Another busy week……………………………

As always, first the chronology:

5/23/21 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Down to do the blog.  Upstairs, lunch and cleaned up.  Over to Bob’s place with Leeta for Bob to look at the UHF repeater.  Back home and had dinner.  Out to finish moving the dirt pile and bring garbage over from the shop for pickup tomorrow.  Otherwise just usual evening routine.

5/24/21 – Monday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and took the Vibe to Daughtery’s auto repair.  Home and made phone calls.  Had lunch.  Over to Gary’s to look at some things on his garden tractor.  Home and changed.  Kathy came home from her circle group and we put fertilizer down in the garden and rototilled it for the last time.  Setup the watering stuff.  Inside and dinner.  Usual evening routine.

5/25/21 – Tuesday – Up early and out to get blood drawn for my doctor’s appointment next week.  Stopped at Kroger for my prescription but they were busy giving COVID shots.  Came home and did some chores.  Back into J-town to Kroger and picked up my prescription then to Taylorsville County Mart for some grocery shopping.  Home and put things away.  Had lunch and over to Lowes in Shelbyville for another gallon of stain for the pool deck (Almost done).  Kathy was working in the garden so I went out and gave her a hand.  Also cut the chair legs off at Julie’s request.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

5/26/21 – Wednesday – Worked in the shack most of the day as it was overcast and rainy.  Ordered some material.  Went out with Mike (My HAM buddy), his wife, Gary and his wife and Kathy for dinner at Cattleman’s Steakhouse.  Home and made some pickled beets and eggs.  Then usual evening routine.

5/27/21 – Thursday – Up a little early and out to get my hair cut.  Worked in the shop getting the chair not to wobble that I cut shorter for Julie.  Put up hangers for the hose.  Ran some equipment to get rid of gas and to exercise the generator.  Lunch.  Downstairs for computer work.  Took a nap.  Dinner and usual evening routine.

5/28/21 – Friday – Up a little early and out with the truck and trailer to haul some wood for my son-in-law.  Weather was rainy so not conducive to hauling wood.  Then we got in Lowes and he saw how much wood had gone up.  Figured his $400 project would cost him $600 today if he bought wood so he decided to wait till later.  Came home and put things away.  Did chores around the house.  Kathy was grocery shopping and came home so I helped her unload and put things away.  Then lunch.  More chores around the house and a nap.  Dinner and usual evening routine.  My Thermistors came today so I pulled my power supply off the shelf and installed a thermistor and also re-adjusted the output voltage.  Works much better now.  

5/29/21 – Saturday – Up at the usual time.  Weather was overcast and chilly so Kathy didn’t want to work on the pool.  Downstairs and continued cleanup efforts.  Got my desk cleared.  Had lunch, some research.  Out to do some shopping.  Stopped at Walmart and it was too crowded.  Then to Harbor Freight.  Up to Long Horn Steakhouse for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Some folks have been trying to get a UHF HAM repeater working here in Spencer County but were not having much luck. I put my nose in it and in my opinion it was a de-sense problem that was probably an issue with the duplexer. That’s a fancy device that allows the transmitter and receiver to use the same antenna and transmit and receive at the same time. I don’t have all the necessary equipment to work on that sort of thing so I contacted the guy that runs the repeaters in Bullet County for the club there. He gave me the name of a gentleman that was into commercial radio and was HAM friendly. So I contacted him and finally made an appointment to take the repeater and duplexer over to his shop last Sunday. Leeta and her husband Patrick are the owners of the repeater so Leeta wanted to see what was happening so she and I took it over. He was able to replicate the problem we were seeing and held on to it to do some work. He got several issues resolved but had some more work to do on it. We will go retrieve it when he is done and put it back in service.

I finished moving dirt into the garden last Sunday and on Monday we put down the fertilizer and rototilled it again. Kathy started planting things Tuesday and I helped her get the watering system up and running. So the Garden is done and all we need to do is reap the harvest later this year.

Our friend David finished up staining the pool deck for us. It’s beautiful. Can’t thank him enough. However, we can’t pin him down on how much we owe him. I think that will be a challenge but with the deck done we need to start getting it ready. Kathy bought all the chemicals this week and we were going to do it yesterday but it was overcast and cool so Kathy didn’t want to play in the water.

Julie bought a chair at a used furniture place for one of the kids to go with their desk. Unfortunately it was a bar type chair and too high to fit under the desk. So I cut the legs off to her specifications. The hardest part of that project was getting it not to wobble after I shortened the legs. I managed to accomplish that and took it with me Friday when I went up but forgot to take it out of the truck. So it’s still in the shop.

Wednesday evening we had dinner with the HAM crew. Kathy and me, Mike and his wife and Gary and his wife got together at the Cattleman’s Steakhouse over on Hurstbourne Parkway. We had a good time and I think everyone enjoyed the opportunity to get out.

Friday I took the truck with the trailer up to my son-in-laws place. He wanted to go to Lowes and get the lumber to finish the built in cabinets in the walk-in closet of their bedroom. The weather looked bad but I went anyway. He got ready to go but when we got to Lowes and he saw how much the price of lumber had gone up we aborted the trip. I’m sure he will do a lot of research on the matter and by the time he decides what to do the prices will be coming down. At least I hope so.

I’ve been having problems with my 13.8 volt 50 amp power supply. On rare occasions it would trip the circuit breaker in the electrical panel with no load when I started it. It would also make a curchunk sound quit frequently. I called Astron Corporation that makes the supply and they said the problem was typical on the older supplies. I bought mine in 1992. They said a simple fix is to install a thermistor in it and that would resolve the problem. They suggested a 2.5 ohm 10 amp thermistor. Well all I could find readily available was 15 amp so I ordered some of those. I opened up the supply after getting off the air Friday night. I used a little heat shrink tubing and installed it in the hot side of the primary side of the transformer. Now it is quiet as a mouse when I turn it on and hasn’t tripped the circuit breaker since I did the work.

I have several pieces of rather large test equipment that I have no space for on my work bench. So I decided to stop at Harbor Freight and buy a welding cart that was on sale for $40. Unfortunately I didn’t look at the dimensions very close and none of the equipment will fit. So, I think I need to take a closer look at a larger cart. Make sure all the stuff I want will fit on it. That is a project for the coming week.

The dogs have been getting along well with each other. They play and get very aggressive but apparently they don’t mind. They tease the hell out of each other. He will get something and wait for Bella to start after him and then run under something low where she can’t get to him. Of course when Kathy takes him outside she has him on a leash and ties him to a tree or other immovable object. Bella will then sit just outside the area he can get to and just sit there.

However, Kathy is still having issues getting Rusty to understand the idea of house training. It hasn’t helped any that he gets the diarrhea. He wants out several times during the night and Kathy thinks he is just fussing when in fact he has to go. So it’s a rather comical situation until it gets to the point were I get no sleep at night.

OK, that’s it for this week. Hope this find everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way. Blog at you again next week.