Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Turkey and Ham

Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone and we’re into December and nearing the end of 2020. The good news is the economy appears to be holding up, although it’s a little hard to understand it with all that’s going on.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving feast – it was just Donna and me. I put a turkey breast in the Traeger wood pellet-fired smoker grill and gave it a little over an hour at 350-375. In the final 10 or 15 minutes, I upped the temperature to 450 to crisp the skin. It came out beautiful and tasty. Meanwhile, Donna prepared Brussel sprouts with a horseradish cream sauce and corn with sun dried tomatoes and parsley. And of course, mashed potatoes and gravy!

Neither of us are big dessert eaters – we rarely eat sweets – so we passed on the dessert. If our microwave/convection oven had been operational, Donna might have made a pumpkin pie – in fact, I’m sure she would have.

I spent some time in the ham shack playing on the radio Friday and made contact with Haru (JA1CG) in Japan again. I also had conversations with Dale in Texas – he’s frequently on the 20-meter band and a guy named Grant in Carlsbad, California. I’m really enjoying the ham radio hobby.

My ham shack is unconventional – as you can imagine, it’s difficult to have an actual shack with our nomadic lifestyle. I set up under the canopy Donna bought for my birthday and put the power supply and transceivers on a table. I leave my antennas mounted in tripods, but I pack up the things on the table when I’m finished for the day. It wouldn’t be good to leave my expensive radio gear out on the table!

I’ve mentioned using various frequency bands and the differences before, but I’ll try to explain it again. The three main frequency categories for amateur radio are High Frequency (HF) which is 3 Mega Hertz (MHz) to 30 MHz. Then there’s Very High Frequency (VHF) which is 30 MHz to 300 MHz and then Ultra High Frequency which is 300 MHz to 3000 MHz.

High Frequency transmissions can typically cover very long distances. The VHF and UHF frequencies are limited to line of sight under most conditions – actually, they can travel just beyond the visible horizon. For this reason, there are repeater stations for VHF and UHF. These repeaters receive the transmission from a ham radio within range, then almost simultaneously re-transmit it at a higher power level, usually from a tower mounted at higher elevation. This allows the signal to be “repeated” over a larger area.

Many repeaters are also linked via various programs to other distant repeaters through the Internet, thus providing worldwide coverage. To use a repeater, a few parameters must programmed into the transmitter. For one thing, the repeater will receive the signal on one frequency and re-transmit the signal on a different frequency. This is called offset and is necessary because it can’t receive and transmit on one frequency at the same time.

When we use HF, we are communicating through a direct (simplex) connection antenna-to-antenna.

Radio tuned to 20-meter HF band – 14.250 MHz

In the photo above, it’s pretty straight forward. I’m receiving a signal from someone transmitting on 14.250 MHz. Once he finishes talking, I’ll press the push-to-talk button on my microphone and transmit on 14.250 MHz back to him. This is good old fashioned simplex operation.

In the next photo, I’m using a lot of technology. In the upper left of the screen, the WIRES-X icon is activated. This means I’m connected to the Yaesu WIRES-X Voice Over Internet Protocol system. The 440.375 is the UHF frequency I’m receiving. Below that it shows 445.375 MHz – this is the UHF frequency I’m transmitting to the repeater on. Since I’m in a digital mode, more information is displayed. It shows I’m on the East Valley Repeater Group (EVRG) repeater that’s registered in Gilbert, Arizona. The actual equipment is on South Mountain in Phoenix. Below that, it shows America-Ragchew, that’s the “chat room” I’ve selected. Whew! Enough radio talk.

I ordered a replacement microwave/convection oven and received it shortly after we arrived here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. I had an appointment with Sean – he operates Valley RV Service, a mobile RV repair service. Sean stayed in contact via text messaging and showed up here yesterday as promised. He muscled the old oven out of the cabinetry in short order.

Old broken Sharp Carousel microwave/convection oven

As you can see in the photo, the old oven was showing its age. The button to release the oven door came off and the linkage behind it was irreparably broken.

The replacement oven, being nearly 20 years newer, is slightly different. Although Sharp lists it as the replacement model, it has slightly different dimensions and more programmable functions. It’s also heavier than the old one, which was plenty hefty. Sean had a few issues to overcome getting the new one mounted. I helped him hold it in place while we fiddled with the bolts securing it to the mounting bracket. It took several attempts to get it in place, but we got it done!

Replacement Sharp Carousel microwave/convection oven

I didn’t mind lending Sean a hand, although I was paying for his service. His rates are fair and there’s no way I could have handled it myself. The reflections on the surface of the new unit made it hard to photograph, but I used the photo anyway.

On Monday morning, we had the first round-robin pickleball event. Unfortunately, it was very windy with unpredictable gusts. This made every game a matter of luck more than skill. My game relies on shot selection and placement – it doesn’t work very well in those conditions. Today, I’ll run my first coaching session of the season at noon and wouldn’t you know it – gusty wind again!

The temperatures have reached the low-to-mid 70s each day. Today the forecast calls for a high of just 64 degrees with clear skies. The mid 60s are forecast for the next few days before we warm back up to the 70s over the weekend. I can stand that!

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Dorco, Dollar and Defender

My last post described replacement of the HWH touchpad due to wear and tear. I mentioned poor contact when depressing various functions on the touchpad. At the time, I thought the flexible plastic cover had copper contacts bonded underneath that would create a contact point between two points on the board to complete a circuit for operation.

I decided to dissect the old unit before I disposed of it. I found the flexible plastic cover was just that – a cover. No electrical function of the cover and no copper contacts. What it really has are mini-switches on the printed circuit board (PCB). These mini-switches are normally open, spring-loaded momentary switches. They have a post extending from the switch to the cover – this post acts as a pushrod.

Pushrod posts extending from mini-switches

There are 11 of these switches to activate different circuits. When you press the touchpad cover with your finger tip, it flexes downward and depresses the pushrod to close the switch and complete the circuit. When you release your finger tip, the light spring in the switch opens the switch and the circuit is de-activated. Seeing how this works, I can understand how light of a touch is needed – pressing too hard will create wear and tear on the cover and switch. My curiosity is satisfied and I’ll dispose of the old parts.

Those of you who know or have met me, know that I shave my head and most of my face. Back when I was in the corporate world, this was a daily routine. Gillette would periodically send me a new sample razor with their latest whiz-bang blade. I think it started with the Mach Three blade, then a series of blades called Fusion. After I retired, I started shaving every other day. I then realized just how expensive these whiz-bang blades were.

