Some Odds and Ends for 6/27/17

Greetings!

This will be a short post.  I feel the need to catch up on the odds and ends.

First, the new job is really kicking into gear.  I'm having a great deal of fun in it.  Unfortunately, I don't discuss my job very often here, and whenever that happens, it's in passing like it is now.  I put in long hours at times, and take flex days off on others.  It's something that I enjoy doing, and it's a great job for me.

Second, I've started another blog page for my ham radio activities (it is now occurring to me that I am so burned, that I can't remember if I mentioned this!  It was a long day today!)  That is intended for a ham radio audience, and I've been writing a great deal more over there than I am on here.

I am now back on the air, now adding the six meter band to my operating repertoire.  I've never operated on this band before.  It's called the "Magic Band" and I found out why last Sunday.  The frequency band is at the lower end of the VHF spectrum.  It's notionally line of sight, but some weird things can happen with propagation, especially during the summer.  The E layer of the ionosphere will form plasma clouds that reflect this signals back to earth, thus giving you "skip".

Last Sunday afternoon we had a band opening, and I was able to talk to stations in Texas and Kansas....two each.  I also chatted with a local in Tucson.  Using the QRZ.com website, I was able to determine that the record distance for me (on this band) is 979.5 miles......from Tucson all the way to northeast Kansas.  Needless to say I was pleased as punch that that simple dipole antenna I built gave me these results.  Theoretically, I knew that it could happen, and would happen if conditions were right, and it was great to be operating again!  It really was!

Third, I'm hoping to have some fun on the barbecue this weekend.  I've had to focus on yardwork and that never ending task of keeping other things in order.  I plan on doing some more hamming this extended weekend, but I also hope to get away on a day trip with Sheila.

That's pretty much it.