And that's what I've been doing the last several days....sitting here "idling", and taking care of my wife who tweaked her back somehow while dogsitting at The Kid's Place, a.k.a The Country House up in Bellvue.
Now this is a BIG freakin' house, almost 3600 sqft including the basement, and it's spread out over four levels. It's an open floor plan downstairs, and sound echoes around in here like crazy. So, how do we keep in touch here? Simple, with RADIO! The other day when I was on a(nother) Home Depot run, I found these little Cobra "MicroTalk" GMRS/FRS radios on sale for $30.
Ironically, the original Citizen's Radio Service (ALL FCC licensed radio bands are considered "Services") was in the UHF band.
So why on Heaven's Earth did I buy two more hand-held radios when I have four of them, and my wife has two of her own? Convenience, Benjamin, convenience.
With these little guys you just pick up the radio and talk. When you're done, you put the radio down. Using our Amateur Radio Service radios would entail using our callsigns, following the regulations, and finding a clear simplex frequency. That's a bit of overkill for "Honey, bring me some more Ovaltine" comms.
Both cars, which were in the driveway yesterday, got through the hail without any damage that I could find today. They're both plastered with the leaves that got blasted off the trees and blown around, but no hail dents. The backyard is a mess, with lots of leaves and branches from the neighbor's cottonwood tree, but no damage. And while the 33' vertical antenna was whipping back and forth about 45*, it, too, got through unscathed.
Pardon me while I go back to my Idle Channel Mode......
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We use the intercom feature of our house phone system in lieu of two way radios.
ReplyDeleteIt works well for our needs.
During the last big hail storm we were glad we had invested in the fiberglass and aluminum carport, is that on option where you are?
Our cordless phones have that function, too, but they're scattered all over the house. These things are tiny, cheap, and work very well.
DeleteWe have a two car garage. The wife's car just happened to be outside when the storm hit. My Jeep sits outside, and the Supra gets what would have been the Jeep's garage spot.
Whatever works.
ReplyDelete......Again!
DeleteHope your wife gets well soon! God bless!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. She's somewhat better today, but still out-of-it.
DeleteSorry to hear that, hope she's better soon!
ReplyDeleteShe was feeling better, and then went out running around this morning.
DeleteNow she's back on the couch......
Back in the 1970's, we used to use UGC-6 teletypes, coupled with the Orestes KW-7 encryption device, to transmit teletype messages from camp to camp in the field, over HF. I can remember seeing the operators typing RY RY RY when they were bringing the circuits up. I remember wire notes, too!
ReplyDeleteWe had a couple of "portable" data terminals that were for the MARDET on the Iowa. We found them in a storage compartment off the Transmitter Room down on the third deck. One of our radio guys was a USMC Radio Operator, and knew all about them. They were green suitcase-size beasties that weighed about 100 lbs, and had "Two Man Lift" warning decals on them. They passed all their power-on self tests, and look ready to go, so maybe they'll get them tied into the switchboard on the Iowa so they can be used.
DeleteWhen I was at NAS Pt. Mugu in the 60's we had RTTY in the ham shack there. I remember punching a tape with a bunch of RYs followed by the callsign. Looking at the tape, I noticed R and Y are the Mark/Space complements of each other. I guess that's why they use those two characters.
ReplyDeleteYup. Other radio data formats do the same thing.
DeleteAnd then there's the "numbers stations".....