A busy week this week………………………………………………………………….

As always, first the chronology:

01/28/24 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  Home and lunch.  Down to do the blog.  Over to Gary’s for the Sunday afternoon get together.  Home, picked up Kathy and over to Harbor Freight to pick up a Apache Case that was on sale for $20.  Back to Cattleman’s Steakhouse for dinner.  Home and usual evening routine.

01/29/24 – Monday – Up a little late today.  Didn’t sleep well and feel like shit again.  Kathy was off to see her banker for the first of the year RMD withdrawal.  I cleaned up the kitchen then in the bedroom and cleaned up myself.  Even put on clothes.  Down and started work putting a switch in the power supply for my QMX.  Kathy came home and we had lunch.  Back downstairs and continued the work on the switch.  Finished that off and got the place for the battery marked off in the new case I bought.  Kathy took off this afternoon to give blood.  She got home so I went up to chat awhile.  Had a Zoom class at 5PM so we decided to wait till after that for dinner.  Down and did the Zoom class.  Up for dinner.  Usual evening routine.

01/30/24 – Tuesday – Up a little early today.  Made the “Over the hill” net.  Then downstairs to continue work on my replacement LCD light strips.  Started feeling like shit.  Tried a few things to no avail.  Managed to get an appointment with an endocrinologist.  Up for lunch.  Called the Cardiologist office to complain about how I was feeling.  She changed my medication.  Back downstairs and finished up the LED Light Strips.  Did a Zoom class at 3PM.  Up for dinner.  Back downstairs to clean up and get back on my QRP project.  Another Zoom class at 7PM.  Otherwise, usual evening routine.

01/31/24 – Wednesday – Up a little early today.  Got cleaned up before breakfast.  Checked in to the “Over the Hill” net while eating breakfast.  Out around 8:30 to take Kathy’s car down for an oil change and routine service.  Home and a snack.  Downstairs to look for one of my instructors who was suppose to be doing FT8 POTA.  Didn’t see him but made some other FT8 contacts.  Upstairs for lunch.  Back down and finished up cutting the foam rubber in the case for my QRP rig.  Then did some gluing on it.  Up for a nap.  Then dinner and usual evening routine.  Kathy went to Bible Study.

02/01/24 – Thursday – Up a little early today.  Kathy was up and out to volunteer at the VA today.  I checked into the “Over the Hill” net.  Cleaned up the kitchen then got cleaned up.  Down and replaced the furnace filter.  Practiced some code.  Then over to Shelbyville to get some money from the bank.  Then to a new place called Twin Peaks for lunch.  Home and started loading the truck with HAM gear for tomorrow.  Got everything loaded and took the truck down and fueled it up.  Put it in the Morton building till tomorrow.  Inside and emptied the dishwasher.  Did some other chores.  Kathy came home and we had dinner.  Usual evening routine.

02/02/24 – Friday – Up a little early today.  Cleaned up and gather my things for POTA.  Out to the truck and on my way at 9AM.  Talked to Dave on the way and we met up at the wild life refuge.  Setup and got on the air by a little after 10AM.  Rick, another member of our club, showed up and played radio with us.  Started to dismantle things around 1:30 PM.  Stopped on the way home and had Arby’s for a late lunch.  Got home and Kathy was still out shopping.  I unloaded the truck and put it away.  Started carting things downstairs.  Kathy came home and I helped her unload her car and put things away.  Finished putting my things away.  Then a little nap.  Up and started the paperwork.  Up and had a late snack for dinner.  Otherwise, usual evening routine.

02/03/24 – Saturday – Up a little late today.  Did my usual Saturday morning routine.  Down to the shack to do some cleanup and practice code.  Up for lunch.  Was wiped out from yesterday so went for a nap.  Up and a few more chores around the house.  Out for dinner at the Mexican restaurant.  Home and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

Last week and the beginning of this week I felt like shit. So, over the weekend, I posted a message to my cardiologist explaining things and wanted some help. Hadn’t heard anything back Monday this week so after lunch on Tuesday I called. I hate to do that as I know doctors are rather behind the eight ball in terms of how much time they are allowed with patients. But I got her nurse who took my information and said she would check with Christi and call me back. It was about 15 minutes and I got a call back and she said Christi would put in a prescription for some different medication. It’s a little stronger but it’s time release so I only have to take one a day instead of two. Still not 100% but feeling much better. She said she’d check back in a couple weeks so I suspect it might take awhile for this new stuff to get in my system. 

My under shelf lighting in the shack was giving me trouble. Beside the fact the one controller had a burnt pin on the interface and the fact I had to split the load for the lights between two controllers, one of the strips kept blinking intermittently which was very distracting. So, I took out all the old stuff and replace it with new. Cost me about $30 at Harbor Freight and it works well. Everything looks good again.

Wednesday I took Kathy’s car down to have it serviced. Should have had them put a new battery in it. It’s a 2017 and has never had a new battery. Anything over 5 years is more than you can expect out of these new batteries. Anyway, as luck would have it, last night she went to start it to go grocery shopping and all it did was click. So she took the Vibe and I got the battery charger from the shop and put that on it. The battery came up in voltage but as soon as I tried to start it again it shit it’s pants and went back to a little over 10 volts. I’d guess it has a bad cell. So, today after church I stopped and got the special tools needed to get the plastic rivets out of the plastic pieces that cover one of the bolts I need to remove. And tomorrow I’ll get the tools out of the shop, bring them up to the house and take the old battery out, take it to AutoZone and get a replacement to reinstall. Should be back up in an hour or so.

Thursday Kathy went to do her volunteer work at the VA. So, since I had to go out to get some money at the bank I took a trip into where the Oxmoor Mall is and went to a new place call Twin Peaks. It’s suppose to be a classy style Hooters. It was OK but I wasn’t overly impressed. Girls were definitely a cut above but still nothing spectacular. Think I’ll try going back to Drake’s this week.

I finally made it out to do a POTA (Parks on the Air) on Friday this week. I met another member of the club down at a relatively new park near Frankfort which had never been activated using CW. It was a little chilly so I did some FT-8 till it warmed up a little. Then I got the paddles out and made a half dozen CW contacts. Had a lot of fun and my portable equipment got used so all was good.

Here I am waiting for my computer to finish a QSO while trying to keep my hands warm in preparation for getting out the paddles and doing some CW.

I’ve been keeping up with my training program. Did the 4 Zoom classes this past week. Did not check into the CW traffic net as often as I should have. Will try to do better with that this week.

Here’s my QRP case. You can’t see the radio as it’s buried under the headset and cable there on the right. But the battery is in the upper left, the voltmeter for the battery and the regulator are in the box in the lower left. This is all you need to get on the air with CW or FT-8 except for the antenna. I’ll give this setup a try the next time I’m out.

As always, I hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Please stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.