Walkie Talkies for family fun and in times of emergencies

Hand Held radios are low priced and can be very useful. Hunters, fishermen or your family out on an outing staying in contact is beneficial.
The plus side is if it gets dropped in a lake, river or is lost in the woods you are not out the price of a smart phone.

Programmable VHF/UHF Hand Held Radios
Baofeng – TYT
Abaree – JJCC
Ailunce – Wouxun
Generally Programmable Radios will transmit on 136-174 mhz and 400-520 mhz. Allowing you to program and store 128 memory channels.

Channelized VHF/UHF Hand Held Radio
Midland – Cobra
Retevis – Btech
Motorola – GTX
Uniden
Generally Channelized Radios transmit on FRS, MURS or GMRS Frequencies.
Channelized radios transmit on:
FRS(Family Radio Service) *No license required.
MURS (Multi Use Radio Service) *No license required.
GMRS((General Mobile Radio Service) *License Required.
Marine Radio Service *No license required.

There are many brands of VHF/UHF hand held radios available and if used and properly cared for any brand will likely serve your needs.

Antenna Considerations

Programmable Radio will have detachable antennas.

This will allow you to add/attach a better, high quality antenna and make your Hand Held radio more effecent and allow you to reliably communicate over longer distances.

Channelized radios do not have detachable antennas.

Battery Considerations

*Alkaline battery and Zinc-carbon battery is Non-rechargeable.

***Lithium batteries should not be confused with lithium-ion as they are rechargeable.

**Mercury battery is a non-rechargeable battery.

**Nickel cadmium and nickel ox​ide hydroxide are rechargeable.

How far can you talk on a Hand Held radio

Communciations range/distance is highly dependent on several factors.

Radio power output in watts of RF(Radio Frequency) energy. 5 watts is better than 1/2(0.50) or 2 watts.

Antenna length, longer is usually better.

Terran, heavily wooded areas city buildings, hills and mountains will reduce your communications range. 5 watt radios can be expected to reliability communicate from 1/2 to about 5 miles over mostly open flat terrain.

2022 Gardening Season

National Weather Service is forecasting snow today. It’s hard to be thinking of garden planting on days like today, but time is running out on getting the garden well tilled, compost and manure tilled in to the soil.

Garden soil is very dry, we have had less than 2 inches of rain in the past 3 months. This makes working the soil difficult at best.

Garden seed has arrived. I plant mostly summer, warm/hot weather vegetables in the spring and a few cooler weather vegetables like turnips, collards and beets in mid to late July for fall harvest.

I needed a few canning jars and lids for the up coming canning season. Much to my surprise jars don’t seem to be in short supply but quality Mason/Kerr and Ball jar lids are difficult to locate.
I finely after many attempts managed to buy 5 dozen regular and the same number of wide mouth Ball brand lids from Walmart.

Be aware that some brands of jar lids on the market have been reported to have up to a 50 percent failure rate.
In this event your only choices are to refrigerate and consume those jars of canned fruits/vegetables in the next few days or to replace the lid and reprocess those jars in the hope they seal on your second try.

Happy Gardening

Flat Bread, Fast and Easy

Flat Bread:

Ingredients:
6 – servings —————————— 2-3 servings

2 cups of flour—————————— 1 cup
3/4 cup water——————————- 1/3 cup
2 tablespoons of oil————————- 1 1/2 tablespoons
1/2 teaspoon salt—————————- 1/4 teaspoon
1 tablespoon of baking powder————- 1/2 tablespoon
For cooking – 2 teaspoons of oil

Preparation:
If you like herb bread add 1 teaspoon of herb(s) fresh or dried that you like.

In a bowl mix all of the dough ingredients into a unified dough. Add a bit more water it your dough is dry.
Knead with your hands for 2-3 minutes and shape into a ball.

Divide the ball into 6 and roll each part into a disc shape.

Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a nonstick pan on high heat.

Cook each disc of dough, About 1-2 minutes on each side. Take care not to burn your flat bread.

Place the flat bread on a plate or fold in half to be used like a flour toco tortilla, cover with a clean
kitchen towel to keep warm.

** Convert this recipe to make tortilla’s by omitting the baking powder.

That was ‘My’ Idea

In the past few weeks I have seen TV advertisement selling what looks like a 1 inch wide foam paint brush to be used in cleaning hard to reach places. TV advert special price ‘Only’ $19.95.

I have been using foam paint brushes to clean hard to reach places for many years.

Save a few dollars. Buy 1 inch wide foam brushes at Home Depot at the everyday price of $0.68 each.

Business owner – Don’t interrupt me

2021 – Purple Martin Northern Migration

Nearing the end of March, 2021, Purple Martin scout birds have been reported as far north as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

If you haven’t put up your Martin house now is the time to get your Martin house up in the air.
Location of your Martin house is an important consideration.
Poor house site location can lead to few or no Martins nesting in you Martin house.

Best results will be achieved if:
Martins prefer housing that is placed in open areas with clear flyways. Choose the largest open spot available, about 30-120 feet from human housing and at least 40-60 feet from trees.
Height of the housing should be no lower than 10 feet. Keep tall bushes, shrubs and vines at least 6 feet away from the pole.

Good luck attracting nesting Martins to your yard and garden.

DIY – Chicken water warming system that really works

It’s a little late this winter, but it is valuable information that will save you lots of time and aggravation and keep your chickens supplied with fresh water even on the coldest days of winter.

DIY – Chicken water warming system Please note the light bulb(s) must be incandescent bulb(s) and not LED or CFL bulbs.
LED and CFL light bulbs produce little or no heat.

After reading this DIY project I believe 100 watt incandescent bulbs will be your best choice.
.

Letter from Hospital Staff

Amateur Radio Winter Field Day – January 30th and 31st 2021

Purpose: To foster Amateur Radio(Ham) camaraderie, field operation and emergency operating preparedness.
Winter Field Day runs for 24 hours during the last full weekend in January each year from 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Saturday to 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Sunday.
1900 UTC = 1300 (1 PM) Central Standard Time.

Winter 2021 the dates are January 30th and 31st.

All Amateur bands, HF, VHF, & UHF except 12, 17, 30 and 60 meters using any mode that can faithfully transmit the exchange intact without a conversion table.
CW, SSB, AM, FM, DStar, C4FM, DMR, Packet, PSK, SSTV, RTTY, Olivia, Satellite, etc…

Suggested Frequencies: (to make it easier to find each other) HF CW – 1810-1820, 3.530-3.550, 7.030-7.050, 14.035-14.055, 21.030-21.050, 28.030-28.040
HF SSB – lowest 30 kHz of the US General Class Phone bands (160m-15m), 28.400-28.425MHz (10m)

VHF 50.10 to 54.00 MHz, 144.10 to 148.00 MHz
UHF 420.00 to 450.00 MHz

UTC = Coordinated Universal Time. UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time.
UTC is not adjusted for daylight saving time. It is the successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

CW = Morse code
SSB = Single Side Band
AM = Amplitude Modulated
FM = Frequency Modulated
DStar, C4FM, DMR, Packet, PSK = Digital modes
RTTY = Radio Teletype
SSTV = Slow Scan TV

I will be operating 75, 40, 20, 10 and 6 meters SSB phone(voice) as well as 2 meter and 70 centimeter VHF/UHF phone(voice)

Hope to hear you on-air during Winter Field.

New Years Cheer