Sandy Damage and Mosquitoes.

Started by gil, November 03, 2012, 07:44:10 PM

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gil

Well, I assessed the damage tonight while setting up for a QSO with RadioRay. There is a ton of little twigs on my second floor deck  ::)

The QSO was short because I was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes, so I missed half of what Ray was saying. The state is well known for it's shark and alligator attacks, but mosquitoes come at a close third. In a SHTF situation, they would count for many casualties. Thank God I had a tube of Benadryl in my bug-out bag, so I didn't off myself going crazy scratching all night. By the way I heard a story about a missionary jumping off an island cliff because the no-see-ems drove him mad, so don't laugh ;) Seriously though my preps do include Benadryl, a mosquito net and insect repellent. I hate mosquitoes, can you tell?

I want everyone to know that Ray was using 100W!  ;D I think an intervention is in order! We both gave a 559 report and I used 13W in my Buddistick on 30m... But hey, I think when you get old you start using a cane just because it's easier  ;D

Also notice the mini airport bottle of Cointreau on the table, which helps greatly with Morse Code. Now I drink it for every QSO... Works every time. It doesn't make you copy better, but you just don't care anymore.. Add a small cigar, and it's Ham Heaven.

Thank you again Ray for the much needed practice!

Ya'll have a great week-end  :)

Gil.


KC9TNH

#1
Thanks, nice tale, good Rx, and advice on the critters as well.

Man, I wish every radio-maker would put a bale under their rig to raise it to that height, that angle. What a joy. The Elecraft in its element. People wouldn't need shelves on their operating desks.

100w - very considerate of him.

gil

Thanks. For the K1, I had to spend a few dollars, but much less than the Elecraft $40 tilt stand...

Gil.

cockpitbob

Good point about the mosquitos.  They shouldn't be underestimated during SHTF.

Back in 1989 I flew a little plane from CA to my relatives in Fairbanks, AK.  At that time both Alaska and Canada required small planes going long distances to carry survival gear including 10,000 calories of food per person, an axe, fishing gear, Alaska even required a gun.  On their required list of items was bug repellant and mosquito head netting for each occupant.  That concerned me more than any of the other items.  I've heard rumors of the Yukon mosquitos carrying off small children and cross breeding with turkeys.

RadioRay

#4
My pleasure Gil.  It was good to listen for your signal and frankly, I much prefer the receiver in the K2, to the one in the EOC 746PRO for CW.  I have their equipment at the house for some work that I'm doing for them.

-...-
You did well!  CW is a superb mode for EMCOMM and you & I passed specific sentances in a maner VERY siilar to passing radio traffic: 'fills' in the form of repeates & etc.   In time, we can work on how to streamline that. During this recent Hurricane Sandy, I had a relatively short message to pass to Richmond, Va.  Unfortunately, though we had an excellent voice link, passing traffic in voice is a pain, inefficient of time & etc.  I had to send it to the guy three times. In Morse it would have taken about 1-2 minutes for the message and maybe another 2 minutes for the fill - if he were not a professional at traffic handling.  As it was, is sounded like
"... Ocran Road - I Spell OSCAR, CHARLIE, ROMEO ALPHA, ROMEO . . . ".  iN mORSE MESSAGE HANDLING, IT'S ALWAYS "SPEED THROUGH ACCURACY.". Better 14 words per minute accurately, than 20 words per minute, filled with errors and fills.
-...-
Yes - 100 Watts   :-[   I have sinned and not even in those FUN ways which I much prefer.   ;)    However, I thought that the extra 1.5 S-units might be noticed by you.  ha ha   Really the difference between the 15 Watts'ish from you and 100 W from me does not amount to much difference on receive. If we took the time to find the best hour between us for that band, we'd likely have roaring strong sigs - not that it matters.  Once we were reliably readable in code, it was all gravy from there, especially for your mosquitoes.    :o
-...-


de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps. My 3 day kit had full-mil DEET and even my survival knife sheath pouch contains a mosquito head net.  Works fine with a boonie hat and I remember this delightful Sweetie from Texas wearing it and ONLY it around one evening, like some sort of Tactical Victoria's Secret nightie while I was packing my gear.  Aaaaah, Texas ladies are something special.
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KC9TNH

