A busy but fun week………………….

As always, first the chronology:

6/25/23 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Had breakfast but Kathy didn’t feel like going to church so I went back to bed.  Got up in time for lunch.  Down to the shack did the blog and started organizing things to put them away.  Back upstairs, cleaned up and out to Shelbyville.  Did some shopping at Walmart then stopped at Arby’s for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

6/26/23 – Monday – Planned to do the yard work but the storms that came through last night got things too wet.  So I was up a little early, cleaned up and Kathy and I went up to Hamilton, OH for me to buy a new radio.  Stopped at her brother’s place and saw him and his wife for a couple hours.  Then home.  Snack for dinner and usual evening routine.

6/27/23 – Tuesday – Up at the usual time.  Kathy was already gone to watch grand kids.  I did some chores around the house and played with my new radio.  Had an early lunch, cleaned up and out to Bestbuy for some items.  Stopped to see my friend Gary at the inpatient rehab facility.  Home and got a wifi extender up and running for the TV in the bedroom.  Continued learning my new radio.  Kathy came home and we had dinner.  Usual evening routine.

6/28/23 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Out to do yard work.  Took a break for lunch and finished up around 3PM.  Inside, cooled down and showered.  Did some more research on the new radio.  Had dinner.  Kathy took off to pick up Shelby to stay the night and do some grocery shopping.  Usual evening routine for me.

6/29/23 – Thursday – Up a little early today.  Cleaned up and had a big breakfast since Shelby was here.  Then down to get my haircut at 9AM.  Back and started learning more about my new radio.  Finally got it configured to do what I want.  Took a break for lunch.  Then continued cleanup in the shack.  Mike came over to pick up Shelby.  Then took Kathy down to the Lighthouse Diner for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

6/30/23 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Kathy got cleaned up and out to a podiatrist appointment.  I went to the shack and checked out some more things on the new radio.  I think I have everything ready to use it.  Made some contacts with it.  Kathy came home and we had lunch.  Back to the shack to organize and clean things.  I got it rather nice now.  Need some dusting and I need to vacuum the carpet.  I’ll leave that for tomorrow.  Had dinner and usual evening routine.

7/1/23 – Saturday – Up a little early this morning.  Did a 9AM Zoom class.  Learned I need to go back and learn the 1st stuff better.  Did my Saturday morning routine and ordered some Ester-C online.  Had lunch then played radio.  13 colonies special event runs from today through next Friday.  Made a bunch of contacts and took a nap.  Had dinner then usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

As I said last week, field day was a disaster. Very embarrassing to have the radio quit so early in the game. Subsequent testing indicated the problem is in the radio rather than a peripheral device. I’m not sure it’s worth fixing as it’s 30 years old. I’ll put it aside and think about looking into things sometime when I’m really bored.

I did a lot of thinking about the situation and with a number of factors I decided to just buy a good quality state of the art radio. I heard a lot of good things about the ICOM IC-7300 and I’ve had good luck with ICOM radios. My friend in PA just got one and loves it and several people in the HAM club liked them. So we planned on going up to Hamilton, OH to R & L Electronics to take a look at the what they have. Initially we planned on Wednesday but it was too wet to do yard work Monday so we went up Monday. It’s about a 2+ hour drive. Got there around 11AM. All the radios other than the 7300 that had the features I wanted were several hundred dollars more. The 7300 is a $1400 radio but they have an instant $300 rebate and a $100 mail in rebate. So essentially I got a $1400 radio for $1000. When we were finished at the electronics store we made a quick stop at Bob Evans for lunch then went over to visit Kathy’s brother and his wife. They live just east of Cincinnati. Got home a little after 6PM. A long day but got a lot done.

Needless to say, I spent most of my spare time this week learning all the neat things about my new radio. It’s amazing. It’s essentially a software defined radio which means it’s all computerized. None of the finicky RF circuits. The signals are digitized early in the process and everything is then software controlled. However, it has a touch sensitive screen. If you tap a specific area something happens, if you double tap it something else happens and if you touch and hold it something else happens. So to remember all that and get past the %35 that I’ll never have a need or interest in using is a rather tedious process. But they were smart enough that when you get it configured to do something, you can copy all the settings to a SD card to load later. I’m going to have fun.

Beside learning all the new stuff I did manage to get all the things put away that I had out for field day. At the same time I did the filing that has needed to be done for several months and got the work bench cleaned off. Still need to do some dusting and vacuum the carpet.

Tuesday I went over to the rehab facility to see my friend Gary. He is not doing well emotionally. I stayed as long as I could tolerate him. It’s very sad. Unfortunately I didn’t feel guilty enough to go over any other time last week. I’ll have to go a couple times this week.

As I said before, we had planned to do yard work on Monday and go to Ohio on Wednesday but the weather changed that around. We went to Ohio on Monday and did the yard work on Wednesday. It’s rained enough again that it looks like it could be done early next week. But I don’t think that will happen.

Got my haircut on Thursday. First I’ve seen Faith since she and her daughter were on vacation. Many stories to tell.

Shelby came over Wednesday evening to stay all night. Carter and Chloe were at the VA doing their volunteer time on Thursday. So rather than Kathy getting up early Thursday, we just go get Shelby to come stay the night. Of course part of that deal is a big breakfast. But she is great to have over. No trouble at all.

Since Kathy was so good with Shelby, I took her out to the new diner in town. The Lighthouse diner. These folks tried once before to start a place here in Spencer County but had issues with the rent. They are back and it’s a great place to eat. Always packed. We went early so we got a seat rather quickly. I had sauerkraut and fried sausage with mashed potatoes and pickled beets. What a great meal.

I have neglected my CW this last week but got on a Zoom class this Saturday morning. I either forgot a lot or I need to go back to the first round and refresh. I’ll do that online and see how I fair next Saturday morning.

Well that’s about all the excitement here. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way. Blog at you again next week.