Adventures

April 24, 2022

This was a great weekend for my Ham radio hobby. I built this Jpole antenna on Sunday and spent some time tuning it with my MFJ VHF SWR meter. It is more convenient then my mag mount on a ground plane because I can leave it out all the time. I just move it a little for better reception. I now hit all my favorite repeaters with only 10 watts. Another highligt was getting to speak to Reggie from Jandakot West Australia. I listened to the net that he hosts and then I made my first Echolink transmission from the off grid shack. Much to my surprise, Reggie picked up after he had closed the net. He is a legend in Ham radio and I am super glad that I was able to make that contact. That will go down as one of my favorites. I told him how much I appreciated him and his net. I made another contact on Sunday with a ham using echolink from Albany, NY.

April 23, 2022

I made some major progress at the shack this weekend. I finished the ceiling and added a bunk. I burned a Duraflame log this weekend. It burned hot and warmed the place up. My guys in Pine Center brought me my class 5 so it's go time. I will start building my driveway next weekend. I need to lay the fabric and cover it with a thin layer of class 5. Then the guys will cover the underlayment with pit fill and more class 5. When the driveway is done I can focus on getting the shack moved.

April 17, 2022

I have been super excited about this weekend. I got to install the wood stove that I built last weekend. I made the tripple insulated pipe necessary for passing through the atic and roof by nesting 6 inch stove pipe in 8 inch stove pipe and stuffing the void with unfaced fiber glass insulation. It stays incredibly cool to the touch even after hours of firing. You can see the insulated portion of the flue passing through the shingled roof. I brought the chimney cap beyond the peak of the building and the flue draws an excellent draft. I made a pellet basket because a majority of the time I will be burning pellets. I've done this before in another stove I owned and I enjoyed the convenience of burning bagged pellets. When I installed the stove I also installed an electric heater for use with my generator as another source of heat. I ate one of my sister's MREs for lunch. The last two pictures are of a deer outside my window tonight.

April 11, 2022

I finished the wood burning stove today. I painted it with high heat stove paint. I am hoping to install the stove this coming weekend if the weather is even half cooperative. I still need to make a pellet basket. I think I will start tomorrow.

April 9, 2022

I spent the day at the 20. My goal was to weld the wood stove. I got the welding done. Tomorrow I will add the door and flue collar and hopefully some paint. I still need to build the pellet basket. I am hoping to install the stove in the shack soon. I brought my new trailer and generator. I set up a temporary work area on the approach. The spring melt is just about off but the frost is still in the ground. My gravel road fabric is coming this week and I want to start installation soon. I have a picture of logs marking the building site. I had an MRE for lunch (courtesy of my sister).

April 4-8 2022

Most of this week I spent working on and testing antennas. I got my MFJ SWR meter on Wednesday and played with different ground plane configurations on Wednesday, Thursday, and Fiday until I finally got a pretty low SWR. When I first got the meter and hooked it up to my Nagoya antenna with the plow disk as a ground plane....I was appalled. The SWR was at just about 5 at 30 watts. Not good for the radio, transmit, or reception. I scrapped the plow disk because apparently its shape does not reflect the signal right. I got a 1/8" by 18" inch square ground plane and I drilled it for radials. I experimented with different numbers of radials and different angles. 8 radials at a 30 degree downward angle got my SWR to just over 1. I am very glad I purchased that SWR meter! My next contact was with a guy that had spoken to me before over the same repeater so we had a good bench mark for how each other sounded. He actually told me to turn my power down with the new antenna. He sounded better coming in as well. I have a picture of the ground plane below. I installed rubber feet so that it would not damage anything I put it on.

April 3, 2022

This morning I made a couple of good contacts on 2 meter. I've heard both these guys before, but it was nice to learn a little more today. My new yaesu FT 2980 and antenna setup works very well. I should get my SWR meter this week so I can do some testing. I want to see if this antenna has a good ground plane. The first video is of my current base radio set up. This afternoon I spent some time building the new wood stove for the cabin. I have a couple of pictures showing the progress. I hope to have it about done next weekend. I also finished the generator trailer. I pulled the generator around and it pulled fantastic. I will be using that next weekend.

April 2, 2022

I took a day trip to the shack on Saturday. I now have it all prepped for the wood stove. I had to change the location of some wiring so that it does not interfere with the chimney. I also removed the off grid setup as I will not be using it for the next setup. There will be some more modifications to come. There is a lot of snow left in the trees. I had to use my sled to bring the generator to the shack. The road is still impassable.

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