Gillette’s business model was to give away a free sample handle for the latest blades. Then they would make their profit off blade sales – much like a printer that can be bought at what seems to be a bargain price requires spending a lot of money on replacement ink cartridges.

So, I looked around on the Internet and found razors made by a company called Dorco. They had a variety of blades and offered a sample pack that included a handle and blades ranging from a three-blade cartridge up to a six-blade one. I found the six-blade cartridge worked well and shaving every other day, I could get two weeks out of a blade. Ordering direct online, they were much less money than a comparable Gillette blade.

A couple of years ago, I noticed the quality of the Dorco blades seemed to be slipping. The blades wouldn’t shave as cleanly after four or five uses and it was a stretch to get seven shaves, which I do in a two-week period. Then Dorco quit selling direct online. I still found their blades at Amazon, but I wasn’t very satisfied with them. Then I read that Gillette had sued Dorco for patent infringement – this led to a change in the Dorco blades.

A few weeks ago, I was shopping at Walmart and I saw a starter pack of Dollar Shave Club (DSC) blades with a handle. I bought it. I started using it a few weeks ago – it’s a six-blade cartridge and I’m impressed with it. The first cartridge gave me 10 shaves before needing to be replaced. The thing is, for me, DSC’s business model is a hassle. They sell replacement blades by subscription. You have to join and tell them how often and how many blades you want shipped and they will automatically refill your order. We’re not always at the same address and it doesn’t make sense to me to have them shipped to our mailing address in South Dakota, then pay to have them forwarded.

So I did a little more searching for a razor blade solution. I found Harry’s. They offer quality blades made at their exclusive factory in Germany and you can order on demand or subscribe. Then I read on their website that they do not recommend using their blades to shave your head. I also found some reviews where head shavers said Harry’s blade created nicks and cuts on their head – one guy said it cut a strip like potato peeler! Harry’s was out for me.

Then I found a company called Defender. Reviewers raved about it – including head shavers. These blades are made in Israel and take a different approach. They say there’s no need for six-blade cartridges, three are sufficient. They submit the blade angle, spacing and design of the cartridge are key as well as the ability to easily rinse the blade to remove shaving debris and prevent clogging. They offer replacement blades on demand or by subscription. They had an introductory sample with a handle and one blade for $5.95 with free shipping. Replacement blades run about $2 each in packs of four with free shipping. I ordered one.

DSC six-blade cartridge detail – used once

So, I’ve started an experiment. So far, I’ve used each cartridge one time. I’ll alternate razors over the next few weeks so I can have back-to-back comparisons of how well they shave over time. I think this is better than using one for a couple of weeks, then switching to the other to try and remember how they compare. I’ll post my final opinion at some point.

Donna and I have been going at it hard on the pickleball courts. After playing five straight days last week, we took the weekend off. I played three days this week so far – Donna skipped yesterday to play tennis. We’ll start round-robin play next Monday and I’ll begin coaching intermediate players next Wednesday.

As predicted, the weather has cooled from the high 80s – low 90s we had last week to upper 70s yesterday. The thermometer is forecast to only reach around 70 degrees for the next week. Very comfortable temperatures but it cools quickly once the sun sets. We can expect overnight lows hovering around 40-45 degrees in the coming week.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Touchpads and Tokyo Calling

I didn’t get out of bed until 7:30am this morning. We’ve been getting up a little earlier than usual to hit the pickleball courts between 8:00 and 8:30am. We played a couple of hours per morning every day Monday through Friday this week. My left knee was starting to be bothersome – it would start getting sore after an hour or so, then stiffen up and remain sore throughout the rest of the day.

I ordered a pair of knee compression sleeves from Amazon and started using one on Thursday. It seems to help, I’ll continue to wear it on my left knee whenever I play pickleball.

Donna had a great idea to get me out of bed – she suggested we head over to Crackers & Co. for breakfast. It’s only a few miles away on Greenfield north of Brown Road. They have outdoor seating on a patio and excellent coffee. The service was fast and the breakfast good – Donna had eggs Benedict while I went for the biscuit and gravy dish with two eggs and country fries. While we were out, we hit the Walmart a half mile up Greenfield before we came home.

I had a project I wanted to complete and for once, it went smooth and easy. Our coach is equipped with an HWH hydraulic system that operates the leveling jacks and also operates the slide-outs. After 17 years of use, the touchpad controller was wearing out. The flexible plastic cover of the touch pad had worn through in a few places and the copper contacts weren’t conducting very well. I had to play around with the pressure points to make contact and operate the HWH system.

I had a hard time finding a retailer that carried a replacement touch pad and printed circuit board (PCB) controller. I was getting worried about the PCB failing completely and preventing me from operating the jacks. I finally found replacement HWH parts including touchpad PCBs at Northwest RV Supply in Eugene, Oregon.

Their online catalog had several pages of HWH touchpads listed and warned customers not to order based on appearance or specifications. They said the only way to ensure the correct touchpad and PCB was ordered is to remove the old PCB and look for a part number handwritten with a sharpie-type pen on the PCB. I thought this was a little strange, but I pulled the old touchpad while we were in Buckeye and found the handwritten part number.

When I found the replacement part for AP1088, there was another warning. It said to call for lead time. Apparently HWH makes various PCBs in batches, if they are out of stock, it may be weeks or even months before they run that particular part number again. I called Northwest RV Supply and they told me it would take three to five days for the replacement part to drop ship from HWH. The replacement part cost was $181.

I ordered the part a week ago and received it yesterday. It was easy to replace – I just removed the old one and pulled the 10-pin connector. Then it was just a matter of putting the connector on the pins of the new PCB and screwing back in place.

With the ignition key in the accessory position, I powered up the HWH and tested the jack operation. All is good, job done!

I had a couple of interesting ham radio contacts this week. On Thursday afternoon, I was operating on the 20-meter band at 14.327 MHz when I heard a station calling from Japan. The 20-meter band is High Frequency (HF) which operates long distance through something called skywave propagation. What happens is the electromagnetic signal from my antenna travels at an upward angle 150 to 300 miles into the upper atmosphere where it hits the ionosphere. The electromagnetic signal is reflected (actually it’s refracted as it can come back down through more than one path) back to earth. This will usually cover anywhere from 300 to 2,500 miles, depending on the angle of travel of the original signal.

