My 120-mile Hike Carrying Homebrew Tube Transceiver

In Ukraine you would be met with rude directness and would not have time on the radio, answering questions about who you are and what you do. And in the last three years you would not even have time to raise the antenna as you would have been arrested and taken for interrogation on charges of espionage)

 

The new shoes are great. My feet are sore at the end of the longer stages but that is hardly surprising. They recover overnight.

73 de Martin, G3EDM/P

 

I just checked into my hotel room, which understandably was not ready when I arrived early in the morning.

Here is the view from my window.



Rigging the EFHW from that chimney would work. However:

1. Unlikely to get permission,
2. It is bucketing down with rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning,

Time for a nap.

73 de Martin, G3EDM/P

 

Around her its more like...
Since I have several antennas on the truck I do get questions.

Can you get TV on that? They point at the 6M square loop on the truck.
Or Can you hear me now? From a cell phone commercial that ran for years.
You do CB? usual response is, no, this is amateur radio different frequencies.
Whats that? Amateur radio. With a they still do that? Sometimes a conversation or they just move along.
Very rare but sometimes another ham will notice and we talk, often we have talked on radio but an eyeball qso is special.
Most pay no attention.

And about one 20, is that ham radio? Usually get a long and interesting conversation.
Generally its a happening I enjoy.

Allison

 

A better excuse than most for not getting the antenna up.

 

Here in Oregon, aside from politely getting asked those kind of questions, I've been asked a couple times whether I'm contacting aliens. That one is asked playfully.

 

… the forecast is for it to continue until at least 7 ..,,

Zzzzzzz,

G3EDM/P

 

What? Not going to get a tan from standing in the English rain?

 

If you are near a river, you can pretend to be a fisherman. You just throw one rod into the water, and you put the other rod upright and use it as an antenna. People are attracted to what they don't understand. No one is interested in a regular fisherman.

 

My iPhone Health app has just sent me a notification that my daily “steps and distance” behaviour has changed.

No kidding.



The bar chart is not accurate as it seems to have undercounted on some days and overcounted on others. The distances I give in this thread are based on the calculator on the NDW website, adding in the extra legs to get to hotels, most of which are a mile or two away from the trail.

The rain is still bucketing down here in deepest Surrey.

74 de Martin, G3EDM/P

 

I’m

Most of my clothes are now wet or damp although it helps that they are quick drying fabric.

Today’s extended pit stop (from arriving very early) is giving me a chance to dry things out.

The apparel is festooned all over my room…

Edited to add: Aha, I just noticed the hotel hairdryer.



73 de Martin, G3EDM/P

 

@G3EDM Not intended to be an ironic question, considering your current raininess:

Butterfly person here. (Well, as I think you know, I'm interested in everything.) Any particularly cool spottings/nectarings so far? I know you're looking at fauna as much as flora and the general countryside, which we are all enjoying with you thanks to your pix. When you mentioned "stag beetles" in an earlier post, I thought, "Ahh!"

 

I'm quite familiar with that, having spent weekends over multi years driving my ice-hockey-playing daughter all over the Northeast and and southern Canada for games.

In your case the damp clothes won't be as, er, vintage as play-wet hockey gear . . .

 

No unusual butterflies yet. In the dawn hours this morning the spitting image of Bambi ran across my path. No idea what it was, it was moving too fast.

73 de Martin, G3EDM/P

 

If the room has a heater/ac unit that's producing moving air, and hopefully some sort of suitcase-stand thingie you might be able to deploy in or near the flow, getting your wetter stuff into moving air will help.

Then there's the possibility of the EFHW as in-room clothesline . . .