KG6TGU

On 3/17/2023 at 7:56 PM, Michael51 said:

Really sorry to hear about your MREs - that's just awful.  Just in case you end up buying more, Atlantic Firearms has Humanitarian MREs still, which are around $50 for a case of 10 (20 meals total) and I believe ArmyNavyOutdoors has some Ameriqual MREs (12 per case) for the same price.  I store mine is bins like the ones in the image from Amazon - they clamp shut and have slots to run zip-ties through them to help keep them secure from freeloaders like squirrels.

a bin like this will only slow them down a couple minutes. some smaller plastic, inside of a tool storage box. like you sometimes see hanging from a job site crane.

they are vary strong, can hold off a bear even. but still cover all gaps with a sealant and real duct tape, the metal coated stuff.

i am just retired. so my life is upside down right now. trying to be a day walker, i have been working the night (4:pm to 4:30 am) for the past 10 years.

but after the rain stops i plan to get a antenna up in my back yard. just a tec right now, but trying to learn so i can up grade to a general. as my job has for the most part put my life on hold. only 50-55 hrs week for a time before that 80+ hrs was normal. --truck driver.

i was surprised myself. as I had known it, the 911 calls went to the chp. or maybe a thing about my iphone?

(i was in fresno, ca. hit the emg call button, and it called the calaveras county sheriff.  i had a couple bums refusing to get away from my truck while i was unloading, and yes i did ask politely first, then told them to to leave, they refused. till i said i am calling the police and pulled out my phone.) yes bums like to attack truck drivers as we unload alone most of the time. this job is 24-7-363 days a year.

but now i am retired 🙃 so that is not a problem for me any longer.

no quite so KD3Y, the 911 call does not go to the local police department or even the state police. at least here in ca.

as my cell phone on calling 911 goes to the county sheriff were i live.

and at times i can be 500+ miles away from that county. making the 911 service worthless.

well i have a couple older protectors, how do i test them to know if any good?

i do have some new on order anyhow. but just hate to trash these if any good.

i live in a area that does not get much lightning. but the dryer summer (heck just got zapped good last week-late jan)air does build up static.  i get zapped just getting out of my truck. touching metal shelves at stores, etc.

maybe just me, i must have a electrifying personalty.

On 5/15/2021 at 12:31 AM, Guest said:

Here on the North Carolina coast we get hurricanes every year so a generator is almost a necessity.  My 5K generator runs most everything but the HVAC and water heater while we're waiting for Duke Power to get the lines back up.  Technically I could run the water heater if I didn't run anything else, but hot water isn't that big a deal for me in the summer.

The problem with my setup is finding gasoline for the generator when the power goes down for days.  Since gasoline goes bad after awhile I don't store large quantities of it, so when the newsman says a Cat 4 is coming, everyone runs out to fill can cans and that puts a strain on the supply.

Longest I've even been without power is about 6 days when Florence came through in 2018.

real pure gasoline stored in a sealed metal can is good for up to two years..longer? add in a stabilizer much longer.

the killer of pump gasoline now is it is diluted with grain alcohol. that garbage goes bad in as little as a month as the alcohol absorbs humidity out of the air and promotes a fungus growth. all of which turns gasoline into a varnish.

sad i ran out of money, but was working on a gen and was going to add in a number of 48 volt dc batteries. (4 of them would cost about $7 grand USD).

rewire part of the house for "special" outlets. the refer, some lights, and wall sockets.

solar is just way too costly to bother. (at age 62 would never even get one quarter of my moneys worth out of it). would cost $20-30 grand USD to set up.  at least the batteries can be moved into my rv.

use the grid most of the time,(keeps the power supply bank topped off)  then when the gov of ca turn's off our power i can run the gen and/or the battery bank for a couple weeks.... more?

this sounds good, as the west wall of the house is all concrete, but i would like to trench out next to the house for drainage. gets wet under the house.

but this area is a good 8 inches above the south side concrete. why? could be native rock levels said to pour that way?. wont know till i get the old concrete cut for said trench. good 30 ft long, by 1 ft wide removed. will install a grated drain channel next to the house for runoff and roof water.

as to underground flow?

land under the house is high at the south west corner. low at the north east corner. which floods under the house when it rains heavy, up to a good 10 inches deep. underground seepage?  plugged drain on the N,E corner (outside the house). another project, to just dig up that pipe and replace with new.

and i need to get the whole breeze way between the south wall of the house and the garage redone, to get proper flow to drains. but that is a couple years away. (money thing).

all-n-all, just lots of hard labor, work i need to get done, but body has failed me right now. and no cash to hire it out.

been at the DR's office today, i have a bad problem with my neck. lots of pain.

but on a local water service. a well would be very costly to drill here.