This signal can bounce off the earth and travel back to the ionosphere to be reflected back again. As it makes these “skips,” the footprint the signal covers gets progressively larger.

Anyway, I answered the call from Japan and made contact with Haruo. Haruo-san lives north of Tokyo and, from what I gathered, he lives out in the country at high elevation and has an elaborate antenna and ham rig. To reach Tokyo, my signal had to skip at least twice as Tokyo is about 5,700 miles from Mesa, Arizona. The thing about skywave propagation is the ionosphere is constantly changing and what was a good signal can suddenly fade. This happened to me shortly after I made contact with Haruo-san.

Last night, I was operating on an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band. These frequencies don’t work like HF bands, UHF requires line-of-site contact and doesn’t skip off the ionosphere. I connected to the East Valley Repeater Group station on South Mountain about 26 miles from here. Once I established a digital connection with the EVRG repeater, I utilized their Yaesu WIRES-X node. This is a link through a computer that sends the digital signal over the Internet through a program called voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).

The WIRES-X system links around the world through “rooms.” Once I was into the EVRG WIRES-X node, I selected a room called Texas-Nexus and coincidentally, heard a guy talking from Japan. I made contact with Masaaki Miyomoto (JA1WLQ) in Tokyo, Japan. Masaaki-san has been a ham operator since his junior high school days – he’s 69 years old now.

He was a little surprised when I told him about talking to Haruo-san the day before on HF. Then he found out Haruo-san was located on a rural mountain. Masaaki-san lives in the city and he told me it was nearly impossible to get a good HF antenna mounted anywhere within Tokyo. He really embraces the new technology and loves to make contacts in the USA with WIRES-X VOIP. He also talks to hams in Italy and France – he’s multi-lingual.

We had a long discussion about cultural differences between our two countries. We also talked about the RV lifestyle which he found very interesting – it’s something that rarely happens in Japan. Our session was suddenly cut off. I re-connected and asked Masaaki-san what happened. He reminded me that most repeaters will “time out” if connected to a room for more than 30 minutes. I lost track of how long we had been talking.

The thing about digital VOIP contact is the clarity. You don’t have to rely on electromagnetic signals subjected to the whims of the atmosphere. If you can connect to a local repeater that supports linked VOIP systems like WIRES-X or Winsystem, the signal is so solid it’s like you’re talking to someone across the table from you, not across the Pacific Ocean! Enough radio talk.

Donna whipped up a really tasty dish for dinner on Thursday. She made jerk shrimp with mango salsa and served it with asparagus and forbidden rice. It’s a fairly quick and easy dish – I think the mango salsa is probably the hardest part.

I bought a rack of babyback ribs at Walmart this morning. I think I’ll set up the Traeger and smoke them tomorrow.

We’ve had warm weather with mostly clear skies – only a few high, thin clouds – and daily temperatures with a high of about 90 degrees. Today’s forecast calls for a high of 83 and the same for tomorrow before it cools to the lower 70s starting on Monday. That sounds about perfect.

Mesa Move-in

I let another week go by without writing a post, so I have to catch up. We had our final days last week at Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye. On Thursday, I made a trip over to my daughter, Jamie’s, house to pick up a package for Donna. Jamie told me she wasn’t feeling well, so she would leave the package in the front courtyard.

When I picked up the package, Jamie stood at the dining room window to talk to me at a safe distance. She told me she had sanitized the package – it was on a chair in the courtyard. I think she was planning for a nap or at least a bit of rest after I left.

On Friday, Jamie went to an urgent care center for a COVID-19 test. On Monday, the results came back positive – so she has the virus from China. I don’t think we should forget where this virus originated – Wuhan, China. I hope Jamie’s case is mild. She’s 35 years old and generally in good health, so I expect her to make a full recovery.

We packed up Saturday morning. I had to hook the trailer back up, because I’d disconnected when I took the coach in for service. The drive from Buckeye, west of Phoenix to Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in east Mesa was about 60 miles. I didn’t anticipate much traffic on a Saturday, but crossing a big city like Phoenix is always a crap shoot.

As usual, the major junctions on I-10 had slow downs. Some of these are predictable as the freeway design is sure to create a tie-up – such as where I-17 intersects I-10 and the left HOV lane ends right where traffic is merging into the lanes. At the junction of AZ51, L-202 and I-10 an accident on the AZ51 ramp had traffic stopped as everyone had to look at the crash site. So, the 60-mile drive took us over an hour and a half.

The office at Viewpoint is closed on the weekends, but the security guys were expecting us. We entered the park from Hawes Road and found our usual site at 5245. Our end of the 5200 row was (and still is) empty. Many Canadians are unable to come here at this point. They can’t cross the border in their car or RV. They can only fly into the US. For most of them, that would mean they would have to rent or buy a car once they got here or they wouldn’t have transportation.

All of the empty spaces made it easier to maneuver the trailer into our site. I dropped it, then put the coach in place. We were hooked up and back in business by 3pm and I was ready to relax with a cold one.

On Sunday, our friends Mike and Jodi Hall visited us along with their granddaughter, Swayzie. We watched football on our outdoor TV – Viewpoint has free cable TV – while Mike and I enjoyed a stogie. We both chose Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva for our afternoon smoke. Mike is recovering from major surgery, so we just sat and took it easy.

On Monday morning, Donna and I walked down to the pickleball courts. We played for a couple of hours and it felt good to be back on the familiar courts. Last month, Donna ordered a canopy for my birthday – I planned to use it for my ham shack. Lake Pleasant didn’t allow pop-up type canopies and Leaf Verde was a little cramped so I hadn’t used it yet.

On Monday afternoon, I unpacked the canopy and set about putting it up. The instructions were less than useful – it basically said to spread the framework slightly, lay the covering over it and put it up. There was a little more to it than that! With Donna’s help, I had it together in about an hour – it won’t take that long next time now that I know the process.

It has four removeable fabric walls with a zip open door on the front. I assembled it with only two walls – on the rear and the west side – to provide afternoon shade while allowing the breeze to circulate.

