Cooties Again

This cootie was made by Dennis, N5DRB, my nephew.  You've seen some of his work before.   This is a first for me, the magnetic tensioning makes adjustment very precise and stable.  I'm having a blast sideswiping!!!

its alive!!! brent that is.

hey rats.just thought ide touch base and let you know we are alive and well. was busy working...ouch..OT alot.

back on the reg routine now. just talked to ae7li on 985 tonight. didnt know where on 160 you guys were, nut now i do.

hope averyone is having a wonderful early winter staying inside and talking on the radio while us young guys have to work!! ha.
will be on the airwaves again soon.

take care.

ve7ren brent

Winter Photos

It's been a while since I've been to town and had access the the internet. So here's a few photos of what we've been up to recently.

The first is a shot of my 1976 Power Wagon with the BOSS snow plow. I'd just bought this truck in January of 1977 a few months before meeting Lori. It still works great even with balding tires.

This next photo is of my home brew firewood processing gizmo we have on the back porch.  We get these dry 5 foot long logs and then we zap them into 16 inch hunks.  Bada Bing, Bada Boom!

This next one is a photo of a Swan on Little Beaver Lake that seems to be staying over for the winter.  We think it may have been injured.  But it always seems to be content and has several duck buddies that it hangs with.  Plus there's always a spot of open water on this lake where it comes out of the spring.

Here's a view of our house from the driveway below.  I took this photo while plowing on a nice day.

Have a great December if I don't get back to the blog before next year.

New Cootie

Not really new, just the second one modified a bit.  (Added a steel base and painted an ugly black.)

Woodrat Woodtrip

This is a view of the road to Chesaw from our place. The needles of the Tamarac trees have all turned gold and fallen to the ground covering the roadsides.

Here I am splitting wood for the winter. WOO HOO!

MY POST AT THE FAIRE ... ONLY DAMN PIC I GOT ... WHAT A FUN, BUSY , AND COLD WEEKEND

Aurora On HF CW signal

http://www.youtube.com/user/NG9D?feature=mhee#p/u/12/K8zOLNNVBEs

Click on the link to see a you-tube video of a QSO between NG9D (Lynn) and W7WEL (Yours truly)..  
 Date of QSO: 10/24/11
QTH was Plainfield, IL 

Wood Rat Prose...

A Bit of Nostalgia

By

Bill Linn - North Idaho

Oftentimes I catch myself reminiscing — lately, more often than not. Only yesterday I heard a redwing blackbird calling from the willows along the slough below my house. Closing my eyes, I was whisked away once again to the days of my youth. I was chasing around the millpond, beside the rivers, and up and down the dusty roads in Tom Sawyer fashion.
Then, drifting on to another time, another place, I heard the calling of a whippoorwill from the woods across a field of sedge — just beyond that ancient fence of rail and stone. And in the new, warm evening dusk a foggy mist had gathered in the low places, adding a special aura to the sound of foxes barking along the creek.
The moon had risen from its hiding place among the hills. Those slight clouds scudding across her face seemed to suggest a smile — as if she was pleased with herself for once again chasing the bitter sun into the horizon and beyond.
From a piney ridge to the West came the call of the great horned owl. He fluffed his feathers and stretched his wings, then sailed out into the slivery moonlight, pumped up to an altitude that gave command of the terraces curling lazily around the pond. From here he struck terror in the little field mouse and kangaroo rat as they scurried about looking for tender buds and shoots.
And just beyond that mound of sticks and mud, the muskrat left a trailing arc of gentle wake that slowly washed into the reeds, causing moonbeams to dance their way up to the very muzzle of a timid deer pausing to drink.
I saw the fireflies as they went — marking out a pattern on the warm night breeze, a breeze that caused a murmur among the leaves of the locust trees.
I heard the night sounds of the katydid, the cricket, the tree frog in the well-house, and all the little flying creatures - blending together in a symphony that rose slowly in volume until it could no longer go unnoticed.
Yes, my friend, nostalgia is the bitters that comes of change, so often accompanied by a lump in the throat - the welling of tears as the soul weeps for those moments to once again be real. The vagaries of the past, they come and go, leaving me with those distant scenes that catch and pull upon the very corners of my heart.

