Gear Review: Osprey Talon 22 Daypack

Last Sunday I promised a pack review later in the week (link), so here it is.

Size:  At 22 liters this pack is the all-rounder.  Any bigger and it would be awkward on a bike, any smaller and it wouldn't be so useful.  t's perfect for a day on the trail (foot or bike) where you need a little more room than say a Camelbak MULE but don't want a full-on backpack.  Laptop, radio gear, you name it, it fits in any quantity you'd generally want to take on foot.  I got it to replace my old college haul-all, which had gone back to the Great Bagmaker a while back, and it fills the gap nicely.

Carry Straps/System:  All the stuff you'd expect on a serious backpack is here in miniaturized form. Comfy shoulder straps, check.  Velcro-pull torso length adjustment, check.  Supportive hip belt with handy side pockets, check.  Sternum strap with integrated whistle-buckle, check.  Load lifters, check.  Functional load lifters, and on a pack this small, that's a nice surprise and they really do work here.  Framesheet with decent back ventilation, check.  It's not quite as airy as Osprey's Anti-Gravity mesh suspension, but it does a decent job of mitigating sweat nonetheless.

Pockets & Carry Points:  One Big Compartment, it's a daypack after all.  But inside near the top there's a mesh pocket with a key clip for those pocket things you don't want to strew along the trail.  At the top and accessible from the outside there's a glasses pocket, lined with anti-scratch material.  There's a big, stretchy front pocket for wet stuff, or items you want handy like say a poncho.  Just above that there's a bike helmet hanger.  On the right side front there's an ice axe mount, of dubious utility in south Mississippi, but you never know.  I do get north of I-10 from time to time.  On the left, there's the stow-on-the-go hiking pole holder loops.  At first I thought they were kind of gimmicky, but no, they're damn handy and I'm glad to have them.  Those are the main items, but a few others worth mentioning are a blinky light clip tab, a hanger loop, stretchy cell phone pocket on one main strap, and maybe a few other things I've forgotten.

Water:  Pocket with hanger for a 3 liter hydration bladder (not included); it's nicely accessible between the main pack and the framesheet.  Two side pockets suitable for tall 1 liter bottles.  If 5 liters won't get the job done, you're in over this little pack's head.

Now for a few, not exactly downsides, but thinks to know about going in.  To keep the weight down this pack's made of relatively thin nylon.  It's by no means flimsy, but it's not like a cordura bag that you can load with 40 pounds of books and drag around campus sidewalks.  It is what it is, and it is built to take use, not abuse.  The second thing to mention is that the side pockets are for tall water bottles or something similarly shaped, not chubby unbottles.  Again, not a downside but a design choice.  Finally, realistically you won't be tempted to try an overnight backpacking trip with this size pack, but I suppose if somebody else is supplying shelter it would be just possible.

OK, that's all I've got, so here, have some other peoples' reviews.  They're just as positive:

https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/daypack/osprey-talon-22

https://gearjunkie.com/osprey-talon-22-backpack-review

https://backpackers.com/outdoor-gear/osprey/backpacks/talon-22/osprey-talon-22-review/

Obligatory Pics: (l) Look at all that breathing space in the framesheet.  Airy.  (r)  Front pocket, holding some necessities.  Yes, that's the Coffeeneuring 2018 patch stitched on over the Osprey logo, because this pack's earned it.

       

OK that's all.  If you want a daypack and aren't sure which one to get, this is probably the best blind choice out there.

On the Real Benefits of Mountain Biking

But you only get those benefits if you take time to enjoy the ride.  Over at Dirt Rag: Start Slow and Taper Off: Forest Bathing on Two Wheels  That's the right way to do it.

Refreshing, but remember to wear eye protection.

Book Mention: Three Hundred Zeroes

A few weeks ago I'd mentioned talking with on 40m and then by chance the next day stumbling across an interview with Dennis K1YPP – link here.  Following up on those items, I finished reading his book "300 Zeroes: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail."  This is quite different than the how-to books I've been reading and the life-on-the-trail videos that occasionally cross my screen, in that the author truly pulls you in to see what the daily nitty-gritty on the trail is like: the good days, the bad, the good people all along the way, a major medical problem that knocked him off the trail for a year, the return, the final slog through Maine, and the triumphant-yet-exhausted finale on Mt. Katahdyn.  It's a real-life account of what he and others went through, and it seems to give a realistic picture of what to expect.

