Hobbies

There were scant formalized opportunities for field day this year as local clubs either didn’t have a formal program (Redmond) or weren’t actively open (Issaquah), so I joined my friend K7IP in Ocean Shores to mess around with radios and do some geocaching. We operated from the public beach south of town. (4WD very helpful for getting there.) K7IP (Doug) setting up the kite For the first morning, we used up a Kite antenna. The kite was tethered to his truck by string, which stands out a little better. The second line is 135′ of #12 magnet wire. We were originally going to feed this to my 9:1 balun, but tightening the screws sheared the wire. We added a long counterpoise and just ran it direct to the radio. ...

Part of my volunteer work for Eastside Fire & Rescue Fire Corps involved helping out with non-suppression activities at the Washington State fire training facility east of Seattle. Activities included everything from setting up tables, carting crates of water around to different stops, running errands, and filling air bottles. Overlooking the facility This is a model used to simulate an airplane fire: Simulator for airplane fires This section simulates a fuel-based fire (such as a car accident): ...

I’ve finished a month of QSOs and thought it’d be fun to look at the results. Early (5pm) in the evening, I can hear activity along the east coast, Mexico, and Cuba(!), but I am unable to get through. Not surprisingly, most of my contacts have been between 7pm and 10pm (02 – 05 UTC), when the sun’s dropping and signal propagation is improved. Contacts by band and time of day. ...

For you newly-minted pilots who have asked me, “should I buy an airplane?” I offer a quick rule of thumb, based on my ten years in general aviation, four years of ownership, and MBA: No. Okay, now that we’ve gotten that formality out of the way, here is some insight into the costs of acquisition and ownership, so you can make the inevitable decision. You have no doubt heard the fairytale that you should consider ownership if you fly more than 100 hours a year because airplanes are an investment. It’s true that my airplane outperformed 11 of my 12 stocks, but if you look at the numbers closely, you’ll notice that buying postage stamps or stuffing the money into a mattress for those four years would have beaten everything. ...