This 'n' that

Emo insists upon canned food when we are in the RV. Emo had explosive diarrhea. I got good news, and bad news, for Emo. Bad news is, back to dry food. Good news - there's plenty of it. He is better after a day, and I just bought a big bag of food for him.

1502 AA Group in Conroe has meetings every day at 12, 6, and 8. Good recovery there, too, I've been enjoying it. Just about a 20 minute drive from the campground.

Great groceries here. Tons of people, Texas seems to be wide open spaces punctuated by overcrowded areas.

Speed limits here are 70 MPH on two lane country roads, folks go fast.

I like it here. Folks are friendly, unpretentious for the most part. The piney woods in SE Texas are pretty this time of year, we went for a hike today and stopped by a beautiful creek. This preserve has lots of space for dog and people walking. I think I'll like it better when this rain stops.

Have a good 2011.

Back in Texas

We made it. Long trip from Ohio to Texas, took 10 hours of steady driving both days, I'm pooped. I decided to leave the motorcycle in Ohio. More later.

Christmas

I went to my friend's house again this year for Christmas, she always throws a giant Christmas. There were 12 adults, one teenager, and two very rambunctious children. The food was great, I got the best parts being vegetarian! A good time was had by all.I got 4 new tie dyed shirts, she makes them and has been giving them as presents for years. I have a lot of them and wear them a lot, and I get lots of compliments on them.

Their little pug Thurber has mellowed, she let me pet her and sat on my lap for a long time. It was good to talk with my friend Bruce, and to see my departed best ever human friend Maggie's grandchildren. I forgot I was depressed there for a few hours.

I went to my sister's house earlier in the week, I always pick up Chinese food for us for Christmas time. She has Christmas with her husband's family, so we get together earlier. I hope I can plan appointments, etc. for the time around Christmas and return for a week or so then, every year, to keep these traditions in my life.

I have to pack up some stuff, hitch up the little motorcycle, and get ready to travel tomorrow, we will hit the road Monday. I'm leaving the majority of things for the spring, after I have made a firm decision, and I have the RV parked an hour from the house. There will be plenty to keep me occupied in the 10 weeks or so before we come back to Ohio.

Plans

Looks like I will be in Ohio until Monday after Christmas. After that, we will be in the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails Preserve between Huntsville and Houston for 3 weeks, then I will probably go to the TT parks at Colorado River (on the way to San Antonio) and Medina Lake, in the Hill Country. I'll be hanging the Kawi Super Sherpa off the back of the truck, so I can do some riding in Texas.

I will return the week of 14 March, I have one medical appointment and will make more for that week. Dr. Verma says it is time to do the colonoscopy again, so I will schedule that, and I have a heart doc appt. later. By then I hope to decide if I want to sell the house and travel full time, that's the way I'm leaning.

I hope to take enough stuff to set up the Ham HF rig in the RV, I decided to use 12V power supplies plugged into the RV's 110V ac mains. This keeps me from having to run DC power, a pain in the patooty and potential fire hazard. I'm going to set up the hobby equipment in the bedroom of the big Adventurer, there's a desk there and I plan to use a small equipment rack from the shack. Radio and books are all for this trip, the oscilloscope, signal generator(s), etc. will get installed in the spring after a bit more planning.

I will drive the RV back in March, and probably spend most of the spring and summer at Wilmington TT while getting the house ready. If I am going to do this, I have some stuff to sell, or stash, and a lot of cleanup to do on the property. And, the yearly site at Wilmington gives me a home base 1 hour from the house, and I like the park.

Well, we will see how it all goes, stay tuned!

Big Changes

It looks like I may be fulltime earlier than I planned. I traded the Itasca 26a for a 2004 Winnebago Adventurer 38G, in super good condition with 12,000 miles. I took the cat back. Emo and I sit now at a campground in Mississippi, just off I-20, close to Louisiana. Heading for Texas Friday, the Livingston Escapees park. I drove about 300 miles of the Natchez Trace today, at the 50 MPH speed limit, it was nice.