can these grounding rods be right next to the foundation of the house? (within a foot?) maybe under a concrete patio/walkway? not sure about 30 inches down but might be better than trying to pound 6 ft down.

but the 20 foot 6 inch deep trench sounds the best for me, right now.

at most any price the copper is cheap.  compared to the alt.

but working at home is on hold for me. will try and get some things done, but cutting the concrete will require a contractor. read lots of $$,  but as this neck problem has just crept up, x-ray today says problem. mri end of the month. worst case they get to cut me open.... again. but hay maybe i get Christmas off this year?

only place i could even try to dig around the house, would be in the crawl space under the house.. aka, inside the foundation. but trying to dig down 30 inches.. i have to say not possible. and as most would be belly work.

all of the concrete on the south side i would like to remove and redo as one pour. the west side would like to widen the patio. but both require big equipment to come in and dig it out. aka: lot$ of ca$h. the north side walkway is there to stay.

 i am trying to dig a test trench to find my sewer pipe (has a leak). and parts of the front yard have only a inch or two of dirt then large rocks. (size?) part of the front yard has the living rock sticking out of the ground, when i say rock, i do not mean pickup sizing. i mean stuff that if "small" will crush your truck. if big, it is just part of the earth.

this mast is a temp thing. i would like to build a free standing tip over telescopic style (50 ft max) but that needs to be a bit away from the house "deeper into the back yard".  do to other plans. but still the rock problem. and some of the trees in the back yard have died. no hoa, but viewing problems possible from the apts next-door. as-is they through crap into my yard.

i need to find the house ground. and see about tying into it. as there is no wire going from the meter box down the wall to the ground. if using the original connection? that would be in a wall. i need ex-ray vision there.

i need to learn more about proper grounding before i put up my mast. guess i get to do a belly crawl this week to check out that wire on the water spigot.

13 hours ago, W3TDH said:

Were does your antenna lead in; such as coaxial cable, twin lead, window line, or ladder line; from the antenna enter the house.

as of today nothing connected yet. but was going to get some "plastic" and build a pass through at a window next to the mast.

Do you have any route between the electrical service equipment at point 1 to the mast at point 3 that is not covered in concrete?     no.   but can go under the house for such.

When you say that your electrical service mast looks like the one in my picture does that include having 2 guy bars to resist bending forces from the weight of the Service Drop wires from the utility pole? I take it that your present electrical service mast is at point 1. Is the other service mast in the same place or close by? Is the utility pole to the South East? Is the street on the East side of the house?  yes, yes, and yes.

If you are willing you could give me an address or latitude & longitude so that I could look at the layout on Google Maps Satellite view. If you don't want to make that public you could send it to me in a private message or by E mail to hQoRrMnetd via gmail after you tune out the QRM from the prefix. You can send images direct to me if that helps. The remainder of the conversation should stay here on the reflector for peer review so others can point out any mistakes I might make.

i just got home, been up for 24 hrs now. back to work by 6:am sat. dark in ca already so i can do photos on tuesday or wed. (my weekend).

but for now my mast is laying down, need to buy the guy wire and turn buckles.

but the plan is to build a pass through, one window is next to were the mast is to be. easy to lock down and have it secure from unwanted entry. heck it will be far more secure than the glass ever could be.

the power in poles are both the same but one has the extra supports, who ever did the job (predates my owning the place) kept the "factory" pole, as it is in the wall of the house. it takes the weight/strain of the incoming wire. the "down" pipe the power goes into is on the outside of the house.just a couple feet from each other. the pipe just pops through the roof, and drops down the outside wall to the meter box.

this small ex to the house is the laundry room. roof sits a bit lower there. house is on a slight hill. back wall one can touch the rain gutter, not so in front you need a tall ladder.

easy to climb into the windows on the south and west walls. north and east wall you need a step stool to just look into them.

ok,

  to me the "pole" is my mast. not the service pole. that service pole is a good 30-35 feet away angled across the driveway.

 the mast is along the rear of the house. (like were the green ladder is in the photo) as the end of the house is were the high voltage line arrives on the roof. (to something that looks like your photo).

 the end of the house with the power in. ground is concrete, (south wall), and i use the back door for access in and out of the house.

the wall with my mast (west wall), ground all concrete out to 5 feet,

north wall, ground is concrete house to fence about 4 feet.

east wall (front of the house) porch mid way is a concrete block/slab, and "standard" 3 ft wide walkway with flower bed to the wall of the house to the driveway, (south east of the house).

as to the "eve" as the mast is along the wall were the rain gutter is. i built up a bracket to drop below the rain gutter to attach to the mast. as i do not want to drill through the roof.

as to the fresh water piping in the house. yes made of metal. house built in 1952. so the water out, is a clay pipe.

wiring is two wire, cloth covered. i get a lot of static shocks, heck even when i touch my pu truck. but the wall switch boxes are metal. (if i could afford it i would rewire the whole house).

