Not a spectacular week………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

1/10/21 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Down to do the blog.  Had lunch and Kathy went up to help Julie color her hair.  I played in the radio shack.  Kathy came home and we had dinner.  Usual evening routine.

1/11/21 – Monday – Kathy was up and out early to watch the grand children.  I got up at the usual time.  Spent time in the shack playing radio and setting up for my “Hamshack Hotline” (More about that later).  Kathy came home and we went down to Taylorsville and picked up fish at Moby Dick’s Seafood for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

1/12/21 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time.  Had to get out and do things even in the cold today.  Went out first thing and fired up the kerosene heaters in the shop.  Checked the radio and bands where really bad today.  Brought the bracket over for the new lightning arrester that is going on the bottom of my vertical antenna.  Got that all put together.  Brought all the outside Christmas decorations in and got a lot of them back upstairs in storage.  Then to the shop to take an inventory of coax cable.  Inside and checked the radio again but still bad.  Dinner and the usual evening events.

1/13/21 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Spent the day cleaning up administrative things.  Out to dinner with Gary, Mike and the wives tonight.  

1/14/21 – Thursday – Up a little early.  Was suppose to take Bella to the groomers but Julie was sick and stayed home so Kathy didn’t have to go watch grand kids and thus took Bella to the groomers.  Spent the morning doing administrative stuff and played a little radio. Took Kathy to lunch at Hometown Pizza then picked up Bella from the groomers.  Got my Hamshack Hotline working today.  Took a nap this afternoon.  A snack for dinner and the usual evening routine.

1/15/21 – Friday – Up early and down to Daugherty’s to pick up my son-in-law Mike.  Brought him to the house while his car was being serviced.  Spent the morning chatting.  Took him back a little before lunch.  Kathy was up and out early to watch the grand kids while Mike was over here.  She came home at lunch time and we ate.  Chores and a nap this afternoon.  Up and dinner.  Then the usual evening events.

1/16/21 – Saturday – Up around the usual time.  Out to Lowes to pick up some metal rod for a project for my son-in-law.  Also got a pipe for Kathy she wants hung up in the area over the garage to store clothing.  Spent the afternoon playing with Gpredict and chatting with people on the radio.  Usual evening events.

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Now the specifics:

The COVID-19 vaccine situation is turning into a cluster. Should have seen it coming. Again, piss poor planning. We saw an article in the paper that first responders were getting their shots the last couple weeks and it was now time for phase 1B to be implemented. That included teachers and those over 70 years of age. So, I started calling and found that all the vaccine had been used up and they are not taking reservations for future shots. I did some nosing around and it seems that no one planned for the process completely and they are afraid that they won’t get enough vaccine to cover everyone’s second shot. That happens somewhere between 21 days and 1 month. There are three vaccines that have emergency approval and they are different. So this time issue depends on which vaccine you get. The problem is that if the second shot is not administered in the correct window of time, you must start again. So, the bottom line is that Kathy and I have no idea when we will have access to the vaccine and where we might be able to get it.

My son-in-law had said he was not going to get the shot right away. He was going to see how it played out with other people. They ran into a situation at the VA that they were going to have to throw some out because it was thawed out too long so he relented and got his shot. Had no adverse reaction. Hasn’t grown additional appendages and has felt fine other than a little ache the day after. On the other hand, Julie was going to wait but the hospital told them if they didn’t get the vaccine they would not get any sick days for flu like symptoms. So she got the shot and was sick for 3 days. I think some of it was her nerves since she is more terrified of shots than Kathy. But who knows.

On a lighter note, the HAM crew (Me, Mike and Gary) decided it was time to get together for dinner some night. We made the decision to invite the wives so all 6 of us went out to the Cattleman’s Roadhouse on Wednesday evening. I think everyone had a good time and of course the food was excellent.

The State House here in Kentucky has passed HB1 this year which limits the governor’s power in shutting down the state. In the future if entities (School, Church, Restaurant, Etc.) are abiding by the CDC recommendations, the governor can not close them for more than 14 days and he can only do that once. Definitely a positive step forward. Now it just needs to pass the State Senate. I assume it will not get the governor’s approval so it will have to go back and a vote to over ride the veto must take place. Then of course it will get tested in the courts. Who knows if it will every happen. If so, it will be to late to save things.

Spent the morning with my son-in-law Friday. He brought his vehicle down to Taylorsville to have it serviced at Daugherty’s. So Kathy went up and watched the grand kids and I went over and picked him up and brought him to the house till they were done with the work. I told Kathy I would go watch the grand kids next time and she can sit and listen to Mike for the morning.

He has another project. He put a rail in the ceiling of his fitness room that the punching bag hangs from so he can keep it against the wall and out of the way when not in use and then slide it out in place when someone wants to use it. It has a large wing nut on the bracket that the bag hangs from to lock it in place on the rail. Problem is, it’s too high for anyone in his family to reach without a step ladder. So, we are making a tool that will fit on the wing nut such that he will be able to loosen and tighten it and the tool will collapse for easy storage. He has most of the material to do this but needed some rods so I got those this week. We will get together next week and do some welding to finish this project.

Its HAM radio project report time.

This is the bracket I fabricated to mount the lightning arrestor on the bottom of my vertical antenna. Looks pretty good I think, not that anyone will probably see it.

I mentioned Hamshack Hotline this week. It seems that some HAMS got together and put a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service together for HAM’s. It is a telephone system that you can subscribe to for nothing. You get a phone number and you must provide your own equipment. You can then call any other HAM on the network that also has a Hamshack Hotline. So what’s the difference between this and any other phone? Well, you can not make calls to anyone other than HAM radio operators and no one else can make calls to you on this phone. I.E. no spam. I think it’s rather neat.

The other new thing I talked about was Gpredict. That’s a computer software package that you can load on you computer and configure. It will tell you when any of the HAM satellites are in view from your location as well as it’s elevation and direction. Makes it easy to look at and see which satellite is next so you can get your radio ready to talk to it.

Last but not least, my political joke of the week.

OK, that’s it for this week. Hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I will blog at you again next week.