A nice aspect of this book is that, while the Blanchard does discuss the heart surgery that bumped him off the trail temporarily, he doesn't dwell on it.  One chapter with plenty of amusing anecdotes and not a whiff of woe-is-me, then it's over and he's back on the trail the next summer.  Well handled, both in the book and in actual life.  Additionally, while he did bring along a small low-powered Morse code-only radio and make at least one contact from each state along the way, it's not a book about hiking with ham radio.  Similarly, he does a little bit of amateur photography while on the trail, and that doesn't take over either.  It's just a book about his backpacking the AT with a couple of interesting hobbies thrown in the mix.  Mostly though, it's all about the people and the trail.

Finally, and I hate to say it, but there was a take-away lesson for me in this book: hiking the entire AT is not for me.  While I do love the local trails, and will eventually hike the southernmost end of the AT to the source of the Chattahoochee River, I'll take a pass on rock-climbing over bare granite way up in New England. But I do appreciate this book and did enjoy the journey, if only on paper.

Another Good Time in the Woods: Tuxachanie Trail

Things were a little damp for a mtb ride today, but not too damp to take a day hike.  I needed to see if the east end of the Tuxachanie Trail – near the POW camp – is clear before trying a thru-hike anyway.  It was, and it was a good day.  A little muddy here and there, got my shoes wet, but never had to actually wade through water.  Started at the POW camp, hiked in to Duck Pond, stopped off at the horse campground for the convenient table to have lunch, and was out of the woods by mid-afternoon.  Here are a few pics from today's adventure.

Not flooding, but a good flow through one of the side streams into the Tux.

Mr. Snake says "Hi!"  Probably not venomous, we all moved on peacefully.

A little waterfall, maybe 2', over an ancient buried log.  It's what we got in this land of no rocks.

Mesh and stand-off foam on the daypack.  Expect a review of this Osprey Talon 22 in the very near future, but yeah, this works pretty darned well at keeping my back dry.

The only other thing to note is that I started off with a 13 lb pack.  Half of that was water, and I didn't even try to keep the weight down: MRE main course for lunch with a stainless spoon, the FT-60 HT (about a pound and completely pointless with a little whip antenna), a jacket, etc.  Pretty heavy for a day pack, but to give a simulation of ultralight backpacking it was just right.  Oh man was it easy to move with that little weight!  Those ultralight backpackers are onto something.

OK, that's enough for one evening.  It was a good day hike, end of story.

160 meters in 2019: Yelling at a Moist Sponge

With the CQ 160 meter contest going on this weekend, I felt compelled to string up a full-sized W3EDP antenna (plans link) horizontally and zig-zaged to fit across the side yard.  Took all of ten minutes with zip-ties and some convenient trees.  And it sort of worked, but to be a player in the current poor propagation conditions you really need a well-engineered antenna and at least a kilowatt of power.  Neither of these things describe my set-up, so the results were about what you'd expect.

Meh, made a single contact across the Gulf to the Tampa area, so I didn't come away skunked.  Good enough for this year.

Book Review: Star's Reach

This is a wild one, set four hundred years in the future.  The U.S. as we know it is no more but has been supplanted by a rump state "Meriga" and a handful of peripheral nations scattered along the friendly-to-hostile spectrum.  Incompetent government, climate change, and oil depletion have done their worst, and while it never came to all-out nuclear war, things got pretty bad for a while.  But that's all three hundred years in the past and now there's a medieval feeling in the air and things are slowly getting better.  It's recognizably America, but in about the same way that a first century Roman would recognize tenth century France.

So that's the set-up, and like any good Middle Ages based fantasy novel, there has to be a young quasi-knight and his band of slightly disreputable nobles, sprinkled with the odd scholar or two who know about the old ways, a treacherous comrade who secretly wants to seize the old magic for his own ends, a wandering wise man who pops in at key times, ruins to explore, treasures to find... and above all there's The Quest.

Here, The Quest is based on an old legend (aren't they always) from just before things fell apart, about a TWO WAY radio telescope where we'd made preliminary contact with aliens.  A clue as to the telescope's location is found early on, and we're off to the races.  It's a pretty good setup, as these things go.

Based on the above, you probably already have a good idea if you'll like this book or not, so I'll wrap this up with a few notes and move on to the rest of my Saturday.  Personally, it was hard to put down, but I'm glad to have finished and now it's time to jump to some other books.

On to those few notes:
– The book has an unusual structure, jumping forward and back in time.  Major mysteries are answered early in almost a spoiler-ish fashion, but then the story hangs in there to make getting to how events unfold worth reading.  It's a good trick, and the author pulls it off. 
– About a third of the way through the thought came to me "this author has got to be a ham radio operator."  Nothing overt, but little clues like AN/URC-117 GWEN showing up on a key document, a radioman guild, etc.  Looked in a database and yep.  Extra class, too.
– Evidently when first published this book took on a minor following which put together resources like a small wiki, maps of Meriga, those sorts of things.  This even went so far as to spin off a short story collection that's still in print.  The fervor seems to have cooled a little with time, but the web pages are still out there.  It never quite gripped me to that degree, but I was at least intrigued enough to give it a quick web search.

