Well, if you read my previous post, you know that we were in the thick of things when the deadly tornadoes ripped through communities in Mississippi and Alabama earlier this week. Watching the weather forecast for the next few days, more thunderstorms are predicted for Sunday night through Tuesday. That in mind, we decided to roll away from the Natchez Trace Parkway Nat'l Park and head east. Our first stop was Starkville MS. Those of you who've been HAMs very long, most likely have products from Starkville in your Radio Shacks. Those products are MFJ, Ameritron, Cushcraft and Hygain.
Linda and I rolled in to the MFJ plant today and got a dollar tour of the factory by Richard from Cust Service...really simple but cool setup. Before we headed out the door, we were escorted to the office of Martin F. Jue (MFJ), President of MFJ Enterprises where we had time to talk a little about how he got started, design characteristics of circuit boards and designs...was a super visit. Oh, and Linda and I are now the proud owners of "OFFICIAL" MFJ coffee mugs...compliments of MFJ.
We’re Linda, and Steve Weed..welcome to our blog. We hope you enjoy joining us in our travels with our Two Dogs, Heidi, our Long Haired Black German Shepherd, Lit'l Bit, our American Staffordshire Terrier (Pit Bull) Puppy and our cat, Sam. A little about us..in November of 2009, we moved out of our house in San Diego and hit the road to travel the US in our RV “Full Time”. Our home on wheels...a 40 foot long 2004 Cardinal Fifth Wheel Trailer.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
How Lucky We Are!!!
It's been months since I've taken time to update our blog...and it really sucks to have to now....about really CRAPPY Weather.. that killed over 300 a couple days ago.
I'm sure by now you've heard of all the sucky tornadoes we've had here in Mississippi and next door in Alabama in the past few days. Good news, me, Linda, the dogs, our cat....and trailer survived! Closest tornado to us...to the north anyway, was only a couple miles away. Don't have a clue how many came through but devestation is horrible. We lost power for about a day and a half...thankfully our solar panels did what they were supposed to. Tues evening, storms rolled in. Watched TV and Listened to Nat'l WX svc...while tracking on my laptop. About 2:am, it was time to run to the only building in the campground...the men's bathroom on the north east corner of the bldg. Took my handheld Radio, laptop and WIFI phone. Listened to Tornado warnings one after another....right where we were. Luckily, they weren't exactly right where we were...but real damned close...WAY too close for that matter!
Next morn ran the 6 miles up hwy 9 to town ...Eupora MS, for breakfast and shopping. We couldn't believe the destruction from the tornadoes along the way. Mississippi DOT had just cleared and re-opened the road. Trees down...not just down, but twisted from their trunks. Many on houses, in yards and on fences, blocking roads...power lines down and laying across roads. Power is still out in most of the area and some expect at least 2 months before full electrical service and land line phones are restored. Took a bunch of pic's but haven't had time to download them yet...snapped off trees, trees on houses..even the roof of a building in a tree. I mentioned Hwy 9 because it runs South East to North West....and it's out of character for a Tornado to travel NW instead of East or North East...This tornado traveled right along the Hwy for about 5 miles and from the damage, must have been half mile ..or maybe more, wide.
Hit the Piggly Wiggly market in town in time for more Tornado Warnings. Eerie sound! At first, we could hear the warning sirens off in the distance....but, as the tornado got closer to us, sirens got louder and louder. Watched storm chasers flying down the road... We headed to the cooler in the middle of the store with the employees til the storm passed. Once out of the cooler, sirens again..this time we stood by the door and watched a tornado pass a mile or so south of us down US82 on it's way to Starkville (home of MFJ) 20 miles to our east. In town, one died in the Tues night storm and two more in the Wednesday afternoon tornado that we watched pass by. Total, within about 10 miles from the campground we were in, 15 to 20 lost their lives... Reports have been that the tornadoes strength was EF4 with 200mph winds, but experts are thinking the storms were actually EF5...with 250+ mph winds.
Looking at the devestation caused by the storms and our close proximity to touch down, it gives you a completely new perspective on life...
We made phone calls and left voice messages Thursday morning with the ARRLs Alabama Section Manager and the Mississippi Section manager asking of they needed help with communications out of communities that were destroyed by the tornadoes...haven't heard a peep out of them...guess they've got Comm's under control.
