Sometimes I’ll overthink a subject before I act on it. Other times, I go with my gut and either jump in or walk away. This week I had a couple of examples of this. When we were in Fredonia, Arizona at the Wheel Inn RV Park, the owner raved about the quality of the tap water. He said it naturally filtered through sandstone and came from a spring.
After tasting it, I had to agree. It was good water. We have a fresh water tank capacity of 100 gallons. I figured I should drain the tank and refill it with this water. The basement compartment on the driver’s side has a handle that you pull/push to open/close the drain valve of the tank.
A couple of days later at the Distant Drums RV Park, I noticed water slowly dripping under the coach. A drop came out every ten seconds or so. It was coming from the fresh water drain. I tried opening and closing the valve quickly a few times, but it continued to drip.
When we arrived here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort, we had lost more than a quarter of the tank of fresh water. I crawled under the coach to investigate and also checked the cable for binds. Usually I’ll do what it takes to make a repair like this, not because I enjoy it – I’ll do it to avoid paying someone else to do the work.
Looking at how the valve was situated, my gut told me, “Not this time.” I could see accessing the valve would mean laying on my back in the basement compartment with my nose inches from the tank and extending my arms in a narrow gap to reach the valve to remove and replace it. Add to that the fact that close quarters meant I would be working inches away from my face – I don’t see as well as I once did. I’m blind in one eye and the other doesn’t see up close very well. So, I walked away from the project and started making phone calls for mobile RV service.
AJ Abner from InsideOut RV Service came out and took a look. He had to order parts and came back yesterday. He said it should only take him a short time to change out the valve. Two hours, later he threw in the towel. He had replaced the valve and tried three sets of seals and it still dripped. He said his arms felt like jello from working in the compartment for so long. He figured the valve and seals used on the tank were a mis-match to the drain hub. He ordered more parts and said he would call me for another appointment. I’m glad I decided against tackling this job!
Over the last couple of weeks, I’d been thinking about adding another ham radio to my kit. I wanted to get a handheld transceiver (HT) for VHF/UHF frequencies. My Yaesu 991A covers VHF/UHF but I mostly use it for High Frequency (HF) shortwave reception and transmission. If I’m on HF and I want to check for activity on local VHF/UHF repeaters, I have to switch away from HF.
If I had a small HT I could monitor the repeaters for activity while working HF on my big radio and switch it over only when I knew there was traffic I was interested in. I did some research and narrowed my choices down to two radios based on internet specs and reviews. Before I pulled the trigger, I wanted to actually try each radio to compare them.
So, on Tuesday, I drove down to Ham Radio Outlet in south Peoria. They had the Yaesu FT60 and the Yaesu FT70 in stock – these were the radios I was interested in. They were priced within $20 of each other. What it boiled down to is this – the FT60 is a no frills workhorse with a track record of reliability, but it only works on analog signals, no digital – it’s been in production since 2004, which is an eternity in this category.
The FT70 has both analog and digital capabilities and would be more useful as more and more repeaters go digital. It would also allow me to access a Yaesu digital service called Fusion which links repeaters worldwide. I was leaning toward this radio as it would allow me to learn Fusion technology and not be obsolete for years to come – and it was only $20 more than the FT60.
Then Ron, the store manager, showed me the FT3D. Oh boy! This is a magical miniature beast of a radio. It’s Yaesu’s flagship handheld and full of features. What really sets it apart is the fact that it’s two receivers in one case. It has an “A” and a “B” receiver. You can listen to two frequencies at once and they can be VHF or UHF, which ham operators can transmit on, plus it can receive aircraft, emergency stations, weather stations and commercial FM. It can be set to automatically switch between analog and digital depending on the signal it’s receiving. It’s like having a FT60 and a FT70 in one package!
The price was commensurate – it costs about the same as buying both the FT60 and the FT70. It changed my view of HT radios – I went for it.
I also went for an antenna upgrade, quick charging station, bluetooth ear piece and additional programming software. My wallet was about $500 lighter by the time I left the store.
Most ham operators seem to start with cheap handheld transceivers, then either lose interest or move up to HF when they upgrade their license and equipment. I went about it the other way around. I earned my General license from the start and bought quality equipment. When I decided to go with a HT, I went the quality route again. I figured if I bought the FT60, I would soon wish I had digital capability. Then if I followed it with a FT70, I would have spent just as much or more than what I spent with the FT3D. That’s my rationale.
I’m loving this radio and over the past few days I have learned much about digital radio and System Fusion. This learning applies directly to my other radio as well – I hadn’t learned much about this before because I usually work the HF 20-meter and 40-meter bands on my 991A and things like System Fusion don’t apply there.
With the FT3D, I can access a Fusion repeater located on South Mountain. That’s a direct line-of-sight distance of 37 miles. Most cheap handhelds are lucky to hit a repeater 10 miles away. Through the Fusion linking system, I have talked to people all over the country as well as New Zealand and France. With the digital Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOiP), the clarity is amazing. But, I still find more satisfaction making a long distance contact over the air antenna-to-antenna without relying on anything but electromagnetic waves and no other technology. Enough radio talk.
We made our weekly grocery run on Wednesday. The closest grocery store is Albertson’s near the Junction of I-17 and Carefree Highway (AZ74) – about 10 miles from the RV park. We stocked up for the week ahead. We found a couple of treats. Donna made pan-seared salmon with wild-caught Alaska sockeye on Wednesday evening.
It was very tasty with a topping of sauteed chopped ginger and scallions.
Last night, she manned the grill and cooked New York strip steaks. It was delightful. She served it with sauteed mushrooms, baked sweet potato fries and southern fried cabbage with bacon.
Today we are looking forward to new neighbors. Our friends Mike and Jodi Hall are coming to the park for the weekend with their travel trailer. Their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend will be with them.
The weather forecast calls for a cooler weekend with temperatures in the mid-80s. The weather guessers say there’s a 30% chance of rain on Monday and the thermometer won’t reach 70 degrees. This is hard to imagine after weeks of 100+ or temperatures in the high 90s. I’ll believe it when I see it.
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