| Newsletter | |
| 11/24/03 | The Radio Tower and antennas (2m, 440 and HF) were installed on November 21, 2003. Special thanks to Dave W8HUF, Paul N8JR and Dick KC8GXV. The top antenna is 92 feet with a height above sea level of 862 feet. The Radio Room/Office is being rearranged to include our new equipment with quite a number of new equipment additions to be added shortly. |
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Can you imagine your Field Day
starting like this? So you drive about a thousand feet from the field day site, take the two live traps from your red Ford van and set them on the ground. Simple enough, right? Well, not quite. Cage number one door is opened
and raccoon
number one looks around and then takes off like a shot - straight out of the cage. He is last seen
entering the woods a short distance away. Cage number two is then and
raccoon number two looks around and takes off like a shot. Here the story makes a broad departure from
the first raccoon. |
Moments later, the raccoon is discovered hiding in the wheel-well. No amount of coaxing is sufficiently persuasive to cause raccoon number two to abandon this new lair. From one end to the other our captor slides along the loose sand under his van armed with a short twisted stick in an effort to dislodge raccoon number two as it jumps from wheel to drive-shaft to transmission to the engine compartment and back again. The clock ticks on. Appointments pass as the would-be captor battles wits with the young raccoon. Alas, alack, the fire in his belly finally dies out and our determined captor gives in to this un-lodgeable little bandit. The last thing we see in the waning evening sun is our friend giving raccoon number two a ride back to the place from whence he came. |
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| Raccoon No. 2 | W8SZ battling wits with his adversary |
| Burt's "FBR Eliminator" | |
| This
contrivance has the appearance of a revolutionary piece of Ham gear - per-
haps fabricated by a promising new Ham. However, its inventor got his
first license circa 1951.
Close inspection reveals this "piece de resistance" is made up of five components: Two lengths of wire, one pie tin, one short plastic tube, one lid from a small jar and one electric fence charger. It is switch operated (charger and switch not shown). When assembled, the upturned jar lid is filled with sunflower seeds and attached to one lead of the fence charger. The plastic tube separates the lid from the |
aluminum pie tin (to which is attached the
remaining lead of the fence charger). The switch (a squirrel) stands on
its hind feet to reach the sunflower seeds, and when it does, the circuit
is closed.
The "Eliminator" is not
fatal to these pesky denizens of the swamps of Mikado, it simply serves as
an effective deterrent. Yes, effective! Squirrel spoor leading to and from
the device has become virtually non-existent. |
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