Plans

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

Ain't that the truth?!?

I am taking tomorrow, Good Friday, off from work.  Tonight, with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, we Catholics enter into the holiest time of our year - The Sacred Triduum.  There will be a lot of time spent between now and Easter Sunday in prayer, remembrance and commemoration.

But there will be time for other stuff, too.  Namely, mowing the lawn for the first time in 2017.  I am hoping to get that done tomorrow. IF the lawn mover starts without a hitch.  The first time starting it up in the Spring is always dicey.  I always make sure to run the gas tank out in Autumn before stowing it away, and always put in fresh gasoline ....... but, you know.  So if you're so inclined, please say a little prayer tonight that W2LJ's mower will start tomorrow - OK?    :-)

If I get that done tomorrow then on Saturday, I plan to run the new RG213 that I bought from DX Engineering last Summer, to the Butternut. (You were wondering when I was going to get to Amateur Radio, weren't you?)

Now's a great time as it will not be freezing outside and the new "greenery" (weeds) hasn't begun to grow yet.  It's a 150 foot run from HF9V along the back fence, along the side fence and house into the basement.  I'll need to go to the hardware store to pick up a small amount of plumber's putty.  When I seal my coax connections, I put down a layer of electrical tape, then some plumber's putty, and then another layer of electrical tape.  The plumber's putty works just as well as Coax-Seal (TM), but it comes off a lot more easily and cleanly when you want it to.

The coax run that is currently there is probably fine, but it's almost 16 years old now and I think I may have nicked (but not punctured) the outer jacket with the lawn mower a time or two. While I'm at the hardware store I need to find something that I can use to elevate the coax a few inches to a foot above the ground, so that I don't nick the new stuff. Some kind of heavy duty garden stake - or something like that. Once I get to the side fence, which is a chain link fence, all I do is cable tie the coax to the top cross posts.  That keeps it completely off the ground.

Once I get that done, I think I'll need to order another bit of RG213 to replace the feed line to the W3EDP antenna.  That could use it, too.

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