I'm sure by now you've heard of all the sucky tornadoes we've had here in Mississippi and next door in Alabama in the past few days. Good news, me, Linda, the dogs, our cat....and trailer survived! Closest tornado to us...to the north anyway, was only a couple miles away. Don't have a clue how many came through but devestation is horrible. We lost power for about a day and a half...thankfully our solar panels did what they were supposed to. Tues evening, storms rolled in. Watched TV and Listened to Nat'l WX svc...while tracking on my laptop. About 2:am, it was time to run to the only building in the campground...the men's bathroom on the north east corner of the bldg. Took my handheld Radio, laptop and WIFI phone. Listened to Tornado warnings one after another....right where we were. Luckily, they weren't exactly right where we were...but real damned close...WAY too close for that matter!
Next morn ran the 6 miles up hwy 9 to town ...Eupora MS, for breakfast and shopping. We couldn't believe the destruction from the tornadoes along the way. Mississippi DOT had just cleared and re-opened the road. Trees down...not just down, but twisted from their trunks. Many on houses, in yards and on fences, blocking roads...power lines down and laying across roads. Power is still out in most of the area and some expect at least 2 months before full electrical service and land line phones are restored. Took a bunch of pic's but haven't had time to download them yet...snapped off trees, trees on houses..even the roof of a building in a tree. I mentioned Hwy 9 because it runs South East to North West....and it's out of character for a Tornado to travel NW instead of East or North East...This tornado traveled right along the Hwy for about 5 miles and from the damage, must have been half mile ..or maybe more, wide.
Hit the Piggly Wiggly market in town in time for more Tornado Warnings. Eerie sound! At first, we could hear the warning sirens off in the distance....but, as the tornado got closer to us, sirens got louder and louder. Watched storm chasers flying down the road... We headed to the cooler in the middle of the store with the employees til the storm passed. Once out of the cooler, sirens again..this time we stood by the door and watched a tornado pass a mile or so south of us down US82 on it's way to Starkville (home of MFJ) 20 miles to our east. In town, one died in the Tues night storm and two more in the Wednesday afternoon tornado that we watched pass by. Total, within about 10 miles from the campground we were in, 15 to 20 lost their lives... Reports have been that the tornadoes strength was EF4 with 200mph winds, but experts are thinking the storms were actually EF5...with 250+ mph winds.
Looking at the devestation caused by the storms and our close proximity to touch down, it gives you a completely new perspective on life...
We made phone calls and left voice messages Thursday morning with the ARRLs Alabama Section Manager and the Mississippi Section manager asking of they needed help with communications out of communities that were destroyed by the tornadoes...haven't heard a peep out of them...guess they've got Comm's under control.
Monday, January 17, 2011
You won't believe what we did!!
As you know, I've spent a good bit of the past year working on and upgrading our trailer. Upgrades and repairs have included new tires, New "Carefree of Colorado" awning last May that hasn't been opened since the day it was installed, new TV antenna back in May, a two month old 7 cu foot refrigerator that replaced our old 6 cu ft, 4 new stabilizer jacks two weeks ago.
My most recent project was the installation of our new "Solar System" (540 watts) and "Battery Bank" (eight 6v golf cart batteries..860amps at 12vDC). I finally completed the project this past Tuesday. The last thing on our list of upgrades for the trailer was to install a new, more heavy duty suspension system which would have included replacing our 3500# axles with new 6000# axles, from "3 leaf" to "5 leaf" leaf springs, changing from 14" "C" load range 4 ply tires and wheels to 15" "D" load range 8 ply tires and wheels. All these mod's and we still had a trailer we'd outgrown (been living in it since 2003).
Here in Quartzsite, deals on RV's are everywhere. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I put the last bolt in our solar panels Tuesday...well, this past Wednesday, this is what we bought:
What's the inside of the fiver look like? I haven't taken a bunch of pictures yet, but, here are a few. The thing even came with a Whirlpool Washer and Dryer.
My most recent project was the installation of our new "Solar System" (540 watts) and "Battery Bank" (eight 6v golf cart batteries..860amps at 12vDC). I finally completed the project this past Tuesday. The last thing on our list of upgrades for the trailer was to install a new, more heavy duty suspension system which would have included replacing our 3500# axles with new 6000# axles, from "3 leaf" to "5 leaf" leaf springs, changing from 14" "C" load range 4 ply tires and wheels to 15" "D" load range 8 ply tires and wheels. All these mod's and we still had a trailer we'd outgrown (been living in it since 2003).
Here in Quartzsite, deals on RV's are everywhere. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I put the last bolt in our solar panels Tuesday...well, this past Wednesday, this is what we bought:
That's right..it's ours! Our travel trailer is 30' long and has one slide...the fifth wheel (fiver) is 39' 8" inches long and has 3 slides..and is much taller, much more roomy..and much more than we ever imagined owning. To give a little better perspective of how much
Needless to say, we've canceled the order for our axle and suspension job, wheels and tires and so far have received our deposit's back on all but the tires..still waiting on that.
