Criminal

All this sunshine is making me feel ill. I might have to call in sick on Thursday... EDITED

I picked up a couple new knives for testing. The ESEE-6 is great, but it's too big for lightweight hiking and backpacking, so I added a -3MIL and a -4 to the collection:

Mine is here too. Ordered on the 14th. Quick shipment! Now to learn how to set it up. So how do you guys like the Wouxon? I'd like to get your impressions of the radio if either of you have had time to play with them. I guess I thought ham would be a little like CB, or FMS radio. Turn it on and pick a channel, then listen or talk. I haven't been able to figure this thing out, and am going to have to get in touch with a group that can help me get started with it. I was told some search and rescue groups have people who will give classes on using the radio. Anyone know anything about that? I will post on the thing as soon as I figure out how to use it. Have you been able to trigger a repeater at least? If you can’t even get a handshake from the repeater it’s probably because either the offset you're using is wrong, or the PL tone is wrong. Trust me, there’s no shortage of people that want to talk out there. Several clubs also have ‘nets’ where anyone listening can chime in with their call sign. Just listen in on any of the more popular repeaters; they often hold them in the mornings or in the evenings. Getting some assistance from a local club is your best bet.

Mine is here too. Ordered on the 14th. Quick shipment! Now to learn how to set it up. So how do you guys like the Wouxon? I'd like to get your impressions of the radio if either of you have had time to play with them.

Sure why not? I'm setting up a download of old black and white aerials of the area now. It'll need to be a dark thirty start I guess. Given the latest TR Criminal provided on his last escapade, this should be right up his alley. I have some travel for work coming up, but after that I'm going to start planning another attempt at Lake 3995. I may or may not announce it, but it owes me.

Trip Report posted.

Here's the radio plan: Having been up here before, I doubt seriously I will have any coverage to the north, south, or west. I’ll call out at 1800 on various repeaters to the east (so, almost all of them) until I can get at least a handshake. I will start with the closest repeater, the Belfair one on 145.170 (PL=103.5) If no joy, I will try the Bremerton 146.620 (PL=103.5) After that I’ll just go through everything in the radio until I get an answer. If your radio has a scan feature, you can scan the 2 meter and 70 cm bands. I will also be trying the few repeaters on 50MHz and 222, but I have little hope I'll find anything usable on those. 2008 Trip 2009 Trip

^^^ Pretty much anything by that guy. ^^^

It's starting already. There's just no way I'm going to listen to every a**hat and his brother lighting fireworks into the wee hours of the morning for the entire weekend. I need some place quiet. I'm currently leaning strongly towards heading in to Lake 3995 in the Wonder Mountain Wilderness on Saturday morning and coming out on Monday. It's not set in stone, but that's the one on the top of the list. I'll post a radio plan tomorrow as soon as I make up my mind. This will not be the only trip in, I intend to return in late August or September when the blueberries are ripe.

Post #21 has the big list. If that's too unwieldy, here are a few of the better repeaters just off the top of my head. Someone else might mention some others. Receive (Trans) Name Tone 145.33 (144.73) TIGER MTN W Tone=179.9 Hz 146.82 (146.22) TIGER MTN Tone=103.5 Hz 146.62 (146.02) BREMERTON Tone=103.5 Hz 145.47 (144.87) CAPITOL PEAK Tone=100.0 Hz 147.08 (147.68) COUGAR MT Tone=103.5 Hz 145.37 (144.77) GRASS MTN Tone=136.5 Hz 441.775 (446.775) NORTH BEND Tone=103.5 Hz One of these North Bend repeaters is better. 442.15 (447.15) NORTH BEND None=100.0 Hz I can't remember which 444.50 (449.50) RATTLESNAKE Tone=103.5 Hz 145.11 (144.51) STEVENS PASS Tone=123.0 Hz 443.50 (448.50) VASHON Tone=103.5 Hz 145.27 (144.67) SHELTON Tone=103.5 Hz 444.70 (449.70) SEATTLE Tone=103.5 Hz See also, BEACH NET and this mapping page. Mt Walker is also a good high location for testing frequencies since you can drive to the top and you have good coverage from either end of the mountain. I conversed clearly with a Seattle ham on simplex from the top of Mt Walker.

Hike TRs.

I was able to raise Ironman on the Capitol Peak repeater using just the handheld and the new Slim Jim antenna. Let me explain why this is remarkable. First, I live about one-third the way up a small ridge (Ridgetop Blvd in Silverdale) ~300' elevation, over on the west side of the hill. I have no coverage to any repeater to the east because the ridge is in the way. I have good coverage to the west and southwest. As the crow flies, it's fifty miles or more from my house to Capitol Peak at 4700'. I can't hit that repeater with my 50 watt mobile! The Slim Jim is stuck to the ceiling with a push-pin in the middle of the upstairs bedroom. Ironman reports that I was somewhat broken at times, but if I moved around a bit I was able to improve my signal.