I'll probably be selling off some stuff (motorcycles, Ham Radio gear) and hopefully I'll have the house ready by late May. If things go like I think they will I'll be on about half pay, so living in the RV is the only way to keep a positive cash flow. This new to me RV is huge, I'll be able to take a lot with me, the small motorcycle, a couple radios (OK, 4 or 5), some hobby stuff, and some books.

I will be in Texas for a couple weeks, then drive the little truck back to Dayton for a few days to make some appointments and take care of things. I should learn a little more about what the future holds then. Stay tuned.

6AB4, Shawnee

Well, I did it, I made a tube amp. I used a 6AB4 tube, because when I sorted them, there were 3 of these at the top of the sort, I went by the letters.

Now, on to Shawnee for fall colors! Big day for Emo. Yes, I'm taking the camera. Later!

Circuit 1

Got stuff warmed up with a simple regulator circuit. LM317 for variable output, LM7812 for 12V, LM7805 for 5V. Running off a small 13.8 VDC supply.

This will be useful when I decide to mess with discrete transistor circuits. I need to mount it on standoffs. I'm in no hurry, I want to mess with tubes first. Waiting on some circuit board sockets, should be here this week.

The Radio Room / "Tube Lab"

This is about as neat as it is likely to get, so I took some pictures. I operate Ham radio from here, and work on electronics projects. Last night I repaired 3 old meters I got from eBay, I got all 3 working great! I need a fuse holder to get a Fluke nixie tube meter going. Everything else

you see here works just fine, except a little Conar frequency counter, I haven't gone into it yet.

Here's the view from the entrance:

A shot of the workbench. On the bench are XM radio, and an isolated variable power supply for AC line voltage, to bring up old equipment slowly. Look for smoke...ha! I should add a fire extinguisher, I guess.

A bunch of components I've come across various sources. Lots of tubes, IC's, transistors, resistors, capacitors not pictured, tons of coils, connectors, etc. I sort stuff while the ball games are on, I actually have it well organized.

Here's my view of the world! R-390A was my Cold War weapon of choice in the ASA, this one is supurb! I've got parts to re-cap it and replacement tubes, should the need arise. Kenwood stuff - the TS-570 and I have made several thousand CW (Morse Code) contacts, I love the TS-830s with the great receiver, I've got both narrow filters, and the tube finals put out a solid 100+Watts. F6a handheld gets little use, it's FM VHF. I built the Elecraft K1 and a RockMite in an Altoids can. The kiloWatt amp doesn't get much use, either, as I am 99.9% CW.

That's all for now, I hope to get some fall color pics this weekend.

Tube Lab

I finally got all the tubes I bought off eBay sorted and displayed. I tested about a dozen of them, only one was bad. I think most of these are in good shape. I have data sheets for all the bigger ones, and several of the little ones. I've been studying some tube circuits, and after I get a few more things sorted and boxed, etc. I will be ready to design and test some tube circuits. I want to have a home brew tube transmitter on 80 meters before January.

I like the old blue display board. I can find the one I want now. I think I'll start with 6AB4's. They are first, and they are simple triodes.

I have a lot of sockets in the top couple rows. I also got a great deal on some test adaptors, you put it in the socket, it has leads for testing, and the tube goes in the adaptor. Today I hope to get some circuit cards with provisions for 7 and 9 pin tubes. Pictures of the lab and test equipment, power supplies, more components, soon. This is going to be a fun winter!

Getting ready for Fall Colors

I joined Thousand Trails this Spring. I've got the RV set up @ Wilmington TT, next weekend, Columbus Day weekend, is the last weekend the park is open. I plan to figure a way to wash the beast, might have to drive it home to do that. After our stay, I'll winterize it and maybe move it from under the trees to an open place where no damage will occur in a snow or ice storm. I'll also take the little motorcycle back to the house.

No camping reservations for fall colors, I think I'll just day trip it, but we might do it twice. Pictures, I promise!

Been playing with electronics more than hiking. Work situation has improved a lot, I might stay around after 2012 if things continue to go well. Who knows what the future holds?

20 years sober August 14th, I scoped cancer free 2 years after the operation for colon cancer, my cardiologist says the treadmill test looks good (I had a heart attack in 2003) so I'm on triple bonus time.