Post Skeeter Hunt stuff

There were a couple of guys who I worked, who had signed up for Skeeter numbers, but didn't use them this past Sunday. I have a hunch that plans had changed and they were not able to go portable as they had intended. Being portable is NOT a prerequisite for obtaining a Skeeter number. Any station can be Skeeter station. Although the aim of the Skeeter Hunt is to get outdoors, it's not mandatory. Things happen, weather and personal circumstances can change in a heartbeat. Ask me, and I can tell you all about it.

Now for something completely different. Before we went on vacation, I saw where Amazon had these on sale.

It's one of those Juentai JT-6188 VHF/UHF mobile rigs, and it was under a hundred bucks. It goes up to 20 Watts out and the power cord terminates as a 12 V accessory plug (we used to call them cigarette lighter plugs back in the day), so there's no need to snake wires through the vehicle firewall. At high power, the unit draws a little over 2 Amps and the cigarette lighter circuit is rated for 20 Amps, so I should be good to go. In New Jersey, a 50 Watt unit really is overkill, and this kind of keeps in with the QRP way of thinking, so I am happy. And as I've stated before, VHF/UHF is not my first love, so this will fit my needs perfectly.

It arrived a few weeks ago, and I hope to install it in the Jeep this weekend, but I'll have to program it first. The software wouldn't load up on my Windows 7 laptop, so for the heck of it, I dug out my old Acer net book with Windows XP on it. Bingo! Tomorrow evening, I will try to load it up with all the same frequencies that I have in my HTs.

Before I close this post - Skeeter Hunt log summaries are due by midnight when Sunday August 23rd turns into Monday August 24th. If you haven't submitted yours, what are you waiting for? (grin). Each submission gets a confirming e-mail from yours truly, so if you've submitted, but didn't hear from me, that means I didn't receive it.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!