Mine is here too. Ordered on the 14th. Quick shipment! Now to learn how to set it up. That's pretty fast! I ordered the Slim Jim antenna the same day and it was in my mailbox on Saturday. It looks very well made and I'm pleased with the purchase (IOW, it's a lot better than I could have done). I'm anxious to hear how you both like the Wouxuns after you've figured them out. Did either of you get the programming cable to use the free software? EDIT to add. I just tried to make the Capitol Peak repeater on VHF (from Silverdale) and was easily triggering the repeater, something the stock duck cannot even come close to doing. It was coming in loud and clear, but nobody replied to my call. I'll try again later when I can make sure Ironman is up and listening.

I'm thinking of picking one up in the near future to throw in my glove box as an emergency spare. Please post up a review after you've gotten a chance to play with it. EDIT to add: Can you say why you went with the 1¼ band over 70cm? I have that band in my VX-8 but haven't heard much activity there. 1.25 meters has always intrigued me and it's hard to find radios that offer the band for a reasonable price. It was a selling point that it was available on this unit. I understand some local cachers regularly make use of the band and its lack of activity could be a blessing in some situations. Also, the wavelength is long enough to be affected by a number of propagation modes. I ordered an antenna BNC adapter so I can mess around with yagi antennas too. This is my first HT so if I like it I can always upgrade. I'll post my impressions of the unit after I've played with it a while. That’s interesting. I might have to do the same if/when I order one. My VX-8DR only does 1½ watts on 222, and it looks like the Wouxun is either 4 or 5. On a related note, I ordered a dual band Slim Jim antenna to tote along on hikes. (More info here) We were juuuuuust barely able to make it out in the bowl of Whitehorse Basin and I think we could do a lot better if I could have gotten an antenna 16’ up in one of the trees. The antenna gets rave reviews, and as a dual band design it gives at least one more option. I’ll post up something when it arrives and I’ve had a chance to try it out. He also makes a single band version that he'll tune to 222 for you, so it would work great even as a home antenna if you're going to use that band.

I'm thinking of picking one up in the near future to throw in my glove box as an emergency spare. Please post up a review after you've gotten a chance to play with it. EDIT to add: Can you say why you went with the 1¼ band over 70cm? I have that band in my VX-8 but haven't heard much activity there.

The dual band radio market just got a little more interesting and a lot less expensive. Wouxun has a dual band radio, the KG-UV2D, that’s getting some good reviews. It looks like a good deal for $111, and you get to choose (somewhat) which two bands you want on the radio. A transmit mod looks to be available with just a software update

No, like I mentioned, you need an email address that ends in .mil for most of them. Anyway, these are the links for the ones I'm in right now: http://www.mountainhardwear.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-MountainHardwear_US-Site/default/ProPurchase-Start https://cascadedesigns.com/signup http://thenorthface.promotive.com/action/proApplication http://marmot.promotive.com/action/proApplication https://www.outdoorresearch.com/site/process

Wow, another new ham! Congratulations and I look forward to making contact sometime. SudsyMaggie was able to reach a friend on Vashon last weekend from inside a bowl shaped basin. It always amazes me what kind of range we can get with just our little hand-held radios. So the last two were KF7QCI and now KF7QGM. Is anyone good at math? Updated list: (25 now) W7WT W7WT TotemLake KE7MDT Ironman114 KF7AWY LindaLu "AB7YL" K7-Wave "K7WV" JHolly "NK6L" AndrewRJ "KC7RSR" Douglas_Clan "KC7YUA" N7RIJ "N7RIJ" FluteFace "W7VYL" fastford "KB7UTQ" John_E_Cache "N0AAZ" thecatdaddy "WI7F" GeoDiver "KF7LQK" KD7CTV "KD7CTV" blue2824 "N7AVN" uxorious "KF7LSE" Thomas & Dingo KD7WLU MtnMutt W2MTN rambudo "KF7HGU" Rich & Rox "AB7OH" LostSparky "KX7L" SudsyMaggie "KF7QCI" magking1971 "KF7QGM" Criminal K7XFE

Full TR and pictures here.

Wow, a really fantastic day to be in the woods (after a truly miserable spring), two convenient hike locations, and only four takers? Take pictures guys!

In! I can be there as early as 6:30am if you want to hit the road earlier. Then let's make it 0730 then. It should be a pretty rough hike. I was going to pack my fishing rod but I think the lake is likely to still be mostly frozen at that elevation, so I'll call this a recon of the way-trail for the next time.

Meet time is 0830 0730 at the Barnes & Noble. I'm thinking Lake of Angles via the Putvin Trail #813.

I'll be doing something in the Olympics on Saturday; looking at Deer Ridge, Jefferson Ridge, Duckabush to the river (down the far side past the Hump) or maybe just wander up the Big Quilcene. No set time unless someone chimes in.

I'm doing something this weekend, just not sure what. Forecast is for sunny and 70s so far...

Somehow I don’t think they’re going to have the sort of adventure we’ve come to expect, like broken ankles, broken arms, almost freezing to death, almost falling to one’s death…