Book Mention: Rancho Costa Nada for $5

Long out of print, previously mentioned before here at the 'swamp, and now $42+ a paperback copy (travesty!), Rancho Costa Nada is back as a $5 kindle download.  It's the story of washed-up newspaper editor Phil Garlington who describes himself as not smart but merely a smartass with a talent for turning a phrase.  Smarting from his latest firing and having nowhere particular to be, he decamps for a scrap of worthless desert picked up for $325 a few years prior in a moment of irrational enthusiasm while doing a news story on tax auctions.

There's enough content to keep the covers apart, dealing with topics such as how to build a sandbag hut, how to run your power system off a 3-cylinder Geo Metro's battery, and how to deal with the functional-yet-deranged neighbors.  All those little life skills we need to have in our back pockets.

I don't recommend doing this, and neither does Garlington.  In fact, the last chapter is titled "Don't Do It."  However, this mope shows that it can be done, and push come to shove it is an option for almost anyone if pushed and shoved hard enough.  I do recommend reading it, mostly in case Plans A–Z fail and you're down to Plan Greek Letters, in the manner of an extremely bad hurricane season.

Really, don't do this.  Go camping for a couple of weeks instead.  When the chiggers and ticks have had their turns at you, go home and have a shower and a sleep on clean sheets.  But always know deep down inside, rock-bottom FU money is only about a month's rent.

In closing, the main point here is that Rancho Costa Nada is around again, for a very reasonable $5.

High Bluff Re-Match

250% more contacts than last Saturday's outing on the High Bluff Trail -- that counts as a success!  Of course 10x the power on digital modes and 20x the power on voice tends to make the most of the current poor ionospheric conditions.  First some pics, then on to notes.

Same place, different day.  10x the power.

And 4x the weight.

After struggling with 2.5 watts of digital brawn last Saturday, it seemed like time to step up to the similar 100-watt unit.  OK, that's 100 watts on voice only, have to dial it back to 25 watts on digital modes to keep things from melting down.  Still, it's a good step up.  The price of course is approximately 4x the weight: 6-ish lbs for the FT-817nd & Talon pack, vs 22-ish for the FT-857d & medium ALICE.  Noteworthy contacts were a voice conversation to NC (voice! finally! the ionosphere is recovering!), a PSK-31 chat to Canada, and most importantly, a 5w digital contact to Delaware.  So I still operated QRP today, if only briefly and when the ionosphere momentarily smiled.

Lessons for next time:

1. That 21' W3EDP antenna (other posts on this beast here)  is easy to hang, but I really do need to bring along a throwing weight.  The pocket knife just isn't heavy enough to easily get some line over a 22'+ limb.  
2. Also, stepping up from 25' to 50' of coax would be nice.  It opens up some other farther-from-operator antenna positions and just makes the whole tree-picking exercise that much easier.  For a small, small weight penalty, to be sure.  TANSTAAFL.
3. The new full-brimmed hat did well.  My neck and cheeks feel pretty un-burnt this evening.
4. Bring the seat pad.  Even if it's not that cold, the table lumber was still wet after last night's rains.
5. ps: Bring a UHF-male-to-SMA-female connector (I've got one around here somewhere... I think) and leave the FT-60 home.  Unlike with the digital/audio interface, if I'm using the data port (and yes, lugging a laptop along) the switch from HF to VHF/UHF is seamless.

98.7% of VHF/UHF Traffic on 2m & 70cm

 According to some recently compiled stats by Bob K0NR, the vast majority (98.7%) of SOTA (Summits On The Air) VHF-and-higher traffic is on the 2m and 70cm amateur radio bands.  Now, this does not exactly say that hams aren't using the numerous other VHF/UHF and higher bands, and furthermore, SOTA usage may or may not be a fair proxy for general usage (but I suspect that it mostly is).  This does however make a pretty good case that in traffic-thin areas such as north FL, investing in equipment for anything outside of 2m and 70cm will likely be unproductive.

SuitSat-1

 I'd mentioned a couple of months ago a short sci-fi/horror flick centering on a SuitSat wanting to come back to the ISS.  By chance, today's NASA APOD is of SuitSat-1.  Here's the pic:

"OK guys, you can reel me back in anytime now.  Guys?  GUYS?!?"

QRP on the High Bluff Trail

 A short walk in from the High Bluff east trailhead, there's a picnic table with nearby limbs suitable for hoisting the Par 10-20-40 trail-friendly end-fed antenna.  Operated for a couple of hours, made two contacts (hey, you try talking 2300 miles on 2.5 watts), including one half-hour-plus rag chew up to New Hampshire.  Just stayed on PSK-31, didn't even try re-arranging menus to do voice.  The new iPhone did great as a computer, with the same interface that worked so well with the 4S (had to add a Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle, a big $9).  Here, have some pics and we'll wrap with lessons learned.

While breaking down.  Almost forgot to take a pic before leaving.

"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began."

About a 20 minute drive to the trailhead and a 12 minute walk to the table site.  Not bad at all.  Back to lessons learned.