Quote from: RadioRay on November 03, 2012, 09:26:37 PM...and even my survival knife sheath pouch contains a mosquito head net.  Works fine with a boonie hat and I remember this delightful Sweetie from Texas wearing it and ONLY it around one evening, like some sort of Tactical Victoria's Secret nightie while I was packing my gear.  Aaaaah, Texas ladies are something special.
There's an Asleep at the Wheel tune in here somewhere...
8)

gil

Well, Ray, I am glad 30m works for our situation. We've had better success with it than 20 or 40, including that memorable time you heard me on 2W with the antenna inside.. Now if I get a 30m end-fed, it should be a piece of cake! PAR has a 30/40 antenna which sounds great. It probably would work for 20 with a tuner. Anyway, if I manage to bring a woman camping with me, I'll remember to explain to her that you can only wear the mosquito net by itself.. I need to find some technical reason for that..  ;)

Mosquitoes can certainly make a bad situation suck even more. Especially if you can't sleep because of them. I remember a show about a couple lost in the Amazon Jungle. They couldn't sleep at all because of the bugs and were exhausted rapidly. Not only that, it drove them literally crazy. Not to mention possible diseases transmitted by their bites...

Ticks are something I worry about too, and that is why for the woods, I like pants that lace at the ankle...

For Christmas, I think I will get myself a pair of Danner boots. You never know what you'll step on either...
I am shopping for a good 4-season tent too, but unfortunately the best ones are all orange!  :-\

Gil.

RadioRay

#7
Wilderness tip (from an ex-mountainman)

I know that you know this, but I'll mention it anyway. Get the BEST boots that you can afford.  If your feet fail - you are in a world of trouble! For bounding down a well packed, yuppie-friendly trail while munching a Cliff bar or slurping an energy goo; low, lite flexi-shoes are fine.  However, for the real world off trail, heavy, tough and supportive are more important.  Match the boot to the environment.  Form me in the mountains of the west I exclusively work Meindl boots from Germany.  They cost a fortune, but in harsh, rocky, up/down carrying heavy loads - excellent.  Down in the Florida ticky-boonies, you may have some other boot type that works best, perhaps with features like Panama soles for shedding mud & etc. Nobody likes to do ten miles with 20 pounds of mud on each foot !  ha ha

Forget jungle boots, unless you're living IN the water.  If you step in one or two puddles a day, those water exit valves in the arch only make for unnecessarily wet socks. If you're wading through swamps, then consider them water shoes on steroids and make certain that you've had a ton of vaccinations for all the microscopic crap in swampy water.    :o
  I happen to LOVE jungle boots, for wearing in light duty, temperate environments,  so I RTV the vent holes.


Sheath knife - Hood Punk.  or similar.


As for the secondary useage of the head net - we weren't even near any mosquitoes, but it gave me a smile when later I was.   ;)



73 de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

gil

#8
Oh yes... Danner has an excellent reputation as the best boot you can possibly buy. I'm sure there are others as good or better, but they cost $330 for the models I like, which is as much as I'd want to spend. Now they have so many, it will be hard to narrow it down... I filtered them by Military types first, then temperate climate to cover it all. Looks like those might do:

http://www.danner.com/boots/dannerr-usmc-rat-temperate-steel-toe-military-boots.html

http://www.danner.com/boots/

Gil.

RadioRay

Yes!  That's some good schtuph!

Many years ago (shortly after the Earth's crust cooled) I took a fancy to the Danner Ft. Lewis boot. In it's day, that was hot stuff and many of the Army Ranger types liked them as well (probably where the name came from). 

You're absolutely on the right track.  My reff against the flexi-runner type 'trail walkers' for wilderness work, is more for those who might read here for general ideas about gear. Those shoes are advertised so heavily as being for backpacker's, but my experience iwth those types has been "OK-feels nice" upfront, but barely adequate protection & very poor retention of structual integrity/support over time . As I am certain that you know, there is a world of difference between trail walking -v- humping a ruck when your life depends upon it and you have NO logistics chain to keep you in footgear.

de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

KC9TNH

I'm with Ray on jungle boots unless living in water, and in that extreme case it's 'what socks?' They are comfy if broken in like a big leather shoe and could be kept around for those circumstances, since they can be had often for not much money. Countermeasures against known waterborne critters need to be taken beforehand anyway.

Boots are so subjective; the loss of brick & mortar store capabilities in America is lamented here because everyone has different feet. Several boots have great reputations (amazingly still) but one may have to accept that the big-buck boot may still need some tweaking, so it's worth accepting that. For example, I have what folks in the trade call "high-volume feet." This is a long narrow foot, narrow at the ankle and widening at the front a bit more than normal still retaining very pronounced arches. It seems everyone makes shoes & boots for Joe Schmoe; if you're not Joe many will take the wrong step of making up the space with extra socks which just aids in cutting off the circulation that keeps you warm in the first place..

