Spring is Finally Here

It's a little cold and overcast today, but spring has definitely arrived. The high today will only be in the 40's, but it'll be in the 60's for the foreseeable future, so it's time to get back to work.

Blog watch:

Now that I can finally get back to work, I'll try to post more often. I doubt too many people would have been interested in numerous posts all saying the same thing, e.g., cold and rainy, waiting for spring.

Radio watch:

I bought a new Icom IC-7000 a few days ago and love it. My marine radio, an Icom IC-M700Pro, works fine, but lacks the bells and whistles normally found on ham rigs. The 7000 uses DSP filtering which makes it easy tune in hard to read stations. It also puts out a very good signal, and I find that other stations can hear me much better, even with only 100 watts, than they could on the marine rig which put out 150 watts. I also bought a Heil headset which really helps too. I'm looking forward to getting her on the water to see what she'll do -- right now I'm surrounded by tall masts which makes it about as bad as it can get, sorta like being in a faraday cage.

I'm also about a mile and a half south of an AM radio tower, 660 and 880, and can hear the radio broadcast on multiples of 220 khz, including 14300, the Maritime Mobile Service Network, which I listen to all the time. I called and reported it last week, and it looks like they're going to try to fix it. It's a clear channel station, so it transmits with 50,000 watts. They also duplex both stations from the same tower, so that explains the 220 multiples, that's the difference between the two stations. I mainly hear it during Yankees games, which is when they turn off an HD channel. I'm not sure exactly why that makes a difference, but the engineer at CBS thinks it's an important clue. I thought they were cranking up the power, but he said they always transmit at full power.

I'm also about to order new coax, a balun, and a few switches so I can hook up all the radios correctly and make up some new antennas. I want to be able to switch between my backstay and a couple of different dipoles on the fly. I'd also like to be able to switch between the two radios and see how much difference the filters make. However, I won't be able to do that until I get the mast back up. I only have room for a single dipole right now.

Boatyard watch:

I mentioned all the tall masts interfering with radio reception above. Well, those tall masts are sitting on top of very big boats, mostly expensive racers. And now that it's spring, a lot of the owners are out here on the weekends getting them ready for race season. I don't know much about racing boats, but I figure the one with the Lotus parked in front of it must be one of the more expensive ones. Or could it be the one with the Bentley parked in front? I must admit, I'm not that much up on expensive cars either. Heck, I don't even have a car or a license anymore.

Boat watch:

I'm also about to order the chainplate material. I've decided to go with stainless steel and do all the cutting and drilling here. The yard manager said I could use their drill press, so that makes it simple. I'll also order the rigging next week once I get a quote from the local rigger. I don't think he'll be able to compete price-wise, but I promised to let him bid, so I'll give him a chance. He gave me a bid of $3,000+ for the whole thing, but since I plan to measure and cut myself, it should be cheaper. The other quote I got, is about $1,100 including shipping. That's a big difference.

Transmission watch:

Okay, I haven't done anything with it yet, but now that it's warming up, and I've moved everything out of the way, I'm running out of excuses. I plan to crawl down there as soon as the weather clears, perhaps Monday. But first, I need to reread the manual again to make sure I do it right.

Zoe watch:

She needs a bath, but other than that, she's doing fine. She's made lots of friends on the island, both human and canine, but not with all the cats, or the skunk, in the boatyard. She mostly ignores the cats, preferring to go after their food once they run off. However, she seems really interested in the skunk. I try to discourage that, but am not sure she pays much attention to me. In any case, I'm not anxious to find out, so I never let her off the leash.

There's also a family of raccoons that live nearby. They usually walk right under the boat or along the fence just behind it, so Zoe likes to hang out on deck in the cockpit and keep a lookout. I'm not sure if they know she's there, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it intentionally to taunt her. She gets really excited, but never barks.