OK that's enough, and more than enough for you to decide whether to read or not.

ps, much later: I forgot to include the author's name in the text, even though it is in the above image: John Michael Greer.  Lacking this, it kind of makes it hard to search.

Theme Quote for this Week Just Past

"Lack of skill dictates economy of style."

                                                      -Joey Ramone

That pretty well sums it up.  Hopefully will have something more interesting over the weekend.

The Beach Nobody Can Touch

A report on how a place has been loved nearly to death, but now is cordoned off and recovering.

Article at the BBC

There are some heavy lessons there, but I'm not here to spell them out for you.  Go read the article, draw your own conclusions.

Sci-Fi Short-Short: Prequel to The Martian; & RIP Opportunity

Weir knocked this one out just before the 2015 movie adaptation of his novel The Martian.  It's a 5 minute read, so hop to it.

Speaking of Mars, I would be remiss not to note today's passing of the rover Opportunity.  It was supposed to last 90 days, and ended up doing heavy exploration of the Martian surface for 15 years.  Few endeavors excel to that degree.

Here, have the obligatory xkcd:

Ultima Thule is Even Weirder Than We Thought

Turns out it's not two rough spheroids glommed together, but more of a pancake and a walnut:

Article at Space dot com.  More, and probably surprises, to come as data streams in over the next year or so.

QSL Cards and Their History

At a youtube vido: here.  The guy does a pretty good job explaining these nerdtastic postcards and how they came about.  Of course I participate in this radio & postal exchange:

It's different, anyway.  Send a signal report, get a card, it's that easy.  You don't even have to be a licensed ham, all it takes is a shortwave receiver.  Most hams (at least the ones who send cards) will be happy to send to an SWLer, if asked nicely in an email.

Mythbusters, Jr.

Article and podcast over at NPR.

Directly involving and herding kids might be an interesting new take on the long-running series.

Another Day in the Woods at Desoto

It was supposed to rain, but sometimes these things work out.  Nothing remarkable, just a bunch of easy miles occasionally interspersed with pleasant people.  Here are the pics:

Overlooking the Gorge of Eternal Peril

Overlooking Tuxachanie Creek.  Sand, not snow, in case you were wondering.

Some days I just feel inspired to roll the miles.

The Past and Future of Online Shopping

Article at Wired.  Link courtesy of The Darling Daughter.

Medium-long, but worth your time to read.

An interesting little QRP blog

http://qrper.com

I'm sort of a regular over at the author's other blog, https://swling.com/blog/   Why haven't I stumbled across QRPer sooner?  As the name implies, it's all about low-watt ham radios.  The posts there are occasional but steady, and have a general relevance to life below 10 watts.  Worth a look, if you're into such things.

Bonus:  Flipping through the site turned up this post, an interview with K1YPP, who's recently finished a cross-country bike trip and who also has hiked the Appalachian Trail – both with ham gear, of course.  Just talked to the guy last night on 40m PSK-31!  Small world.  Here's his blog about the former, and book about the latter.  Another good contact with content.

Ground Waves at High Frequencies

Ground wave propagation is a fascinating, under-used propagation mode in the ham HF bands.  Sure, we all know (or should know) how well it works on the AM broadcast band down around one MHz, where you can receive powerful stations well over the horizon, but does it work up in the tens of MHz?  Surprisingly, yes.  But don't take my word for it, here are a couple of well-researched articles on the matter:

Radio Waves and Communication Distance (QST, January 1985)
The ground wave part is on the first page under the heading "Close-In Contacts."  Particularly interesting is Fig. 1, which shows approximate useable ground wave ranges as a function of frequency.  Ten-plus miles from a ground-mounted 6BTV antenna on 10 meters?  Sure, I've done it.  Surprised me too.

An Empirical Investigation of High-Frequency Ground Wave Propagation (JHU/APL, 1992)
A thorough investigation of GW propagation in the 20–30 Mhz range.   There is a lot to unpack there, but it's very much worth the read.  Mostly it's about getting over mountains when repeaters and the ionosphere are unavailable.