I set up my ham radio antennas next and put a folding table under the canopy to complete my ham shack. I was pretty excited about being just five miles away from the repeater towers on Usery Mountain. The repeater there would get me into the Yaesu WIRES-X system. What I didn’t count on was the fact that Spook Hill blocks the line-of-sight to the top of Usery Mountain. The repeaters are VHF/UHF which relies on line-of-sight to link the antennas! I’ll play around with it some more, but right now, I do better with repeaters on South Mountain – 26 miles away – and one in west Mesa.

Last week, our Sharp microwave/convection oven broke. The mechanism to open the door broke and the door can’t be opened. I looked at the linkage involved and it’s beyond repair. I ordered a replacement unit from Amazon and it arrived here Monday morning. Now I need to get someone out here to remove the old unit and install the new. It looks like I have a two-week wait to get a mobile RV tech to handle it.

So, we’re relegated to induction cooktop, crock pot or grill cooking, Reheating is a little harder but doable on the induction cooktop. I’ll set up the Weber Q and the Traeger now that we’ll be settled in for the winter. Last night, Donna made pan seared salmon with a ginger and scallion topping with forbidden (black) rice and broccoli.

Wild Alaskan salmon with forbidden rice and broccoli

We’ve had clear skies and warm temperatures. It was in the mid 70s when we arrived on Saturday. Sunday was warmer in the mid-80s. Yesterday we hit 90 and will see mid-80s again today. The forecast says we’ll be in the low 80s to high 70s for the next week.

Rocky Mountain Ripoff

In my last post, I mentioned the appointment at Rocky Mountain Cummins in Avondale. I knew it would be a long day, so we made arrangements for Donna to go to my daughter, Jamie’s, house with Ozark on Wednesday afternoon and spend the night there so they wouldn’t have to spend Thursday at the shop with me.

I called Rocky Mountain Cummins on Wednesday to confirm the appointment. They had the parts and asked me if I could be at the shop by 6am so they could get an early start. I decided to head over there Wednesday afternoon once Jamie picked up Donna and Ozark. I planned to spend the night in their lot – they have 50-amp RV electrical service pedestals at the east end of the lot.

Traffic on I-10 eastbound was light and I set up in their lot by 5pm. I did a minimal set up – just hooked up the power cable and extended one bedroom slide. This would make it quick and easy to get packed up again in the morning. I passed the time by sitting in a folding chair outside with a couple of cold ones and played with my Yaesu FT3D handheld transceiver.

I was able to hit the South Mountain East Valley Repeater Group repeater and make contact with some knowledgeable ham operators. I learned more about using the digital modes and how to use “rooms” with the Yaesu Wires-X function.

I was up early and at the head of the service line at 6am. The mechanic had the coach in the shop and started working at 6:30am. I wasn’t able to find anyone to let me into the customer waiting lounge until 7am or so. I had the place to myself and read a book. They aren’t very good communicators there – I didn’t hear from anyone all morning.

At 11:30am, I went outside and got the attention of a woman in the shop. They’re very strict about keeping people out of the shop – employees only. I asked her to give me a progress report. She checked with the mechanic and told me all was going well. He would go to lunch soon and thought he would have the job buttoned up around 2pm.

I walked a few blocks down the street to Subway for lunch, then returned to the customer waiting lounge. A little after 2pm, I went down to the shop area again and he was parking the coach out front. Around 2:30pm, they had the paperwork done.

When I reviewed the invoice, I had some questions. When I first brought the coach in, I told them I had a fuel leak and it appeared to be coming from the lift pump. The mechanic checked it out and visually confirmed the lift pump was leaking. Then he did something they call a Guardian Inspection. I never asked for this – it turned out to be an upcharge – they charged me $360 for diagnosis. Really? He made a visual inspection of the lift pump – that was all I asked for.

Then I saw a few other puzzling charges on the bill. There’s a $50 “Electronic tooling fee.” I asked about that – the lift pump replacement is strictly a mechanical repair – no electronic tooling or programming is required. The only answer Jerry, the service writer, had was, “It was on the estimate.” I said estimates are just that – an estimate. It doesn’t give carte blanche to bill for work not performed. Then there was a $75.36 hazardous waste fee. That’s a pretty specific number – I asked what hazardous waste was generated that cost that much. He didn’t have an answer. Then there was the shop supplies fee of $120.57 – another specific amount. I understand shop supply surcharges to cover things like solvents, aerosols or sealants that may have been used, but a $20 charge would more than cover that at a tidy profit. I was being ripped off.

They wouldn’t budge on these phony upcharges. I paid the bill, but I’m going to file a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General Consumer Protection Division.

While I was out, I topped off our fuel tank at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center in Avondale, then came back to our site at Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye. I was set up again by 4pm. I skipped pickleball on Friday. I was feeling a little run down after spending Wednesday night at the noisy Cummins lot and dealing with the repairs on Thursday. Plus, it was hot – all week we had highs in the 90s with overnight lows around 70 degrees.

I should mention the air traffic around here. Luke Air Force Base is located in Glendale, near here. It’s the home of the 56th Fighter Wing, the largest fighter wing in the world. It is also the primary flight training site for active duty fighter pilots. We see and hear F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Force aircraft flying overhead most days. These are the most advanced fighters the military has.

They’re noisy, but I enjoy watching them fly. You have to scan the sky well ahead of the noise to see them as these speedy planes cover a lot of space before the sound reaches us.

On Saturday, I hit the pickleball courts with Donna at 8:30am. It was the first time I’ve played since June! I was a bit rusty, but held my own. The wind kicked up making play difficult – it takes a lot of the skill and finesse out of the game. We played for two hours.

The wind continue to increase throughout the day as a cold front moved in. It remained gusty overnight and all day Sunday. We didn’t go to the courts on Sunday. This morning wasn’t very windy – the wind had died down after a couple of raindrops fell overnight. It was cold – around 50 degrees as we headed to the courts. We warmed up quickly playing pickleball in the sun.

The forecast calls for highs in the low 60s today and around 70 degrees for the rest of the week. We’ll move out of here on Saturday and head to the east side – Mesa.

Hiking, Shooting, Halloween and Trouble

Totally frustrated. I’ve spent the last hour putting together a post for this blog and poof! It disappeared. The entire content gone. I don’t understand what happened. Usually WordPress auto-saves several times as I write, so I don’t worry much about it.

On Tuesday, after I wrote my last post, we started clean-up from the wind/dust storm. Donna vacuumed the sliding window sills on the coach at least three times and she’s still finding dust. Dust storms with high winds means dust finds it way into every crack and crevice. Donna also vacuumed the interior of Midget-San while I dusted the exterior, blew out the engine compartment with compressed air and wiped everything down. It’ll take a lot more before it’s really clean again.

