It is looking like tomorrow will be antenna work day at W2LJ. Today is busy, and the weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny with a high in the upper 40s (9C). Marianne is the "on call" dialysis nurse at the hospital tomorrow, so we can't go anywhere in the event she were to be called in. So it will be me, some wire and the maple tree in the back yard. At this point, I will be re-using the same coax until I can put some funds together to buy some new feedline. What I have has been well sealed at the connectors, so it should be okay until I can pick some up at a local Hamfest.
Speaking of Hamfests, today was the inaugural kickoff Hamfest of the NJ Hamfest season - the Cherryville Hamfest in Flemington, NJ. I wasn't able to go as I had to ferry Cara and Marianne over to a cheerleading competition in a nearby town early this morning, plus the fact I have a lot of chores to do. Listening to the local repeaters, the verdict is that it was "OK", but not great. There were no major vendors, but everyone seemed to enjoy seeing each other once again, renewing old friendships.
The Splitrock Hamfest is in a few weeks and that one is on a Sunday morning. I went to that one last year and it wasn't bad, either. It's another small Hamfest, but I always manage to pick up an item or two. The only problem is going to be the rising cost of gasoline may prohibit me from attending Hamfests that are farther away.
I sure wouldn't mind going to the Timonium Hamfest in Maryland next weekend, even with gas being as pricey at it is. That is a two day affair and is very large from what I am told. Not "Dayton big" but certainly much larger than any local club fest. In fact, the Atlanticon QRP conference used to coincide with the Timonium Hamfest, much in the way that FDIM coincides with Dayton. Alas, my wife almost always works on Saturdays (as I am off) and the kids are still too small to be left alone by themselves for the whole day. Maybe in a year or two, though .........
I am finding out that I am missing having the VHF/UHF rig in the car more than I would have otherwise imagined. Listening to broadcast radio gets stale after only a little while. As much as I don't want to put screw holes into the new vehicle, I think I am going to bite the bullet and put the Icom in the Jeep the next nice weekend that we get. This time however, I am going to get a different mount for the antenna. The magnet mount base really scuffed up the roof of the Ford Explorer. I'll have to go online and see what hatch lip mounts are going for.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Good afternoon Larry, hope all goes well with the antenna work on Sunday. As for an antenna mount I have used the comet trunk lip mounts. I have used them for both UHF/VHF as well as for my HF mobile whip. They are around 90.00 but built very well and also most of the time available used at ham flea markets.
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