You're probably wondering why in the world we brought both trailers to Quartzfest* with us?? That answer is threefold:
One is..we now own them both. If you know anyone in the market for a RV Trailer, we're asking only $6500..and that includes our California Room (screen room)..but not the solar and power system.
Two is..we're spending our spare time before Quartzfest kicks off moving our belongings from the travel trailer to the fiver.
Three is the most important...our solar panels and batteries are on the travel trailer..as is our 3kw pure sine wave inverter. We've run the power cord from the fiver inside the travel trailer and plugged it in to the inverter..and now have power in the fiver. By switching on or off our AC circuit breakers, we are able to charge the fiver battery and plug our laptops, TV etc in to AC wall outlets. We're also able to keep the high current draw AC breakers for the water heater, refrigerator, etc turned off.
Once Quartzfest is over, we'll take the travel trailer back to the dealer we bought the fiver from and leave it there on consignment..and they'll sell it (along with our camper shell) for us (we hope).
Now the tedious task of figuring out where everything goes...including antennas!
Quartzfest* kicks off just one week from today..and we're already on site along with a number of other early arrivals.
Will post more updates and pic's soon. Here is just one of the spectacular nightly sunsets from Quartzsite.
Until next time.......
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Where to begin??
Hope you like the new large print..I do, this is the only way I can read it.
Linda and I had plans of leaving South Dakota for the winter..back in mid August so we could be in San Diego for the ARRL Convention in mid September. Those plans changed after I had MRI's done of my knees. Doc recommended I have them taken care of before heading out.
Back in early August, Linda and I made a quick trip to El Cajon CA for Amateur Radio Club of El Cajon business. A week later, we were back home in South Dakota. Although we didn't get immediate results, the trip was worthwhile. As a result, a multitude of Club members came out of the woodwork and have stepped up to the plate to, once again, become involved in the Club's leadership.
On the last weekend in August, we made a trip to Sundance WY to visit our friends Jerry "WY7JB" and Pat Boone..before Jerry and Pat headed south for the winter to "Work Camp" at the Amazon.com warehouse in Fernley Nevada.
While in Sundance, we dropped in on the "Sundance Kid" museum. Lot's of history here..on how the Sundance Kid started his career as a criminal. You may remember our blog post back in June when I mentioned that we spent the night in Beaver Utah which is the hometown to Butch Cassidy.
A few miles from Sundance WY is "Devils Tower Nat'l Monument". We loaded up the car and off to the tower it was. Nice hiking path around the tower..thankfully there were benches every couple hundred yards where we were able to rest our feet and backs. You may remember Devils Tower from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
Back home in Hot Springs, we were visited by our friends Gary "W6GRK" and Carol Kuske..and their dog "Rocky".
During their visit we hit the lake,
did some off roading,
Geocaching and Sightseeing...
Viewing Wildlife....This guy walked down the sidewalk in a parking area just a few feet from Gary and Carols Jeep.
...
The worst part of a visit from friends is when the time comes for them to hit the road and we must sadly say "So Long" (for now).
This catches up to mid September...more to come..
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Where has the year gone?
Geez, where did the past year go? I know, some of you will say...not to updating our blog! I'd have to agree..but, we do have something to show for our time.
The big thing for us right now is coming up in just two weeks...and it's called Quartzfest*. For those of you who don't know what Quartzfest* is, it's a week long HAM Radio Operators RV Boondocking event in the desert just south of Quartzfest* AZ and will be held from January 23rd thru 29th, 2011. Last January, Linda and I accepted the responsibilities as Organizers for Quartzfest* 2011. Along with all the other HAM stuff we've been involved in, we've come up with a slate of close to 30 Seminars and a number of events during the week for those attending Quartzfest^ to enjoy.
We sent a schedule update to our webmaster this evening..in what we hope to be the last update we'll need to make this year. The schedule can be found on our website at Quartzfest* 2011 Schedule
Future updates are coming...not sure how soon though..imagine that!
The big thing for us right now is coming up in just two weeks...and it's called Quartzfest*. For those of you who don't know what Quartzfest* is, it's a week long HAM Radio Operators RV Boondocking event in the desert just south of Quartzfest* AZ and will be held from January 23rd thru 29th, 2011. Last January, Linda and I accepted the responsibilities as Organizers for Quartzfest* 2011. Along with all the other HAM stuff we've been involved in, we've come up with a slate of close to 30 Seminars and a number of events during the week for those attending Quartzfest^ to enjoy.
We sent a schedule update to our webmaster this evening..in what we hope to be the last update we'll need to make this year. The schedule can be found on our website at Quartzfest* 2011 Schedule
Future updates are coming...not sure how soon though..imagine that!
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