The weather was agreeable for our last week at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort. The highs were around 70 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday and in the low 80s for the rest of the week.

We had plans for Wednesday. Donna wanted to hike the Beardsley Trail in Lake Pleasant Regional Park to the Maricopa Trail which would lead her back to Pleasant Harbor. It’s a little over seven miles. I had an appointment at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. The plan was for me to drive Donna to the trailhead, then return to our site and load my gear. I had to be at Ben Avery by 10:45am for the 11:00am scheduled range time. I figured if we left around 9:15am, we would have plenty of time.

When I turned the key in the ignition switch of the Midget, nothing happened. Silence. I popped the hood and checked the battery terminals. No issues there. I retrieved my Fluke multimeter and found 10.3 volts at the battery. Oh no! Dead battery. I connected my little Schumacher battery charger and crossed my fingers. Twenty minutes later, I had enough juice to crank the engine and it fired up!

It took about 30 minutes to drop Donna off at the trailhead and return to our site. Another 10 minutes and I had my gear loaded up. It was about a 15-minute drive to the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. I made it with about five minutes to spare.

The Ben Avery Shooting Facility is one of the largest public shooting ranges in the country. It was opened in 1957 and originally was called the Black Canyon Gun Range. It’s on a 1,650-acre property and operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).

It has ranges for pistols, rifles, shotgun, archery and more. It even has camping with full hook-ups for up to 14 days. The target ranges offer distances from five yards to 1,000 yards. I think it’s the nicest shooting range I’ve visited. When I checked in at the main range, I noticed an array of antennas. The AZGFD headquarters in located on Carefree Highway west of the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. Personnel at the headquarters communicate with rangers and range masters at the eight ranges via radio.

I had a great time shooting there. All range time is allocated by appointment and a 90-minute session costs $7.50. It was well worth it.

I invited a kid that our neighbor, Roger, introduced me to earlier to come over Thursday afternoon. He’s 12 years old and holds a General Class ham license. He’s saving his pennies to get a HF antenna and get on the air. His name is Raymond Anderson (N7KCB). He’s really involved in radio and has several goals. I gave him the microphone and he took over my Yaesu 991A and worked the 20-meter and 40-meter HF bands. I also gifted him a KB9VBR J-pole antenna. He lives with his father and sister four days a week on a boat at Pleasant Harbor – the rest of the time he and his sister are with his mother in Phoenix. He only has handheld radios at this point – given to him by Roger. With the J-pole antenna, his handhelds should hit repeaters in the area and allow him to reach out.

On Friday, we drove back to Lake Pleasant Regional Park for lunch at the Scorpion Bay Grill at the marina. They call themselves purveyors of fresh food and cocktails. We found seating outside on the deck and enjoyed lunch – I had the fish and chips while Donna went for fish tacos. We washed it down with a couple of Four Peaks First Wave amber ales. Excellent!

I had a concern about firing up the Cummins ISL diesel powerplant in the coach when we left on Saturday. Earlier, I’d discovered a problem. There was a slow leak of diesel fuel coming from the passenger side of the engine block. It would form a drop every couple of minutes. It appeared to be near the lift pump. The problem was, I couldn’t get to it without some heavy lifting. I would have to remove the big starter motor and a few other items for access. I set an appointment with Rocky Mountain Cummins in Avondale for 7:30am Monday morning.

The engine fired up without any issues and we were soon on our way. We headed south on Loop 303 to I-10 west. We found the Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye around 12:30pm and were directed to a long pull-through site. After we set up, I checked the engine for the leak and found it to be dry – no fresh fuel leaking, just residue.

Later, we drove to the other side of Buckeye to my middle daughter, Jamie’s, house. She and Francisco bought a house out here this past spring. It’s new construction in a nice neighborhood. Her mother – my ex-wife Luann – and her husband Jerry were also visiting. The plan was to dine on tacos and hand out Halloween candy. The number of kids in costumes was surprising – Jamie handed out 20 lbs. of candy in one hour flat, and they still kept coming!

Jack O’Lantern like sunset on Halloween at Jamie’s house

On Monday morning, we were up at dark-thirty. I wanted to have our wheels rolling by 6:30am to head over to Rocky Mountain Cummins in Avondale – about 20 miles away. I had no idea of what the traffic on I-10 would be on a Monday morning. It turned out to be a breeze and we were in their driveway just after 7am.

Three hours later, they confirmed a faulty lift pump and had to order parts. They expect the parts to be there by Wednesday and we set another appointment for Thursday morning. Hopefully they can complete the work in one day.

When we got back to our site, I had another pressing matter. I had to buy a new battery for Midget-San. I dropped Donna off at Walmart then went across the lot to AutoZone. I wanted to order an Optima Yellow Top spiral wound AGM battery – they aren’t cheap but they are very high quality and have long life. The size I needed wasn’t in stock and the distributor showed them as back-ordered. I couldn’t wait indefinitely, so I opted for an off-the-shelf Duralast AGM battery.

I charged the new battery overnight – this isn’t really necessary, it would start the car off the shelf and charge while driving. But, charging it gently and letting it trickle charge overnight is easier on the cells and gets a new battery off to a good start. As always, changing the battery wasn’t as easy as it seemed. On the Midget, the battery is located in the rear center of the engine compartment behind the heater box. This made pulling the old battery out and installing the new one a bit of a wrestling match.

New battery on the left, old one on the right

I thought the old battery might have been damaged when the voltage regulator on the the old alternator went kaput. It was overcharging the battery and probably cooked it. When I removed the old battery, I saw the date stamp was March of 2016 – so it was at the end of its usable life anyway.

Although the old and the new batteries are both Group 51 batteries and dimensionally identical, the poles of the battery posts are reversed. Positive is on the left rear of the new battery while it’s on the right rear of the old one. This just meant I had to flip the battery around so the positive post was by the positive cable and the negative post was by the negative cable.

When you change a car battery or any big battery, you should always disconnect the negative terminal first. This way if you accidently ground your wrench against the car body or chassis while removing the positive terminal, it can’t short circuit. Likewise when you install the new battery, it’s positive terminal first, then negative terminal.

