A Delicate Balance
I have been working on this for a while, though if you looked at this week, it seems as though Wire was by far the big winner all week, and there is still more to do before Monday.
We went on our first actual go-away-for-more-than-a-four-day-weekend vacation in a very long time and it was great. We did come home early, but that was because we had done everything we set out to do, and besides, the hotel bed didn’t make for a great night sleep anyway.
We spent the week in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Along the way we went to Ashland, Medford, some blips on the map here and there, and Crater Lake. We had a lot of fun and did a little shopping, which also turned out to be more practical than anything else. I found Wrangler jeans for $20 a pair, and Tammy picked up some things at thrift stores in the area. We also found some Pyrex and a skillet for a great price. While in Ashland we bought some books. See, even on vacation, practical. We also managed to come in under budget for the trip, which was great too.
Anyway, back to the balance issue… When we got back it was tough to get motivated and get any real work done. I didn’t do any woodworking in February and I haven’t done any yet this month. I will endeavor to do something wodworkish in the shop next week. I also haven’t gotten back to the day-job project stuff. I have been doing odds-and-ends, just not the projects.
Among the odds-and-ends was the task of taking down this satellite dish from an apartment that vacated this week. Okay, I volunteered to remove it with ulterior motives, thought the former tenant was most likely not prepared to take it down.
And even in this Wire won out, the mast and brackets are very useful and I may be using them for radio work soon. The adjusting frame on the back of the dish may also prove useful. Even the dish has some potential for EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) radio work on 2 meter, 70 centimeter, or up in the GHz range, maybe even other bands… probably not for orbital satellite though. Geosynchronous sure, but orbital would be better served with a beam antenna.
I do want to poke around with the microwave antenna elements though. I haven’t done much in the 3GHz+ range so far but I do have interest in Satcom, Point-to-Point, relay, and other microwave projects. See, Wire still on the brain.
Before I get back to balance, again, I do want to mention a website I set up for radio stuff www.KK6GXG.com (my call-sign) I will be posting radio specific stuff over there.
So, balance… I need to get this whole work-wood-wire thing into a state of balance and keep it there. This may sound like procrastination, but I really do have stuff I need to wrap up over the weekend before actively getting all of my plates spinning equally, so Monday my new mantra becomes balance balance balance…
~FlyBoyJon