new gas piping is metal, just were it comes up out of the dirt there is pvc over it, shovel protection? water protection? it is in the flower bed on the front of the house.

but same end of the house as the power, cable, land line phone all come to the house. (all wires on on the south end of the house. anchored within a couple yards of each other). power up on the "stick" others just to the edge of the roof. all on the outside of the wall, including the meter and fuse cabinet. this box has been a up grade some time back as the org went down through the roof and was inside. so i have two of the power sticks up there, one in use one to hold the support cable.

i will try to get some photos posted up here, but has to wait till next week. as friday is my monday. will only see the house while the sun is down till tuesday. heck i am supposed to be in bed but woke up , i am trying to get used to a new work bid, it is a 12 hr off set to what i have been doing for the past 3-4 years. ( i am a day walker now).

                                     W

                      -----3-----------------------

                      |                                              |

           S         |                                              |

                -2-                                                |      N

            1 |                                                      |

              --------4-----------5-------------

                                E

basic shape of the house.  1,power/cable/land line phone to the house. 2, back door, 3 my mast. 4 gas meter. 5 front door (blocked)

lots of windows around the house, ridge line of the roof runs s to n.

love it.

maybe a arc guard? just a bent flap of plastic, folds over when the plate moves to connect. flips up what the connectors are pulled back.

lucky for me i do not live where lighting is a problem. but if i had that many coax's to connect. this would be great insurance.

power main to pole is about 20 feet. all concrete walk areas. power is on the south wall,(narrow patch of dirt there). the location for the pole is on the west. there is one door, (used as main access to the house) and one window between them. can run under the house.  the cable co grounded to a water spigot. just out of the wall into the house.

but there is a wire tied into the gas pipe, it is were the piping comes out of the wall. the line coming up from the ground has a wire coming out of the "cover" pvc but connects to nothing. (new gas piping up from the street just about 3-4 years back). there is only the big meter box and the flat dish thingy. no auto shut off device seen.

earthquakes just do not happen here. might one day but not the norm. but seeing as the power company not a sub contractor put in the new gas piping in the street up to my house (and others for a couple miles around here). i hope they at least did what the county says must be done.

when i can afford a proper tower, it will be a bit farther away from the house. this pole will be bolted to the concrete, attached to a eve of the house (6 ft level), and guy wires up about 28 ft.

grounding?

what, how and why?

in the area i live in one can not just pound in a rod as there is lots of solid rock. not slab.  heck even pg&e could not drill to lay in a new gas pipe, they kept breaking the bits, even the big wheel thingy lost some teeth in just 50 yards of trench. ( the maps of the org piping has been lost, they had to hunt for the old stuff --water, sewer, gas, everything else--).

next door they had to almost diamante the rock to dig out his back yard.

my house is grounded to the gas pipe, wrong side of the house for my tower.  if need be can i just pound in four or five short rods to make it good? as i doubt i can get anything more than 3 - 4 feet down. plenty of dirt, just these hills are made of Hard rock (see the Ca 49er gold rush). maybe the rebar in a short but 15 ft long retaining wall?

not interested in bringing in a drilling rig to make a couple holes in the rock, it would co$t way to much $$$$$. and then the county would put up a stink for $$ for permits. and might even raise my property taxes.

this area is not prone to much lighting, but the thunderheads do make a lot of noise as they go over the sierra mt's. rarely over my head (foothills here).

this area can get a couple storms with lighting a year. (up to 100 miles of my home).

i am not a engineer but i see so much fail in the photos. need a way to deflect the blast up and away from the truck. not contain it.  no safety for passengers. no second seat up front. must have more than one or two sets of eyes forward. the box around the rear wheels will pop it end over end when something goes boom under it. the winch is just plan mounted wrong should be inside not hanging outside.

the rear step rods are a great way to break a leg with a misstep. the windows are to big on the sides. no glass is that strong. and the inside shows it needs a lot of supports, not enough seating, lots of junk to bash around and hurt/maim/kill somebody.  is the body made of armored steel? or shrapnel?

help a bit, thank you.

but is a dead end, i contacted a company that makes such wire assembly's, and they say no go. due to the pin count, setting, and angle. there are some angled out there but for a completely different pin count/combo.

i will  keep on looking. but till then i will make the assembly i have into what i need. a little knife work, bunch of epoxy,  the easy part is just making the wire shorter.

guess none out there knows if such plugs are available....or not.

so i just get to stress the wire to a tight angle.