Battery behind heater box – note quick disconnect on negative terminal and red insulator on the positive terminal

I have a quick disconnect fitting on the negative terminal. This allows me to disconnect the battery electrically from the vehicle if it’s going to sit unused for a lengthy period and can also act as an anti-theft device.

It’s been very warm and breezy here in Buckeye. Donna didn’t let the heat and wind stop her from playing pickleball this morning while I changed out the battery. I’ll probably join her on the courts tomorrow. The forecast calls for highs in the 90s until a cooling trend arrives on Saturday. They say we’ll have highs in the upper 60s and low 70s for the next two weeks. I’ll believe when I see it.

Blowin’ in the Wind

We were joined by Mike and Jodi Hall and their granddaughter Swayzie and her friend Valerie on Friday afternoon. They pulled in to Pleasant Harbor RV Resort around 2pm and took the site directly behind us. When I pull into a site and begin my set-up routine, I generally dislike interruptions or distractions and rarely engage a neighbor in small talk – that often leads to mistakes in my routine.

I broke my own unwritten rule and went over and started talking to Mike as he was setting up their travel trailer. After about 10 minutes, I realized I wasn’t being helpful and let him finish without me distracting him.

On Friday evening, Donna grilled a pile of marinated chicken drumsticks. We all sat around the picnic table at our site and struggled with poor lighting. Donna also made potato salad and a delightful kale salad. After dinner, we had carrot cake Donna baked for dessert – it included a few cut pieces with birthday candles. My birthday was two weeks earlier, Swayzie’s ninth birthday was Saturday, October 24th and Mike’s birthday was Monday, October 26th. It was a good time.

On Saturday, we took the golf cart shuttle to the marina and went to Dillon’s for lunch. The shuttle is the way to go – if you drive over, you have to park above the marina and it’s quite a hike down the ramp and then a long walk on a floating walkway to the restaurant/bar. The shuttle drives all the way across the floating access onto the marina dock right outside of Dillon’s.

They have a huge water slide on the dock that ends with an upturned lip that flings people from the slide into the air over the water. We saw a few guys doing flips and twists in the air, but we also saw a few belly-flops and one guy smacked the water as he hit horizontally on his back and side – it sounded painful. We enjoyed lunch – most of us ordered from their barbeque menu – and enjoyed a couple of cold ones. The food was good, albeit on the pricy side for what it was. But the view and setting command the price. I don’t know why I failed to take any pictures.

Friday’s high temperature reached the low 90s and Saturday and Sunday were in the high 80s. Historically, the average high temperature in this area at this time of year reaches 89 degrees with a low of 60 degrees. On Sunday, Donna and the Halls went to the Lake Pleasant Regional Park and hiked the Wild Burro trail. They didn’t see any wild burros, but they made the trip down to the Scorpion Bay Marina. I stayed home and watched the Formula One race from Portugal and the Moto GP race from Spain.

The temperatures were on the warm side Sunday, but in the afternoon, the wind started to pick up. I pulled our awning in as it was starting to billow a bit. While I was watching TV, I heard a loud bang! I looked outside and saw our neighbor across the street come outside. He looked around, then focused on the fifth-wheel trailer next to his site.

It was a Vilano fifth-wheel trailer with dual awnings and they were deployed. I knew the owner, Mike, was out on the lake in his boat – I’d seen him load up and leave earlier. Just then, his front awning blew up like a balloon and the frame arms scissored in as the air spring gave way. The arms crashed against the coach siding with a loud whack! When it happened again, I figured damage was imminent.

Last week, Donna talked to Mike when she was petting his Basset hound, Otis. Mike told her that she could come and visit the dog anytime – he doesn’t lock the trailer when he’s out on the lake. I took this as permission to enter. I walked over and knocked on the door, knowing no one was home. I opened the unlocked door and called out as Otis came over for a sniff. I let myself in.

I looked around for switches to operate the electric awnings. I didn’t see any, but I saw a touch screen that operated the various room lights. I looked at the screen and saw a small icon at the bottom that looked like an awning. I touched the icon and the screen then displayed an extend/retract button for awning 1 and another button for awning 2. Eureka! I retracted the awnings and left.

Later, when Mike returned with his boat after sunset, I walked over and told him what had happened. I wanted him to know I entered his coach and why. He was grateful and told me he could hardly believe he left his awnings out – he knew better than to do that. He was so grateful that later, when he returned from the store, he gave me a six-pack of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted.

Monday morning, Mike and Jodi packed up the kids and their stuff and pulled out around 11am. The forecast for Monday’s weather called for a 40% chance of rain a few days ago. It was revised to no rain, but a cold, blustery day ahead. The wind started picking up by noon. The high temperature only reached 69 degrees.

The wind continued to strengthen throughout the afternoon. By 3pm, I decided to take the whip down from my Frankenbuddi Versatee Vertical HF antenna. It extends about 30 feet in the air and was moving quite a bit in the wind. The wind gusts became stronger and isolated dust storms came through the area. By dark, we had gusts of 40mph and blowing debris that made it look like a blizzard was coming through.

The car cover blew off of Midget-San. I went out in the dark and wind to retrieve it. Sand and leaves were blowing everywhere. Donna helped me secure the cover back over the Midget. I hate to think of what the interior must look like – it was exposed to all of the blowing debris.

The gusting winds continued all night, rocking the coach at times. It made for a fitful night’s sleep. This morning, the winds are still blowing, but not nearly as strong as yesterday. I went out to take a look around. Of course our chairs blew down and one of the table cloths disappeared. There are leaves and debris in all of the sites – there weren’t any leaves to be seen on the ground before. Even our door mats blew away.

Leaves and debris in the site around Mike’s Vilano fifth-wheel trailer – it’s the one I pulled the awnings in.

In the site across from where Mike and Jodi were, a canopy cover was destroyed.

Never underestimate the power of wind! This morning, my Comet GP6 UHF/VHF antenna was listing to one side. I re-secured the mount to straighten it. Even with the lower wind strength this morning, the antenna is whipping around.

This morning’s wind pushing the antenna around.

The wind is supposed to abate and be reasonably calm this afternoon. I’ll put the HF antenna back up and do some clean-up. The forecast calls for high 60s again today before we start warming back up to more normal daily highs.

We plan to move out of here on Saturday, so I’ll start reorganizing the trailer in the next few days. We’ll be moving south to Buckeye where we can visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family.

I Got a Feeling

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.