One application immediately comes to mind: Using an on-the-dirt ground plane 10 meter antenna to "crawl" RF over the hills and into the valleys at the Clear Springs bike trails in the Homochitto NF.  It's heavily wrinkled terrain, where both VHF/UHF bands and cell phone coverage are patchy.  Take along my FT-817nd on a mountain bike and try to stay in touch with the base, while using "control" 2m/70cm band HTs to show where line-of-sight paths do and don't work.  It might make for an interesting ham camp-out this spring or next winter.  Will have to mention it around at the next Club meeting.

Thinking about this for a moment, ground wave propagation's ability to roll over and down in between the hills may explain the continuing popularity of CB with the deer hunters and off-roaders.  They tend to be practical people who use what works.

Effective ground wave propagation at 10 meters?  Looks like, out to 14 miles; YMMV.

Two Trail-Finder Links

https://www.hikingproject.com – for the hikers/backpackers

https://www.mtbproject.com – for the mountain bikers

These are the most comprehensive, user-friendly trail resources I've happened across to date.  They feature zoomable maps showing mileages & elevations, general descriptions, external links, and room for user input.  Good stuff, recommended!

BTW, they seem to be underwritten by REI, judging by the prominent links.  More power to them, it's top-notch advertising to make an overall useful site that also happens to mention your stuff.

Return to... Desoto!!!

Nothing astonishing about this ride except that it was another great day in the woods.  Ran into a few old friends out there, rode with them, rode solo, ate lunch, got home before the afternoon was completely gone.  The main thing was that events finally aligned to get me back into the woods.

Silca Tattico Mini-Pump Review

Short and sweet: The Silca Tattico is the mini-pump you want.  manufacturer link  More details below.

That's it in the^^^ picture.  As you can see, it'll tuck into a Camelbak with no problem, or can mostly fit into a jersey pocket.  I'm not completely sold on the bottle cage mount, too much grit spray down there when I'm riding in the real world, although the seals (more on this below) would mostly keep things out.

Regarding the advertised features, it grips well and is easy to pump.  There are rubber seals that can mostly close things up around the sliding parts.  These would probably do well enough on a bike path, but I'm not so sure about on a sandy mountain bike trail.  No matter, it's small enough to go into the Camelbak, and the seals are welcome protection there too.  The grips and built-in heat sink actually do keep this thing cool, at least where you're having to grab on.  After pumping the CX bike's tires this morning, the barrel was very warm, but the grips and all else were well.

Now for the interesting part, the internally-stowed air hose.  It's a slick design, mounted on a sliding end for the pressure cylinder, with a tight-fitting rubber cap to close things off for storage.  When pumping, the 6" of hose gives enough play that the chuck doesn't get pulled around and off of a valve stem.  That alone puts this ahead of Silca's more expensive Imperio model.  The chuck itself is a little delicate – the lever on my first one broke on me, which Silca warranted cheerfully.  The chuck only needs to go over the small end of a presta valve, and only a light touch is needed to close it.  If you need to press any harder, don't, but back off a little on the valve and try again.  Main things here are that this hose stows neatly and it allows for leak-free pumping.

It's definitely a mini pump.  In the 60 psi range, it takes about 30 strokes to add another 10 psi on the CX bike's 700cx40mm tires.  For that and because it's very light and hence a little delicate, it's no substitute for an everyday floor pump, but Silca's got you covered on that base too.

Bottom line is that for $55, Silca has made the perfect everyday mini-pump.  They do make a slightly more upscale version with a Bluetooth pressure gauge that links to your phone for $120, but I don't need all that.  But they have several other mobile options, so you should look around before taking my word as final.  Pretty much though, this is the mini-pump you want.

OK, enough praise for this pump.  On to the company.  As I'd mentioned above, the first chuck broke.  An email, a second email with a picture of the parts, a nice email back saying "your replacement is on the way," and a pre-printed/pre-paid return label for the box, and all was wrapped up.  That's top-notch customer service.  Finally, I have to hand it to Silca for dropping the price on their basic Pista floor pump to $99.  No, that price is not cheap, but then neither is the pump.  My Pista is 30 years old and still working beautifully, after one rebuild at the 15 year mark.  And that's the point, these things last for decades and are worth rebuilding.  These are the pumps you want, and this is the company you want to do business with.

IoT = Tears

Hacker spoke to baby, hurled obscenities at couple using Nest camera, dad says
Alright, the web site is CBS News, so consider the source and do your own due diligence.  Even so, it's like I've been saying for a while: putting real-world interface devices in your own personal space on the internet without .mil-grade security is a really bad idea.  Even with .mil-grade security it's probably still a bad idea.  There's that whole concept of "need to know," but we all need to take a hard look at the related concept "need to connect."  Sure, the Internet of Things may be convenient, but so is leaving your doors unlocked 24/7.  Convenient doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Here, have the obligatory, marginally related xkcd comic:

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