Happy Thanksgiving

Even with the holiday their are still the faithful ham's that are activating our national parks. Today even though the bands were lousy I managed to get two more National Parks. One K4LPQ Leo was on the Appalachian Trail in Tn. Since the celebration of our National Parks birthday began I have started looking up every park I have talked to. I have taken out books and looked online. They are all beautiful and we have one near by. Fallen Timbers in Maumee Ohio is a National Park that is often mistaken for one of our Metro Parks as the Metro Parks  maintain    Fallen Timbers for the government. It was one of the largest battles against the Indians in history, tribes joined together and large units of military all battled it out there. It took some time to sink in but imagine no paved streets most were walking some on horse back traveling 100's of miles. The military setting up supply Forts along the way. I really didn't see what the Indians did but I believe they had the upper hand as they new how to survive and live off the land.
Another thing I learned was the real beginning of Thanksgiving, President Washington sort of started it as a replacement for the Harvest Celebrations and later President Lincoln made it an official Government holiday during the civil war as one small way to try and bring a divided nation together. Sort of what we are going through on a less violent scale but yet divided.

73's

JT 65 once Again!!!

Not much has happened since I last posted. The bands have been up and down like a yo-yo. JT 65 however seems to have state side and some DX, Sunday I managed to have a very brief contact with Spain and Boznia. Of course you are limited to send a personal message  just since you can only send 13 characters. Saturday I will be traveling to Marion Ohio for the ARES conference, it will be a first for me. Then I will be working the race for the cure on Sunday, I will be in the SAG wqgon which I have been told is primary jub is to be an ambulance.

I almost forgot I have switch out my stationary position Elk antenna for a Jet Stream JTB 3 3 meter / 440 Mhz ground plane antenna. I have read some article on the antenna before buying it and it is well like unlike its larger model which received a lot of negative reviews. Right away I noticed the difference, I could get into Wauseon which I couldn't do before and that's a pretty good distance away from my QTH.

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JACK POT!!!!

Like many other fellow Ham's I recently received a bundle of QSL cards from my inbound QSL bureau manager. K8MFO (Don) is my manager and he is out of Apple Creek Ohio. The bundle of cards I received were from the ARRL Centennial contacts I made roughly 2 dozen maybe more as I was not really trying. If I heard a pile up or somehow came across one in a contest. It sure was nice receiving them as it was the largest batch to date.

Thanks Don for being there! 73's everyone

Once Again JT65

Ok I admit it I'm addicted to JT65. It simply amazes me when the bands are down JT65 keeps on going. Recent contacts were Ca. Az. Tx., Norway and Sweden. I'am still learning JT65 remember you can only send 13 characters at a time. I need to read up on changing some messages in my macro's.
Recently in the news has been about the Dayton Hamvention changing venues. Hare Arena I must admit has seen her day and now the it will be at the Green County fair grounds and it's in Xenia Ohio about 16 miles Southeast of Dayton. The only thing that stands out about Xenia is a tornado outbreak they had there. I recently talked to a gentleman from Dayton who was delivering a package next door in his own car and he was very familiar with the Dayton Hamvention. He said it a was a great boost to the economy there. I hope those folks will still get some business from hams even though it is a bit further a way.

73's

JT65 Fun

Despite bad band conditions as in a previous post I never trust the internet when it comes to band conditions. This past week the phone bands have been terrible but I did try JT65. Monday I made a contact to Hawaii on JT65 and then Tuesday in the opposite direction a contact to Wales. Not bad for the current Solar Conditions.

I'm Back

After being away for quite some time I plan to post regularly again. The big news for this month and possibly the year is Amateur Electronic is going out of business. Unfortunately to me they had discontinued services that kept me as a loyal customer.

• The stopped taking equipment in on trade or if they did it was few and far a part
• They stopped having in house repairs, even though they had a large back log to support it.
• They stopped sending catalogs out, I always felt when they stopped sending out paper catalogs they could have e-mailed e-catalogs. The only way you saw a catalog ( at least for me was go to their website. )
• When visiting the store it seemed to me they were trying to push me out the door. Yes I had an order waiting but looking around inside the store looking at stuff always had ne walking out with more than I planes to buy.

Most of the guys there had good customer service qualities and would take the time to read your emails about a product or your idea and make suggestions so you didn't buy something you didn't need. They stopped going to hamfests, donating to hamfests and lastly their prices were a bit high.

                     One thing I must share that AES had no control over was I ordered a few antenna adapters for my H.T's of course they always gave you tracking numbers. In this case they were coming by U.S. mail. I thought I would have them in a day or 2. Just by chance I checked the tracking and my adapters were in Pa. uhh Toledo is West of AES what are they doing in Pa? From Pa. they went to Cleveland then eventually found their way here. To this very day I still cannot understand why they went to Pa. My final thoughts back then " Next time pick them ip in person "

                                                                     73's