Pull/push handle and cable to operate tank valve

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.

Alaska sockeye topped with sauteed ginger and scallions

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.

Kayak, Wind and Fire

Most afternoons, I set up my ham radio in the shade on a small table and see who’s talking. On Thursday afternoon, I was doing just that when I picked up a mobile transmission from a guy traveling west on AZ74 (Carefree Highway) and heard him talking about a fire near Crown King. I got in on his conversation to ask for more detail as Crown King isn’t too far from Lake Pleasant – it’s about 40 miles north.

I walked to the front of our site and sure enough, the sky to the northwest was full of smoke. Where I was sitting in the shade by the trailer, I couldn’t see it. I thanked the guy for the info and shot a couple of photos

Smoke over the lake coming from the northwest

The smoke was heavy and continued to the southeast toward Glendale and Phoenix.

Currently, the fire encompasses about 10,000 acres and is burning six miles northwest of Crown King – about 18 miles south of Prescott. The area is sparsely populated and about 100 people had to evacuate Friday morning. The Forest Service says there’s a lot of valuable equipment at the top of Crown King – I’m guessing communication and television transmission gear. They’re calling it the Horse Fire. This has certainly been the summer of fire in west.

High winds kicked up unexpectedly Thursday night and into Friday morning. I’m sure this hampered firefighting efforts. Donna had signed up for a guided kayak tour from the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was a ranger-led event called Pleasant Paddlers. Donna wasn’t about to let the wind deter her. I had loaded the Sea Eagle kayak in the Midget the night before and drove Donna to the regional park. The north park entrance is about seven miles from Pleasant Harbor RV Resort.

We set up the kayak in the lot above the Castle Creek boat ramp and lugged it down to the water. There were eight participants including two rangers. They set off a few minutes before 9am.

Heading out from the bottom of the boat ramp

The water near the ramp is in a protected cove and was calm. That wasn’t the case once they hit open water on the lake though.

Choppy water on the lake – smoke from the Horse Fire to the north

They came across a herd of 26 wild burros in a cove.

At another cove, they stopped for lunch and saw more burros.

Lunch break – wild burros on the hill in the background

After lunch, the winds died down and they had a nice paddle back. The tour lasted nearly four hours and they covered 5.9 miles! Donna’s feeling it today.

Today I tackled a project on my “to do” list. Our Dometic 320 RV toilet has had an intermittent leak. A few drops of water come out by the foot-operated flush valve from time to time. Earlier, I checked the manual for the toilet to see what parts are involved with the flush valve and found an interesting note in the manual. The note addressed two common complaints.

The first note regarded the toilet bowl not holding water. It said the first thing to do was to shut off the water supply, then hold the toilet bowl drain valve open with your foot. With a gloved hand they recommended using your finger to push the seal and seat it.

We had this problem a few weeks ago, so I did the recommended procedure and found a build up of minerals deposited under the seal. With my finger I was able to push the deposits away from the seal and it worked – the toilet held water again.

The second part of the note addressed water dripping from the water supply valve at the foot-operated lever. It showed how the water valve is a cartridge-type set-up with a piston that opens the valve to allow water to flow into the toilet when you step on the foot lever.

I found a replacement cartridge at Dyersonline.com. Dyers carries many lines of genuine Dometic replacement parts. I’d ordered awning parts from them in the past. They have a warehouse in Anthem – only a few miles away from Pleasant Harbor. I called them and was told no in-person sales at the warehouse were permitted due to covid-19 restrictions. I had to pay for FedEx delivery. Oh well, at least I got the part.

At first I thought I would have to remove the entire toilet to access the cartridge, but after looking it over and seeing how it was fastened, I went for it with the toilet in place.

The cartridge has two plastic springs that catch in slots on the housing. This loosely holds the cartridge in place, then two screws anchor it to the housing. The cartridge kit included new screws and a hose clamp for the hose running from the valve into the toilet.

The first thing I had to do was to release the water supply line from the elbow at the cartridge water inlet. I used pex tubing when I installed the toilet and used Shark Bite fittings. These are clever arrangements. The Shark Bite uses a horseshoe-shaped device that fits over the tubing for disassembly. Pushing the device against the fitting while pulling on the tube releases it. Ingenious! To reassemble, you simply push the pex tubing back into the Shark Bite fitting and it locks in place with a water-tight seal.

While I was removing the old cartridge, I think I uncovered the root of the problem. The toilet had been assembled at the factory with only one screw holding the cartridge in place. With only one corner of the cartridge firmly screwed down, it was relying on the spring clips to hold it. I think this may have allowed the cartridge to cock slightly when pressure was applied to the foot lever as it contacted the piston. This, in turn, put a side thrust force on the piston which may have cocked it in its bore and broke the seal at times.

I reassembled it with two screws – one on the upper left and one on the lower right as designed. Job done! It seems Dometic knows the failure modes of their toilets!

Yesterday, Donna whipped up her mojo marinade before we set off for her kayaking adventure. When I returned from dropping her off, I put the now cooled marinade into a sealed bag with a pork tenderloin. Last night, Donna grilled it and served it with sweet potato French fries and asparagus. Another nutritious, delicious meal and we’ll be enjoying leftover mojo pork tacos for lunch!

Mojo marinade pork tenderloin with asparagus and sweet potato fries

The hot weather continues with daily highs in the upper 90s. The forecast calls for another week of the same before we cool off to a more normal high in the low to mid 80s.

RV Park Antennas

I ended my last post by briefly mentioning ham radio antennas. Today I’m going to write more on the subject, so if you don’t have any interest in ham radio, just skip down to the dinner plates!

Ham radio operators in the USA currently can be licensed in three levels. First is the Technician License which allows access to the Very High Frequency Band (VHF) and the Ultra High Frequency Band (UHF) with very limited access to High Frequency (HF) on six meters and 10 meters. Frequency and band nomenclature can be confusing for non-ham operators. Frequency is a measure of signal modulation in cycles per second known as Hertz. A band refers to a range of related frequencies and is broadly referred to by its wavelength in approximate meters. Here’s the thing – the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. So, the 2-meter band is a higher frequency band than the 20-meter band.

Then there’s the General License which opens up a lot more opportunities on HF bands that are useful for long-distance contacts. The top level is called Amateur Extra and requires in-depth technical knowledge of radio theory and operation.