The Wood Rat Moves In

Is this a friendly encounter, or what?

SOMETHING FUN TO DO

HOWSIT ?

I HAVE FOUND A HOBBY THAT WORKS WELL INTO THE WOOD RAT M.O.

WWW.GEOCACHING.COM

TYPE IN YOUR ZIP AND GET STARTED . IF YOU RESEARCH WELL USING THE SAT MAP YOU DON'T EVEN NEED A GPS FOR ALOT OF THEM. THE FREE MEMBERSHIP IS ALL ONE NEED'S TO GET STARTED . I HAVE FOUND ALOT ALREADY IT IS FUN .

SO WHEN YOUR OUT AND ABOUT WHY NOT ADD A TREASURE HUNT ALONG THE WAY

GEOCACHE YOU'LL BE SUPRISED HOW MANY LITTLE TRESURES YOU HAVE PASSED BY IN A DAY . 73 TO YOU ALL

The Great Outdoors

So here's a closeup of the "Camp Antenna" that I cobbled together at the last minute before our trip up to Lost Lake. I used a leftover PVC "T" and a short hunk of pipe that I had in my junk pile.  I added an eye bolt and few other nuts and bolts along with a couple of wing nuts and some big flat washers.

Then I clamped the two legs of the dipole to the two leads of the ladder line and taped the feed line to the bottom hunk of pipe for support.

 

Then I had to think outside the box and improvise because the balun I had planned to use was bad.  So I just stuck one end of the feed line into the center of the SO 239 connector on the rear of my auto tuner and hooked the other side of the feed line to the ground lug.  In other words... I Wood Ratted it!

And it tuned up just fine and I was on the air from the Great Outdoors.

Here's the station as I had it set up on the picnic table in camp.

Here's me and our Golden Retriever "Teva" talking to the world.

Lori is a good cook even if she has to use a camp fire.

That's a New York strip steak along with veggies and a baked potato.

Here's a shot of our Wood Ratty RV.  We call her "Belle"

But all good things must come to an end.

Here's Lori and Stoli and Teva as we're about to head for home.

More Woodrat Gathering Photos

Bob checking out his camera.

Miss Lori.  (Just practicing?)

Frank's tent was the common gathering place for the 'Rats.

Some Rat Killin' takin place here!  Bill, Jeff, Lori, Allen, and Frank (L to R)

Bob, Lori, Ann Marie

Jeff, Bob and Lori

The Potholes..

Front - Stoli  Middle- Jeff and Carol, Top- Bill and Lori

Woodrat Rendezvous 2011

Here are some photos of the Woodrat Rendezvous we held down at Mardon Resort near Moses Lake in June of 2011. Thanks must go to Carol for these photos.

Seen here are W7WEL and his missus on the left in the forground.  WB7NZI can be seen between them in the background.  AE7LI and KF7LGC in the back.  KA4DXP.  And on the right is KF7HQH and his missus.

Here we see AE7LI and W7WEL exchanging a few one liners.

W7WEL and KA4DXP are either looking for good deals on eBay or updating their Facbook pages for their BFFs.

WB7WFL and WB7NZI making plans to scare the other campers later that night.

Stoli the Ham Dog came along to pick up after the rest of us.  He kept us all on a short leash.

ALL TOGETHER NOW

"A FISHING WE WILL GO, A FISHING WE WILL GO." Just a reminder to ya'all, February is coming up, and you all know what that is don't you? "ITS FLY TYING MONTH." Its the preseason to the preseason, time to create. Go through and spiffy up all that fishing and outdoor gear that has been catapulted in a corner or closet for the off season. Grease up the reels, clean the lines, oil up the guns, er, whatever you use in the outdoors, to catch fish or hey, keep the dupont spinners in a dry box in the house and rotate the sticks every so often.

