictures from August 2021

porcupine

                                                several black bear
 

                                               and a mountain lion I believe.One was recently seen in the area so maybe it was passing through here too.

Hamshack Flourescent light replacement

 This flourescent light fixture was old when I installed it 28 years ago so it was time to be replaced. I hadn't thought much about any of the five shop lights I have in the Hamshack till one bulb failed in this fixture and I started thinking about an LED light replacement. Research on LED shop lights showed several options, bulb replacement with fixture modification and an integrated design which the latter is the one I chose. My old fluorescent fixtures were not good candidates for retrofit so a new fixture was the best option.

 The next decision was selecting the correct light output, color temperature and CRI (color rendering index). The light output from my original 2 bulb fixture was about 4000 lumens and the new one I picked was 4500. the old fixture color temperature was lower on the spectrum-almost incandescent like but these are not as readily available unless buying a switchable color temperature fixture so I settled on a 4000k model.It is very bright white but for a workbench it is okay. The last option was CRI and the recommended. is 80 or above which I did buy.

 Installation was easy and new fixture is very bright so the next one I might try the adjustable so I can have a more mellow yellow light for casual work . It was definitely time to replace the old!

 Tim