The girlfriend has a loaner radio from her ham club. We need to set up an antanae for it and since we were going to be doing that I figured I’d pull my radio out of storage and hook it up as well since both radios operate on the same frequencies (Mine is an RCI-2950dx…noted for its ‘modificationability’). For the antanae, its going to be a simple and cheap dipole for now since, well, I’m cheap.So we’ll do the math to determine optimal length, cut the antanae, connect it to the insulator, plug in the coax, set up the SWR meter, and, maybe, get the bloody thing working. Pictures? Maybe, if I can remember.
It has, however, come to my attention that I need to pick up a battery charger for the 12 volt marine battery I keep on hand to power this thing in a blackout. One BatteryBuddy added to my list…
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God. Hates. Florida.
One of the cuties on my friends list rode out the hurricane in grand style….steel sheeting over the windows, generator and fuel, thundertoys, and she seems to have weathered it just fine. I’d love to post some of her pics but I gotta clear it with her first. However, she gets major Zero points for being ready and prepared. Coolest thing? She has no water pressure at the moment but she does have a full swimming pool…niiiiiiice. Why is that cool? Because, my friend, you then have several thousand gallons of chlorinated water to bathe and wash with…and flush toilets. Even with a some minor hurricane debris like a lawn chair or some shingles in there, as long as you dont have the neighbors dog floating belly up it should be fine for non-potable uses. And a hot bath is a fine non-potable use.
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Bird flu. Hmmmm. As I read it, the situation is thus – an extremely virulent strain of flu is infecting birds across Asia and is now showing up in Europe. Migratory and wild birds are transmitting it to domestic birds. The concern is when/if the flu mutates to a version that jumps from birds to human.
The great flu pandemic of 1917 (I think thats the right year) was the last time we saw such a beastie. My grandmothers sister died in that one. There were stories, some more true than others, of rail/trolley cars starting with a load of healthy people and finishing the route with a load of corpses. The advent of modern air travel certainly would make the likelihood of infection spreading faster even greater. Not much you can do for it except be prepared to isolate yourself from other people. Might be a good idea to practice the most basic precaution against any infectious disease: soap and water. And for the love of Crom dont put your hands near your face after touching money, a doorknob, a telephone or anything else that a hundred wheezing, mucous-dripping people may have already touched. Buy the yuppie bottle of hand sanitizer and use it.
Is a government enforced quarantine a likely course of action in this case? The current administration seems to be thinking it is. Now, think about this…when the government says “Everyone MUST leave.” like in Hurricane Katrina, what happened? Right. So when the .gov says “Everyone MUST stay.” what do you think is going to happen. Uh-huh.
Hand sanitizer, soap, bleach, repeat.
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This is more personal politics than preparedness but….if you have one of those Big Brother neighborhood watch cameras monitoring your neighborhood you should know that paintball guns are readily available from a myriad of sources. That is all.
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