Just think, with this snow everyone is enjoying so much, Spring is right around the corner, and all that comes with it. Gardens, plants, spiffy up the old git'mobile, draw lines on roadmaps with X spots, and don't even think of the torrid lawns to mow and stuff, thats work, concentrate on the fun things, even the new wire or whatever antenna's you going to erect and chicken houses with Ham Radio's in them ala auto tuners. Fun things. With all the darkness and cave dwellings we have to suffer through this hibernation period for the coming days till the equonox slaps us in the face, keep ur face into the wind and mind on the days to come. Don't be one of them "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" that after you get to the fishing hole forget to put the line on your reel or can't find a spatula to flip the Possum burger. Don't want to hear that jumble, as ye'gots de whole Vinter to gadder'em up fer yuz firzd mizzion to da udder wurld. THE GREAT OUTDOORS OF WOODRAT'DOM.

KB7UZB SHACK

IT IS GOOD TO BE HOME

WELL,

I AM GLAD TO BE HOME FOR SURE .... THANK YOU FOR THE WARM WELCOMES AND THE INSTANT HELP TO GET MY STATION BACK UP TO PAR....

THE PAST FEW DAYS HAVE FOUND CONDITIONS NOT SO GOOD.. I WAS HOWEVER (AFTER A SMALL MOD ON MY 706 ) ABLE TO ORIGINATE AND PASS MY FIRST PIECE OF RN7 TRAFFIC... HOPE YOU ALL FIND NEW AND FUN THINGS TO TRY THIS SUMMER ... WONDER WHAT FIELD DAY WILL BRING..

WWW.KB7UZB.WEEBLY.COM

The Road Home

>> Click on the photos to view them larger <<<

We had a wonderful time at the Woodrat Rendezvous near Moses Lake. Then we decided to take another route home. This road took us north past the Sun Lakes area.  This is the view looking north at Blue Lake... I think???

This is another view looking south at Sun Lakes Resort on the north end of the same lake.

A little further north and you can visit Dry Falls. This huge bowl was formed a long time ago when the ice age glaciers moved down and blocked the mighty Columbia River, causing it to divert through this area and create a huge waterfall much larger than the more famous and present day Niagra Falls. When the glacier retreated, the river resumed its natural course and left these falls high and dry.

Here is where we took the new route home and followed Banks Lake...

North toward the Grand Coulee Dam.

We crossed the bridge to the other side and discovered the place where old Amateur Radio Operators go to retire.

Then we stopped in Nespelem. WA on the Colville Reservation and paid our respects to Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce tribe before finally heading home.  What a great trip!

Cool videos for Woodrats

This guy has some cool 'how-to' videos for real woodrats who like to roll their own.

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnrob281

Mr. Frank's "Scarecoon" And a scared coon!

Frank and I are trying to figure out how to post pictures on the Blog..

Click on the photo to enlarge....

When writing text into a New Post you will see a small Icon just to the right of the word "Link"  which is underlined and located on the top edge of the text box.  That icon looks like a miniature picture and when you place your curser on it a drop down will say, "Insert Image."  Clicking on that Icon will bring up a "Add Images" box.  Click on the "Browse" button, find you picture file, click on it and it will be shown in the "Add Images" box.   Choose more files if you want more than one picture.  As pictures are added to this box they have a blue outline around them, meaning that they are "Selected."   To de-select, put your curser on the photo and click once.  The blue outline will disappear when de-selected.  Click it again, and the blue box will appear again, indicating that it is once again "Selected"

Click on the "Add Selected"  to upload.

I have just completed the process outlined above.  Now I will click on "Publish Post." 

KF7OXP has Woodrat Potential

Not sure if I told you all about my son Stan's Beer Blog.  But it's kinda fun to read. 
He's a chip off the 'ol block.

Here's a link to the kid's Beer Blog: --->  http://nwbeardedbrewerandciderwench.blogspot.com/

Road Trip

I had to run to town and check the internets. The rain stopped for a minute so I pulled over to take this shot of the wet cliff face across the Kettle River.

Bob's family

KB5QGR and KA4DXP

For those who wonder about the faces behind the voice on 3840....

Carol and Allen

 And, here's the upgraded homebrew tuner with new roller inductors installed.