CarlFacer.com

Time to play catch up! Here are a few pictures from running electric to the shed behind the house using the DitchWitch. We also helped our neighbors to the North do the same thing. All-in-all a great way to spend a Saturday morning. Thanks to Bob for all the help!

Here are a few of the pictures. Click the link to be taken to the full collection in the gallery!

Current Album: Electric to the Shed
Images:

As noted by the date of my last post, things have been slightly hetic lately, but there is an announcement to be made. Let me introduce the newest member of our family: Maggie! She is a six-month-old Black Lab / Border Collie mix that we adopted from lollipop farm on Friday, May 9th and she is a riot! She loves to play, is eager to please, and has even more energy that I do (hard to believe, I know…)

Without further interruptions, here are a few pics!

Current Album: Maggie
Images:

With many thanks to Todd, Cyrus and Irena, we got a bunch accomplished on the basement today. The final wall of framing went up, the floor got prepped for painting, the electric is finished and most of the plumbing is done in the bathroom! After the help left, RuthAnne and I put up the first sheet of drywall and then called it a night. Lesson of the day: Trace and re-trace the hot and cold pipes to ensure that you do NOT flush your toilet with hot water (took me forever to sort that one out…) Here are a few pictures from the day!

Be sure to check out the full gallery at http://carlfacer.com/gallery/v/rowley/Work/2007/BathBase/

Stay tuned for more details from the homestead!!!

-Carl & RuthAnne

Ok, so I’ve been a little bit busy lately and haven’t had much time to update the site, but I wanted to throw a few pictures of the rover up on the main page. The full gallery can be seen by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Her are a few pictures of the car that I promised a while back. I also added a few modules to Word Press so that show up a little nicer. More to come later! As always, clicky = biggie!

There seems to be a problem with a primary user on the MySQL server, which subsequently does not allow the pages here to be opened. I have changes a few user names and everything seems to be operational at this point. From the looks of it, the gallery was flooded by a spambot via the comments section. As such, an image verification system has been installed and now requires users to interpret a picture before commenting, so we should be all set to go!

If you notice anything out of the ordinary (besides me) or happen to get any error messages, please send me an email at cfacer <at> gmail (*) com.

-Carl

EDIT:   All the comments (approx 5,000) were deleted out of the gallery, so I apologize to anyone who left comments in there. The “TRUNCATE” table button was too tempting to pass up.

Quick update for everyone:

Last night that platform was finished (with the exception of the rotor mount, eyebolts to hold the dish and outrigger pipes) and the previous night the battery box was installed. Thanks to Todd (KB1EKZ), Cyrus (KC2RLP), and Jared (KB1PFK) for the help over the past week. Here is what we have left to finish for the contest:

• Run the 4 ga. auxiliary battery cable (hood to trunk)
• Find solid ground point for aux battery and run cable
• Mount rotator for log periodic antenna
• Add out rigger pipes to platform (need clamps first)
• Fabricate cross-mast section to hold mast for the 4′ dish
• Get 6 meter antenna
• Pickup 144/220/432 radio in Albany (en route to Greylock next week)
• Confirm all feed lines have been acquired (and build more if necessary)
• Make plexiglass insert for window to pass coax through

I am aiming to get this done on Saturday so I can test the equipment on Sunday with Greg. I might be able to fudge a few things (ie battery cables, plexiglass, etc) so I can at least try the equipment out before the contest. Another thing I’d like to do is put my TinkTraker in the car for running APRS if I want to. After all of the buzz on the VHFcontesting email reflector I don’t know if it’s allowed, but I’ll have to read the rules a little closer.

Pictures will be forth coming as soon as I get a second to transfer them over from the camera. That’s all for now!

-Carl (a tired rover)

Well, thanks to Dennis, N2LBT, I have the equipment for all bands between 903MHz and 5GHz in the car now. This also includes the 4ft satellite dish and paddle feeds for conveying said frequencies. What is this all for you ask? Well, I’m a ham! Further, I am a microwave contester with MGEF (Mt. Greylock Expeditionary Force) also known as W2SZ/1 and I am a rover. This means that I drive very long distances to setup the equipment (almost always in remote locations) and operate on the various allocated microwave bands.

I’ll fill everyone in on what it entails, where I am going, and what goes on the car to do it. In the mean time, you can visit this page on my gallery and see what I went roving in for the June VHF contest. I filled in for KB1EKZ after an injured knee left him unable to operate from the back of the truck. Steve, KB1ITX and I started in Maine and worked our way into Massachusetts, ending up on Mt. Wachusett for the end of the contest.

Stay tuned for further progress reports on the car, only here at carlfacer.com!