Ham Radio License

Passed the Technician exam last night at Columbia, so as soon as my call sign appears in the online database, I'll be able to start using my radio -- which I'll still need to install. I also took the General exam, but didn't pass it; It's my own fault since I haven't studied for it at all since moving onto the boat. I went over the Technician question pool in the morning, and looked at about a quarter of the General question pool on the train, but was only able to get 24 out of 35 correct -- you need 26.

However, I did find out that there's a local club here in Huntington that holds exam sessions every couple of months and will have the next one on 12 June, so I'll make sure I'm ready for that one. That also means that I don't have to go back into Manhattan again, which is a good thing -- the 4 hour round trip is a killer. Although I was late for the exam, the LIRR schedule had changed, and I ended up taking the wrong subway up to Columbia, I got there about 45 minutes late, and they stayed around and let me take both exams. Columbia is setup like an armed camp, with only 2 ways in or out, which also caused me a delay in finding the building. But the guys giving the exam where really nice and everything went very smoothly.

Now, it's back to the boat. I finally did some fiberglass work yesterday. It turned out okay, but it was cool and a little rainy, so it took almost an hour for it to gel. It's going to be hot for the next couple of days, so I hope I can get a lot done. Normally, I have trouble with it gelling too fast, so we'll see how it goes today. I'll make up a small batch and time it so I'll know how long I've got. I want to fix the holes in the cockpit and seal around the holes for the portlights before I do anything else. Once that's done, I can start preparing the deck for painting.

I had to take off almost everything in the cockpit in order to get to the holes in the deck. I left the stern pulpit, the two eyes, and the aft center cleat in place since they didn't look too bad and I don't have anyone around to help remount them. I think I can get everything else I took off back on by myself -- with the help of a little gorilla tape.

Gorilla tape is great. It's basically the same stuff we used in the Corps years ago. It's like industrial strength duct tape that's a dark green color. Although I'm not that concerned with camouflage, it does work great for securing a wrench on one side of the deck while crawling into a locker on the other side and try to loosen or tighten a nut. I've used it for several things, including the wind vane and wouldn't have been able to get nearly this far without it. I'll need to make sure I've got a bunch on board before I leave.

The only wrinkle now is that I need to make sure I find time to study for the General exam (and Extra?), and get my radios setup so I can connect once my call sign appears in the database. I need to connect to Winlink so I can get email setup. My new email address will be callsign@winlink.org, but due to bandwidth constraints, I'll need to add people on a case by case basis to the "white list" in order for Winlink to forward them to me over the air. In addition to standard email, this will also allow me to get weather faxes, which can be a big deal when you're out at sea. You pretty much need to be your own weather forecaster if you aren't close to land.