More Updates!

Well, I was running out of room below (or at least I felt like it was becoming a novel), so I started a new post. Don't forget to read the post below this for other updates.

Tim held his first Net the other evening. He was net control for the Weather Training on our weekly ARES net. He says he was really nervous, but you couldn't tell it. He did a fine job, and I'm really proud of him. I don't have any pictures, sadly, because I was running the rugrat around town -- one of my other motherly duties -- the kid taxi.

And I've received quite a few interesting QSL cards in the past few weeks. I got conformation of my Tonga contact! WOO HOO! Got the FBI special event card and certificate, and the Football Hall of Fame certificate (I can't remember all these call signs, and I'm too lazy to get up and look at the moment, if you want to know them, send me a comment or email, and I'll send them your way). I've had 2 Nova Scotia confirms, 1 from Mexico that came with a ticket or something that I can't read because I know no other language other than English. I got the Nautalis card, and another one from Australia, which is the most interesting at the moment.

Back during Field Day, I made my first dx contacts. One was an Australian station, VK2TSB. I could hear him okay, but he kept dropping into the noise... a lot of QSB. In any case, this was so exciting to me, to hear Australia like that. So, even though we had a dipole strung up about 30 feet, in the middle of a field running barely 100 watts, I tried to make contact with him. He couldn't hear me very well, but stuck with me to make the contact. There was a Lady Ham in New Zealand, whom I could just barely hear over the noise, but she was hearing me quite well and was relaying my information to the guy in Australia, whom I could hear better than her. In any case, I didn't expect to ever really get confirmation of that QSO, but I sent a card anyway. Now, 3 months down the road, he sent me one back. I was so excited to get that one. So, thanks Steve, for sending me that card. That was a milestone card for me. That was the evening that I finally let go of my mic shyness, and started getting excited about HF. Thanks for sticking with me.

Ten-Tec Hamfest, Skywarn Class, SET, & Other Updates

Wow. I have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to sit down and actually write something worth reading. Now, I'm way behind and I'll have to do some major catching up.

Way back in September (Ha, time seems to be flying at the moment), on Saturday the 27th, the family and I piled into the car and drove an hour to the Ten-Tec Hamfest, in Sevierville, Tennessee. I was Tim's first big hamfest, and he was pretty excited to see all they had to offer. The boneyard is huge there; larger than he'd ever seen. We spent a considerbly large portion of the morning sifting through all of that junk. We went in empty handed, and came out with 500 feet of 800 lbs rope that we paid $40 for. Other than that, we didn't really see anything we were looking for. We took the tour of the Ten-Tec factory around 10am, and came out of there with 2 t-shirts, a coffee mug, and an Emcomm book. We needed log books, and were going to buy them, but Rick (N4JTQ) volunteered to give us some that he had laying around. I thought that was very nice, and I declared that as my "Ten-Tec Hamfest Winnings." I'm never lucky enough to actually win anything, but that's okay. Cathy (KI4YPO) actually did win something, but I honesting can't remember exactly what it was. Some sort of antenna mount, although should would have been better off with a Ten-Tec Sky Hook (ha ha).

Row of Omni VII's at the Ten-Tec Factory

Ashby, KJ4EGJ, with an Orion II

Dad, KU4ME, at Ten-Tec Factory

Closest that Tim, AJ4JD, will ever get to an Orion II

After browsing, we spent the rest of the morning talking and visiting with people. Later on, we attended the Skywarn class for weather spotter's. I really enjoyed that class. We had to watch a pretty long movie smack dab in the middle of it, and I'm not sure what I enjoyed more: everyone's snoring or the terrible acting. Ashby took the class with us, and it was so funny watching her pick out and giggle about all the sleeping class members. Everyone was so worn out after Ten-Tec, that it was difficult to stay awake once we all sat down. HAHA But we made it through, and I really enjoyed that class. I don't know how many others did, but I liked learning all the information that we did. Unfortunately, most of the things we learned, we'll never actually see in the hills we live in. Because the horizon is changed by the rolling hills, we don't see storms roll in like they do in the flat lands.

Skywarn Class, Sept. 27, 2008

Moving on -- Last Saturday, October 4th, I had my first encounter with the Simulated Emergency Test (SET). Tim, Ashby, and I are members of the Claiborne County/Union County ARES, and our EC, Rick Blasco (NX6R), had to go out of town. He appointed me and Tim (and one other fellow) Assistant Emergency Coordinators while he was away. I don't know how I ended up volunteered to run the SET, but I did. I was totally thrown to the wolves, with no idea as to how to run things. However!! I was invited to attend another ARES groups Pre-SET meeting (Sevier County's), where I learned exactly what I needed to do, and how to go about it. I came home that evening very confident that I could tackle this task.

So, Saturday morning came, and I was shaking like a leaf. My stomach had migrated to my throat, my heart had migrated to my feet, and my brain couldn't be located anywhere in my body... Needless to say, I was nervous, and that is putting it lightly. I was Net Control for our Simulated Emergency training net (my first time at the helm of any net), and I was also expected to pass and receive formal traffic (which I crash-coursed myself on the night before) to an Army MARS station.

In the end, everything went wonderfully! We had a great time, we discovered where our weaknesses were, I successfully passed and received the message to Army MARS, and I did the net control thing without too many flaws. HAHA It was a lot of fun, and we ended up with 10 members participating, 53 messages passed, 1 formal message passed, 1 formal message received, and quite a few silent giggles to add to the collection.

TN QSO Party 2008

I had a blast participating in the TN QSO Party this year. I made 89 phone contacts on my own, and Tim (AJ4JD) and Daddy (KU4ME) made enough to boost our team (The Toadtown Team) to 140 contacts. I had a ton of fun calling CQ (mostly on 75 meters so I could get TN counties) from Union County. I made quite a few people's day, since Union County is one of the rarer ones to get.

I don't know how we faired against everyone else, but it was fun nonetheless, and we will likely be in the multiple operator, high power group. Maybe we'll win something! HAHAHA

Doesn't matter to me if we don't though. I still had fun.

Well... off to get ready for tonight's ARES meeting. I've decided to write my thesis (which is really an applied project -- meaning, they want to see results) on the need for an individual ARES group in our county. I've already contacted a few people, just for information on how to contact others, but I have to have everything reviewed by the board at the school before I proceed any further... That means, lots of writing and researching for me over the next few weeks. So, if you see that my postings are scarse, please don't fret. I'm still here... still active... and will be playing radio galore every extra minute I get.