1. I need a new broad-brimmed hat.  This sun is a little much as it slants in on my ballcap in the late afternoon.  Will attend to this detail next week.
2. When switching from digital modulation to voice, the menu system on the FT-817nd needs to be reset, even when going over to an FM repeater setting in memory.  Vox, etc., all those things that are a fiddly mess when working in the woods with the lightweight phone audio interface.  Of course, this is no problem at all if the signals are fed in through the data port, but that requires carrying along a laptop & SignaLink.  It may just be easier to haul along the FT-60 and use that for VHF/UHF work and leave the 817nd for the HF heavy lifting.
3. The ionosphere is in still in poor shape.  Next time out, I may go heavy with the FT-857d, laptop, etc. and work things at 10x the power.  Out of 10 fairly solid signals that I could copy, I could only reach back and work 2 of the stations.  Frustrating.  This of course will triple the pack weight, which will in turn necessitate going over a heavier pack, with all those tumble-on effects.  OTOH, it's only a 12 minute walk from the trailhead and this is no big deal.

All in all, a nice afternoon in the woods.  Think I'll be doing this more often.

Diets are Bunk

 As reported today over at NPR.

However, diligent readers of present blog knew about this back in 2014: Eat Bacon, Don't Jog

Addendum to the latter link, don't order through the Big A, get it via your local cat-infested bookstore.

Still One More Day to Bid

 Over at Bring A Trailer -- up to $90,000 as of this morning, and will probably go higher.

There is a strong "I can't look away from this train wreck" aspect to the entire proceedings.

ps: Shamelessly cut-and-paste from the comments at BaT, a wonderful work of fiction centered on this car.  msmiranda, if you don't want me posting this here, contact me and I will cheerfully remove it.  It just seems too wonderful to let drift off into the aether of forgotten comments.

----

Nick doffed his time worn Stetson and brushed the yellow dust from its brim. The wide Serengeti plain stretched beneath him below his vantage upon the ancient rift upthrust.

This day was much like that one back in 1935 when he was here in his Rolls Royce shooting brake. He was with Raj and the boy and that woman then. They were hunting eland then, which were good to eat, and the elusive nauga, which were prized for the tough leather of their hides. He had a nauga head mounted and placed on the wall of his study where it stared into the eyes of a rhinoceros on the opposite wall. It was similarly mounted. But the nauga had come through the 40 years with no signs of aging. The rhinoceros had not done so well. It had become moth eaten.

So now they were back for another hunt. Raj had asked for another Rolls Royce shooting brake. As Nick’s driver and mechanic he was entitled to his views on the decision. But Nick heard that Rolls Royce did not manufacture shooting breaks anymore. They told him the hunters on the Serengeti favored Land Rovers now. But some preferred Land Cruisers. Nick was not sure what the difference was between a Rover and Cruiser. Raj did not know either.

Nick and Raj went down to Harry’s Bar for for drinks as they pondered their choices. Nick had a daiquiri. Raj had a beer. Nick ordered another daiquiri. Harry slid the drink down the zinc bar. 

Just then a man stepped out from the shadows of the dimly lit bar. He was impeccably dressed in a crisp seersucker suit, open collar shirt, perfectly polished two-tone spectators, Panama hat, and pince nez glasses.

“Pardon me, gentlemen. I couldn’t help overhearing. Allow me to introduce myself.”

He produced a gold case and withdrew a business card. Nick studied it.

Bruce Baldwin Mohs
Inventor and Entrepreneur 

“Pleased to meet you, Mr Mohs,” Nick said. “But what do you know about Rovers and Cruisers?”

“Ah,” purred Mohs. “I have a much more elegant solution. And it just so happens I have it here with me this very day. Would you care to step outside and see it?”

Nick and Raj followed the man outside. There at the curb, gleaming in massive splendor it sat. Nick’s jaw dropped. Raj stared in shock.

“Allow me to present the Mohs Safarikar,” the man said grandly. “A modern bespoke vehicle designed to withstand the rigors of a modern big game hunt. In all kinds of weather over all kinds of terrain.”

The usually taciturn Raj slowly began to nod. “It looks like a Rolls Royce,” he said quietly.

A twinkle appeared in Mohs’ eye. “And look at this,” he said.

He pulled the door straight out. It was mounted on sturdy rods allowing access to both the front seats and the rear compartment. He demonstrated further by flipping the back seat panels down to form a bed.

“You won’t have to pitch a tent when you make camp for the night,” he declared, “And there’s far more room than in those Rovers and Cruisers!”

With a flourish, Mohs demonstrated his revolutionary retracting roof. Riding on sturdy rods much like the doors it could become an open car or closed as the weather required.

Nick paused and stepped back. “But what is it covered with?” he asked in wonderment. “It isn’t painted. It looks… It looks like…?”

Mohs threw back his head and laughed. “You are most perceptive, Mr Nick. My Safarikar is covered with that most durable of wild animal hides, that of the nauga. It will even withstand the impact of a charging rhinoceros!”

Raj was still gazing transfixed at the Safarikar’s grill. “It’s a Rolls Royce,” he whispered, “It’s a Rolls Royce.”

“We’ll take it!” Nick announced firmly. “We’ll ship it to Africa on the next boat.”

----

pps: Well, $90k didn't make the reserve.  Seems that there's more to this extravaganza of a car than meets the eye.  From another post in the comments: $385k OBO.  You be the judge.  Not the thing for me personally, but I do think that it would be perfect as a perennial Mardi Gras parade car.