I’d contacted a fellow in Texas, and he called me back to offer me this:

It’s a Yaesu 857D, and it has the fancy MH -59 microphone. The seller was kind enough to include longer cables for the head unit and microphone, so I can mount the radio remotely if I want to.

I fired it up last week while camping by connecting to my CB antenna and setting it to 10 meter frequencies, but I was in a bit of a valley and didn’t pick up much. I won’t attempt transmitting until I can get my hands on an antenna tuner- I’m considering an LDG YT-100 or an MFJ 945E, but I’ll consider other tuners, and I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve purchased a Poles and Holders 22 foot flagpole to use as a mast, and I’ll use it to hold a long wire antenna, and maybe a Yo Yo antenna.

Naturally, I received calls from Main Trading and Associated Radio on Wednesday and Thursday telling me that they had received a shipment and were ready to ship me a new Yaesu, but I decined. I hope they go to good homes.

Two weeks ago, I went to Glendo State park and camped out for a couple days, and last week I went to Riverton to attend the yearly gun show put on by the Wyoming Weapons Collectors.

The first order of business was to take one of the dirt roads from Sand Draw road WY 135 in to Hudson. I started by going in at the Beaver Creek oilfield, but after driving through the maze of service roads and not finding the way through, I decided to try from Beaver Rim.

I took BLM road 2302 into the basin:

It was a little rough, but certainly driveable.

I came out at Hudson, Wyoming, as planned, and spent the night at the base of Beaver Rim, near Bobcat Draw.

I drove into Riverton for fuel, and to visit the grave of my father. The cemetery in Riverton makes it easy to find the gravesite, with a rolodex of the deceased person’s name, and a map of the grounds.

I had lunch at the Breadboard, and stopped at Liberty Pawn Shop to pick up a Poles and Holders flagpole I purchased last month. I intend to use it for a ham radio antenna mast-more on that in a later post. Friday afternoon I drive back up Beaver Rim and returned to Riverton via Lander and Hudson. I stopped in Hudson to eat dinner at Svilar’s. It was my first meal at the place, and I’m sorry I waited so long to do so. Great food and attentive staff.

Saturday morning, I got up and headed into town to get a shower and to attend a mini field day put on by Brent Struna, owner of Struna Electronics. He was kind enough to put up a couple antennas:

and connect a few of his radios to them. While there, we were able to listen to a beacon out of Casper and other radio signals.

I visited a friend at the gun show, and after visiting my mom at our friends table, I drove back up to Beaver Rim for the night. I found a great campsite just south of the “Scenic Area” parking, and parked:

It’s not often you get a view like that. I laid down “just for a little while”, and woke a couple HOURS later, to this:

Later that night, I looked out and could see the lights of Riverton, Hudson, and Lander. Gorgeous.

I found this bench marker on the rim:

Concreted into the rock.

Sunday morning I drove back in to Riverton for breakfast and visited the gun show again, and came home to Casper via Jeffery City and Muddy Gap.

It was a lovely weekend.

 

 

Around the end of January I received a padded canvas case for my Coleman 426D stove from Scott Miller at Frogsacks:

If you’ve been following the blog, you’ll know that I purchased the stove last summer, and I contacted Scott late last year to arrange purchase of the cover. I wanted the cover to be padded, and he was more than happy to oblige.

The case is heavy duty-padded all around, and well stitched:

The flap closes with leather straps, held on with copper rivets:

and finished with nickel plated hardware:

You can just barely see the handle hole in the bottom left of the above photo-it eliminates the need for a sewn on handle, and using the stove’s carry handle means that there is no possibility of tearing the canvas.

 

Here’s another good view of the case:

 

I recommend Frogsacks to anyone looking for a nice canvas case for their camp stoves, and Scott makes canvas products for shooting and automotive use. And if you need a custom case, he might just build that too.

I don’t have much to say, except to post this, again. Go read it. Seriously.

I spent the weekend tormenting bull snakes and riding the Rokon at Two Moon campground over the past weekend. It’s a very pretty place, with a cliff just to the west that overlooks the reservoir. I’d like to camp there this weekend, but it’ll likely be packed (Memorial Day weekend) and I have a package coming in- a used Yaesu FT 857D.  It appears to me that Yaesu’s announcement of the FT 891 has people dumping their old radios, because I saw seven or eight 857D’s for sale on qth.com. I emailed two people, and got two phone calls within 10 minutes- the second call while I was on the phone with the first. Figures.

So, I have a radio coming. Now for antenna, tuner, coax…

Bother.

Lousy bastard fesses up:

An openly gay Texas pastor who had accused Whole Foods of defacing his cake with an anti-gay slur dropped his lawsuit against the grocery chain on Monday, issuing an apology that said he was wrong to “perpetuate this story.”

Well, no shit.

Sometimes I wish burning at the stake was a viable option.

Hat tip to the Consumerist.

Someone proves you wrong, and does it, again:

Really?

 

I was chatting with Kent at Ham Radio Outlet in Denver and he suggested that I could buy a Yaesu FT 991 in place of the FT 857D I’ve been trying to get. In a previous post I whined that the 857D is out of stock, probably nation wide, and my current thinking is to get the 991, which has a better screen and more bells/whistles.

I’m definitely not the bells and whistles type, but I doubt I’d refuse to have them.

Other than price, anyone see a problem with getting a 991 for my truck rig?

 

I found this over at Outlander Systems, and it’s great stuff.

Hamfests and Torch-Passing

Pay attention, won’t you?