Friday, June 4, 2021

Museum Ships Weekend

 Put on every year at this time by the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station, NJ2BB.

It kicks off at 0000Z, about two hours from now. I checked my antennas the other day, and tightened up all the connections, and swept them to see if anything had gone wonky over the winter. I'd noticed the VSWR on my 20 Meter vertical seemed high, which started this exercise. WELL.......in the process of rearranging things a bit here, I accidentally swapped the the two cables into my selector switch. OOOOPS! Swapped the cables back, and things went back to the way they were before.

And now ALL the cables are properly labeled so I don't mess things up again. Until the next time....

Last year I worked 8 ships, and I'm hoping I can contact a few more this year, including my friends on the Iowa.

Band conditions are a bit spotty right now, so we'll see what happens as the weekend progresses.....


Have a good weekend, y'all!

11 comments:

  1. Your post made me flash back to my late Uncle Joe making his nieces and nephews climb trees to string his antennas at family gatherings.

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    1. I just "bumped into" the nephew of the guy that taught me Morse Code! He also had fond memories of his Uncle Cel, W9KPC (SK) showing him the radio stuff when he was little.

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  2. Dr., I like the way you've set up a command and control center. Nice.

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    1. Don't have the "Latest and Greatest" equipment or big fancy antennas, but I make do. I talked to the guys on the USS Drum, a WWII submarine today, right before my "big" radio went POP! and dropped the power from 200 Watts to 15 Watts.

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    2. Drum's like right down the block in Mobile Bay!

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    3. And USS Kidd is in Baton Rouge. I think you visited there, didn't you?

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  3. Good luck and yes, labeling is good :-)

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    1. I still don't get it how the Phone Guys and IT Guys can stand NOT having things labeled!

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  4. Replies
    1. Well, it was until my main radio went casters-up last night. Had to break out my back-up radio so I could continue.

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Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them)...