KD3Y i take offense to saying any prepper in a jeep with a 2 meter is a problem.

first a prepper is only someone who has gathered supply's to care for themselves and there family. can be just having a couple-four weeks food/water, to a whole basement full of food/water and fuel to power a gen for a year, etc.

the gov can not help everybody same day. and some after problems are still in effect many months after.

second is just owing a jeep is not a crime. or even a sign of a "bad" person.

third having a 2 meter radio does not say i am going to get in the way at a emergency. said radio might really be of no use pending.

i fit all three (radio is out of the jeep right now), but as a non emergency person, i do "keep the hell out of the way".  I am not even trained on how to put on a band-aid.

the ONLY time i would get involved is if i was directly asked for my help. as of this date (sept 22 2021)  i am not "in the club" of emergency personal. nor am i involved in supplying any radio help to any-person or company --gov or privet--.

i have nothing on a hat, shirt etc stating my call sign, or say any such. i do not have a badge, none needed, wanted, required.

and i do not own any "bdu's".  and I do not follow any eng equipment, no reason to. i do understand some news company's will pay for some video footage of some events if done right and showing the first of it. not after the fire trucks are there. they have paid crews for that. but i am not into that.

sure i have a scanner, but use it mostly for train watching. and yes i have seen the fire crews show up at places. if i am close to them i move away. if the police show up i move away even faster.  as to ham radio i have been off the air do to other reasons in my life.

are you really wanting a manf to support there product?

not just in ham radio, but most all other hobby's, and even a s&b home one can buy "new". the makers want you to just buy another unit with its way over priced costs. there is a term that goes something like this, "planed obsolescence".

after dropping a grand or lots more on a radio, it should come with a life time (yours not the unit) worth of free support. if they built it right it would cost the manf/dealers nothing. except future sales to replace said.

some parts are defective before even being placed in the radio,  some are designed to fail in X number of years. on/off cycles.

i see no reason to prohibit  "Occasionally"  online testing. as some parts of even the United States of America it can be very hard to find, let alone get to a testing site.

and do to this it should be for all classes.

but yes how to prevent cheating?  i would like to believe not a problem, but the tech, would get them, general and extra, only a fool would do that there. and just might be found out real fast.

most of the USA will be in fixed classes, but some parts of say Alaska. Montana, etc.  a testing site could be a days drive away, then overnight, then a days drive home. (maybe even more travel time?).

i work weekends, so i would lose a days pay to get to a test. but it is only a hr or two worth of drive time for me. not a problem.

yes i am trying to "memorize" the questions and answers. (not very good at that).  but along with it, i am also trying to learn what the q&a mean, say, do, etc.

i would be a fool to just get my general, and not know what i need to know. knowledge is power.  if there was a online test, would i do it? i do not know, it would be better to ask if i could even make it to a test site. but then i am sure there are two or four within 100 miles of my home.

i voted no to cw.

but with luck i can find the time to learn it, as it is a valuable tool to have in a emergency tool box.

as i type this i have no use for cw. but in a year? two? five.  who knows it could be the only way i work the radio.

Hello getting back into all this. was hoping as i have not found anything online (wrong wording?)

but i have a yaesu FT-897 with the FC-30 tuner. and the "factory" styled cables to connect, and both of these cable units are kinda long. i can "adjust" or build a shorter coax as needed. but the data cable is the problem. are there any data plugs (with luck) that have a right, left, up/down angle to them? and lengths of the cable to make a shorter cable?                           --as i type this unknown as to what "angle" would work best.--

my interest is just in cleaning things up by not having loops of wire. 

or is there a reason these cables must be so long?

for those who do not know, both the ft-897 and fc-30 are bolted together so no movement and they are as one.

one of the worst parts of getting into this radio stuff... is just coughing up the ca$h for a good radio. kids of and era do not have much if any moneys. sure lots of ebay junk, communist chinese copy trash. then all the extras just go get on the air. wire needs room. poles get bad press. somebody has to complain they can not watch there "reality tv show". or there toaster is talking.

now if the prices could drop a bit at the manf/new and used radio sales level. then...are all the new fangled things really needed? sure the water fall looks cool but needed?

then for those living at mom & dads place, just hanging a wire let alone putting up a pole.  apartments, hoa's etc.  then just location.

i do like    "volunteer radio service".

but as for a door sign.

"emergency radio service"   

sounds good. no need to add in volunteer, (to me that is a given. and not needed) for the door sign. but then i like just meat and potatoes. says it all and shows others (if a emergency is in effect) who you are. cause your not the media, or a leo. but your the guy who can get the needed info (in or out) right now.

and no reason to have a web site listed on it. can place "other" stickers on the car.

as to sizing of the sign? my car of choice is a 1984 cj-7 (set up to go most everywhere i point it) but i run with no doors most of the year. so not much room for a magnet sign on it. (something else?) or my 2020 F250. plenty of room there. (not a go devil). some kind of ---small--- flag/banner. easy to put up and take down and can be seen by all.

i do not have much time/money right now, but will see about such, at least for my jeep and thoughts.