Sunday, June 29, 2008
June ARRL VHF QSO party
Had a mixed bag up at Mt Greylock. Broke more stuff than I'm worth. Better luck next time I guess. Didn't get rained on too much, and several folks stepped up to make hot meals. Thanks!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Preparing to contest
Getting ready to go contesting again. First blog in a while, oh well. My watch battery died (odd segué, what?) so I went to Wal-Mart (ugh) to get a new CR2016. Of course they only come in 2 packs. Anyway, while there I got a devilish idea on how to pack radios for the trip.
Meandered over to the craft aisles, looking for foam. My wife is an evil crafting genius, but I, not so much. And so I pushed and prodded and squeezed packages of foam and batting and filling trying to figure out what I could use as an ersatz Pelican case with pluck 'n' place. I'm a ham. I'm cheap. :-)
Settled on a 4-pack of Morning Glory Foam Seat Cushions; 16 inches square by 1 inch thick. 100% premium urethane foam. Under $8.
With that in hand I wandered over to the kitchen/household goods aisle where I started looking for containers. Found a couple of candidates that looked large enough to hold my goodies but small enough so the gear wouldn't rattle about in transit. Found that a Rubbermaid Handi-Box size S (14x10.5x4 inch, or 7.2 qt) snap case box is a very good fit for an Icom IC-706MKIIG, microphone, power cable and some coaxial adapters. Used one of those electronic labellers to mark the outside with the contents (an instant inventory) and cut the foam with normal scissors as padding and it looks great!
I cut a single block for the bottom, with strips for the sides. A small pad goes over the top of the mic and a larger one over the radio. The lid closes and slightly compresses the foam. The radio doesn't rattle a bit. I made up 3 cases all told for various gear... the FT-290RII with battery pack, the 30A power supply, Bencher BY-1 paddle, K1EL Winkey 2 keyer, cables, headphones, etc. Very nice and the total cost was about $20!
Meandered over to the craft aisles, looking for foam. My wife is an evil crafting genius, but I, not so much. And so I pushed and prodded and squeezed packages of foam and batting and filling trying to figure out what I could use as an ersatz Pelican case with pluck 'n' place. I'm a ham. I'm cheap. :-)
Settled on a 4-pack of Morning Glory Foam Seat Cushions; 16 inches square by 1 inch thick. 100% premium urethane foam. Under $8.
With that in hand I wandered over to the kitchen/household goods aisle where I started looking for containers. Found a couple of candidates that looked large enough to hold my goodies but small enough so the gear wouldn't rattle about in transit. Found that a Rubbermaid Handi-Box size S (14x10.5x4 inch, or 7.2 qt) snap case box is a very good fit for an Icom IC-706MKIIG, microphone, power cable and some coaxial adapters. Used one of those electronic labellers to mark the outside with the contents (an instant inventory) and cut the foam with normal scissors as padding and it looks great!
I cut a single block for the bottom, with strips for the sides. A small pad goes over the top of the mic and a larger one over the radio. The lid closes and slightly compresses the foam. The radio doesn't rattle a bit. I made up 3 cases all told for various gear... the FT-290RII with battery pack, the 30A power supply, Bencher BY-1 paddle, K1EL Winkey 2 keyer, cables, headphones, etc. Very nice and the total cost was about $20!
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