Long way 'round the barn but if one really wants the pinnacle of what's available, online is about the only way and be prepared to do an exchange or too. Instant gratification may not be yours. I miss cobblers in a small side-street storefront - we lost our last one few years ago.

Fortunately, many of the improvements in boots are borne out by our Soldiers in the last decade+. The "cute" hiking boot that doesn't go off Buffy's well-worn park path won't cut it when the rocks are sharper than your Gerber. A couple of factors that impact decisions on this end (me only, given varied climate) are that unless absolutely required I don't run a steel-toe. The other is that, with the exception of some arctic pacs used for standing in that temp for long periods when I'm not generating my own heat, I don't run big grams worth of insulation. When moving through moist vegetation where it may wick down into your boot for some carrying along a simple set of gaiters that can go on/off when needed are a part of the solution. Keeps the trousers drier also as you break trail.

But waterproofing with a good Gore-Tex shell is mandatory. If my feet stay dry (less jungle boot circumstances where one is just embracing the suck-factor) I'm good to go.

Give Belleville boots' website a look. This link takes to you to their mil boots section; they make some pretty good stuff as well.  You can even get several of the styles in desert and the fashion-trendy Air Force "sage green." Not pushing 'em - their pricing may make such a thing available to more. I have a couple sets (slightly different models) that are pretty comfortable, move well & afford good structural support from toe on up.

http://www.bellevilleboot.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=1

In country/clime that fosters good tick populations pant cuffs and boot tops get sprayed with permethrin. Certain times of the year we get wood ticks up here that charge when they're wounded. Unfortunately it's the little bugger that causes more grief.

Yep, get the best you can afford and don't settle at that amount spent for anything less than a fit that results in "I LOVE THIS BOOT."


gil

QuoteI miss cobblers in a small side-street storefront

Yep, nothing like that left here either. It will have to be the Internet. I'm not even sure of my shoe size. That's how often I buy shoes...

Quotethere is a world of difference between trail walking -v- humping a ruck when your life depends upon it

I thought as much... The military can't afford to have armies immobilized because of shoe problems, so I figured if they like a boot, there has to be something to it... I wouldn't think the same for all their equipment, but boots, certainly...

Gil.

KC9TNH

Quote from: gil on November 04, 2012, 12:29:02 PMI thought as much... The military can't afford to have armies immobilized because of shoe problems, so I figured if they like a boot, there has to be something to it... I wouldn't think the same for all their equipment, but boots, certainly...

Gil.
Don't worry, you're a sharp guy & will make a good choice. Never underestimate the collective power of large numbers of bean-counters to get something wrong. Believe me, they've done that in a couple of basic uniform items in the last several years. Just with media and Soldiers spending their own bucks to buy their own stuff (that actually works), and then Mom finding out about that back home...  Holy Shiites, the outcry.

But they've done it with boots too. The bit about shale sharper than your Gerber could describe the first couple years in the mountains of Afghanistan. Footgear at the time was not up to the task since it was still what was being worn during Desert Storm basically. (The Army is always fighting "the last war.")

But they're alot savvier now, since they allow purchase of some substitute boots with a Soldier's clothing allowance if they meet some basic criteria - one of which is that it not be flimsy like an airsofter's tennis shoe. The current generation of footgear out there has never been better, but that means there's lots to choose from.

Best of luck 'cause you've got the first part right.  If your feet ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
:)

gil

Thanks guys for your advise...

Gil.

White Tiger

#14
Excellent thread guys!

When I first read the thread headline - I thought: "...with a nor'easter heading thru the area next week...why's anyone worried about mosquitoes now...?"

...then I read Gil's opening post and realized he was talking about how HE was passing the time here in Sunny Florida...as he was besieged by the state bird...

I am interested in the footwear issue - and for that reason alone I wanted to bookmark this thread (ok well, that, and wondering if Ray was going to elaborate on the bikini-less models on his sailboat....)....

I love to hike - just not here in Florida - my preference is the AT (Appalachian Trail). My son and I have begun a quest to section hike the entire length...and at our current pace we should be done sometime in...2025!

I havent yet told him, but for me, the journey's the destination....so I love the REAL hiker updates...keep 'em comin'!
If you're looking for me, you're probably looking in the wrong place.