Tag: radio flyer

A new day. A new year

With 2024 drawing to a close, I felt it was time for reflection. For my household, it was disruptive. It started out with Mary’s ex husband suddenly getting sick and then dying. He is the father of my stepchildren, Mary and the kids stayed in contact with him throughout the years. She made 3 trips to Texas while I stayed home and took care of our special needs daughter.

Shortly after that, she decided she needed a hip replaced. She got scheduled for surgery a week after her examination. She had to spend 4 days in the hospital and then several months recuperating. I was doing the heavy lifting in more ways than one.

During the winter we had a very cold spell which killed about 14 50-60 foot tall pine trees. I had to bring these down with a chain saw. It took some doing as I had to make sure they fell in the right direction. They had to fall into my open field and not in the woods possibly creating widow-makers. Because of the danger involved, Mary at least wanted to be present to watch me in case something bad happened—it didn’t. I put her in out UTV so she could keep an eye on me while she continued to recuperate.

We saw the great eclipse of 2024. We were in the 85% coverage range. In reality we didn’t see that big of change. It was fun to witness it though.

This summer we had a big family reunion. We rented a huge cabin in Tennessee where we all stayed for 4 days. It was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting. It was good to see all my kids and grandkids in one location.

We saw two major hurricanes hit the southeast with Hurricane Helene doing damage in North Carolina that will take years for recovery. Fortunately, the hurricane’s path just missed us.

Amateur radio had its own shakeup in my world. After 26 years of EmComm with my church, I decided it was time to do something else. I felt the program was getting a little stale and I was getting a little stale with the program. I have since joined US Army MARS and SHARES. I am enjoying both. I have let my CW skills trail off some. At the beginning of the year I enrolled in a CW class called CW Innovations or CWI. They helped me get my code speed up. With everything that was going on with me, something had to give and it ended up being amateur radio and CW. This included most of my camping trips.

I have been retired now for a little over year and while it has been a hectic year, I still enjoy retirement. I stay busy. Looking toward the new year, I am hoping to get back to some kind of normal. So far I have winter field day with my club in January and Hamcation in February. I plan on camping in March, April and May. I have yet to make the reservations. With MARS and SHARES there is a digital component so I will work on keeping those skills current. These nets have a specific protocol and run very efficiently. It takes some getting used to, but these are some of the best nets I have been on. CW was pushed to the side but hopefully I will get back on the paddles this upcoming year. The new year holds no promises of being any better than this past year, it is my hope it will be better.

On a final note, I wish to thank all of my supporters who have stuck with me during this past tulmulteous year. I wish you all the best with a safe and prosperous New Year. God Bless and 73—de Scott

Hints and Kinks for the New Camper

The Radio Flyer is an excellent camper for me. I love the compactness as well as the space utilization. One of my jobs in the U.S. Army was as a crew chief on a Blackhawk Helicopter. It has a similar vibe. the other thing I like about it, is I only lose 0.5 to 1.5 miles per gallon when I tow it.

The first weekend in it was great. I learned a lot about the camper and worked on how best to use the space. Winter is upon us so operating the radios outside may not always be doable. Years of abuse working in the trades have left me with arthritis in my hands, making CW difficult when it is cold. In my last post, I tried a couple of different ways to operate inside the camper. while none were perfect, I got a couple of good ideas. This is what I ended up with.

I can sit comfortably in that chair for hours and there is enough room for my legs. The table is 16″ wide and 3′ long. It can easily hold my laptop, CW key, and full-sized radio. Not shown, but on the right, just behind the chair are 2-120v outlets. If I need to get up, I slide the table over to the wall on the left. I believe I can also sleep with it there.

Construction was simple. I have about $50 invested, $30 was for the legs. The table-top was a project panel from Lowes that cost less than $11. Everything else I had on hand. I cut a radius on the corners and routed the edges for comfort. To secure the legs to the table I used some Tee-nuts left over from a prior project.

The panel is only 5/8″ thick. The tees are about 1/2″ tall so the recess was rather shallow. After I put them in, I secured them with JB Weld. Not pretty, but adequate for the job and good enough for proof of concept. If I decide to redo this, I would use a thicker board and a Forstner Bit for the recess. That would have upped the cost, more than I thought appropriate for a first go.

I did both ends as I have two legs. that way I can also set it up as a table proper. I sanded it a little, put on a coat of stain, and a spray-on polyurethane clear coat. Nothing fancy. To store the table when I am not using it I put it between the bed and the camper wall.

The other kink has to do with my microwave. It sits nicely on the shelf; however, during the first tow, I went over some fair-sized bumps, which launched the microwave onto the floor. The netting that came with the camper did not hold it well enough. My cure was simple, I did two things. First I turned the hook that holds the net around to where the hook faces the microwave. This should increase the holding power. The second thing I did was I bought some metal bookends and slipped them under the microwave and behind the hooks. The height of the bookends and the weight of the microwave should keep it on the shelf.

The next flight of the Radio Flyer will be in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, everything will work as advertised. 73 — Scott