When I began assembling my ham gear, I hadn’t taken my exam yet. I was supremely confident of passing the Technician exam and assumed I would be operating with a Technician License. I ordered a Comet GP6 antenna to receive and transmit on VHF/UHF – 2-meter and 70cm bands. This has proven to be a good choice – compact, easy to set up and take down, rugged and efficient. I also bought a dual band Diamond CP610 antenna. This is an enlarged version of a vertical like the Comet and will receive and transmit on the 6-meter and 10-meter bands. This was not the best choice as it wasn’t very stable at 22 feet long.

When I took my exam, I easily passed the Technician exam. Then they offered me a chance to take the General exam at no charge – I did and passed. This meant I needed another antenna for HF bands 10-meter and lower.

As full-time RVers, I have limitations on what antennas I can reasonably use. As I’ve studied and learned, it’s apparent that all antenna designs are compromises in one way or another. I needed an HF antenna that was portable, could easily be stored in the trailer, set up easily and not require a lot of real estate. Stability was important too – it would be bad to have my antenna fall over and hit someone’s RV.

I ended up buying an MFJ-2289 Big Ear antenna. This is a V-shaped dipole antenna with 17-foot long collapsible whips and a coil to tune to 10- through 40-meter bands. This antenna is aptly named – it has big ears and I could hear stations from long distances. On three occasions, when conditions were favorable, I was able to talk to a guy in Spain once and twice to a guy in Slovenia. However, most of time I could hear distant conversations, but they couldn’t hear me or my signal was broken and noisy. I usually operate on 20 meters in the afternoon and switch to 40 meters later in the day.

After doing more research, I found the V-dipole acts like a horizontal dipole. For maximum long distance efficiency, it needs to be mounted high above ground level – for 40 meters it would ideally be mounted at least 60 feet high. I can’t put up a 60-foot tower!

I’m also a little skeptical of the quality and durability of the materials MFJ uses. The long whips seem a little flimsy and are really pushed around by wind.

After doing more homework, I came up with a few ideas. One day, I was talking on the radio with a guy in northern California named Budd Drummond (W3FF). It turns out that Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole modular antenna system. He didn’t try to sell me on it – he just threw out a few ideas and suggested I check out the website and maybe contact his son, Chris Drummond who’s the owner and CEO of Buddipole. Budd is retired, although he still consults with Chris.

Buddipole has some standard packages and configurations, but many ham operators consider Buddipole to be the erector set of antennas. You can mix and match parts to make what you desire. I had a conversation with Chris and outlined my limitations and what I would like to be able to do with ham radio. We came up with a design that would meet my criteria – of course, compromises are always made with antennas. The design is based on what Buddipole calls a Versatee Vertical. I call mine a Frankenbuddi.

Buddipole uses high – quality materials. The collapsible shock-cord whip sections are made of anodized 7075 aluminum. They offer a system beginning with a stable, high-quality tripod and a collapsible mast. The Buddipole components screw directly into the end of the mast. This put the base of my vertical antenna about 10 1/2 feet above ground level and I have about 21 feet of vertical whip. It also has a tuning coil, so I can tune the antenna from 10 meters to 40 meters. It utilizes a wire counterpoise ground that I run from the antenna base feedpoint sloping to a point about three feet above the ground.

With all this stuff, I knew I needed instruments to properly set up the antenna. I bought a RigExpert antenna analyzer. With this meter, I’m able to set this up and accurately tune it. The whip does bend a bit in the wind. I’ve added a couple of guy lines to help support it although it never budged with three one-gallon water bottles suspended from the tripod.

Buddipole – white whip in background is the Comet antenna

I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve talked to people all over the US from the northeast to Florida to the midwest and western states. I listened to a conversation in Japanese that presumably originated in Japan – it was as clear as if they were in the same room with me. I also picked up a weak signal from Germany. Long distance to Europe or Japan or Australia is very much influenced by propagation conditions in the upper atmosphere – a good antenna helps immensely, but if conditions are bad, signals are bad.

Another ham operator here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort really pushes the antenna boundaries. He has at least five antennas up in his site. See if you can spot them in the photo below.

Here they’re identified. The loop antenna is misleading in this photo – it’s much larger than it appears.

The beam antenna is actually an over-the-air HDTV antenna

The whole idea of electro-magnetic waves constantly around us is fascinating to me. In fact, light is created by super-high frequency waves! Any conductor can be tuned to receive specific frequencies – it’s just a matter of amplifying the received signal and processing it to hear what it contains.

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

The Buddipole came with a coaxial cable. It was another compromise. Buddipole leans toward highly mobile, lightweight equipment. The cable they supplied was RG58u and although it’s light and easily packed, it also creates high loss. I wanted to use my RG8U which has a much larger conductor – it’s stiff and heavy by comparison, but it’s also low loss. So on Saturday, Donna and I drove to Ham Radio Outlet in Peoria. I had forgotten how much metro Phoenix sprawls – it took us about 50 minutes to reach the store. I bought an adapter for my cable so I could hook up the low loss RG8U to the Buddipole TRSB. Checking both configurations with the RigExpert antenna analyzer, I can honestly say it was worth the trip. The RG8U coaxial cable is far superior in performance to the RG58u.

Time to talk food. Donna manned the Weber Q to cook a simple favorite – sriracha chicken thighs. She used boneless thighs this time and they were great. She says she’ll stick to boneless for this dish.

Last night, she prepared a meal we had both mostly forgotten about. In fact, we think we last had this when we were still living in our sticks-and-bricks home, so it’s been at least seven and half years.

It was very good. I don’t know why this dish was forgotten.

Our daily highs have dropped about ten degrees from what we experienced last week. We’re still running air conditioning, but not as early or as long. Donna’s been taking advantage of the swimming pool. You have to reserve a time slot which varies from two to four hours – they only allow 50 people at a time in each time slot and you can only reserve one time slot per day.

The long range forecast calls for low 80s the last week of this month. We’ve made a change to our itinerary. We’ll leave Lake Pleasant on the 30th and move to Buckeye where we’ll be able to more easily visit Jamie and Francisco.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Turkey and Ham

Dorco, Dollar and Defender

Touchpads and Tokyo Calling

Mesa Move-in

Rocky Mountain Ripoff

Hiking, Shooting, Halloween and Trouble

Blowin’ in the Wind

I Got a Feeling

Kayak, Wind and Fire

RV Park Antennas

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