On the road

Well. We did it. My wife retired in late January. We moved out of our house and into our RV in mid-March. At that point, the estate sale people took over and sold everything in the house.

Then on April 1st, I retired. We put the house on the market. And a couple weeks later, after a month of living in the RV, we hit the road headed for Sioux Falls, SD.

We’d had a mailing address is Sioux Falls for about nine months. They have laws that are friendly to full-time RVers. So we knew what we wanted to do.

When we first got there, we obtained South Dakota driver’s licenses. Then we submitted paperwork for our vehicle registrations. Since we didn’t pay sales tax in Oregon when we bought the vehicles, the South Dakota department of revenue felt they were entitled to it. So, cheap is one thing the registrations were not.

While in Sioux Falls we also closed on our house and established our primary care doctor. This is where our medicare advantage health plan is based.

We’ve been in Texas now for almost two months. We’ve now received the South Dakota gold star family license plates for both vehicles. So we’re pretty well set. Tennessee is next on our list. We plan to spend six weeks there… then… off to Arizona.

We had some major water leakage in the cab of the RV as we were leaving San Antonio. When we got to Whitney, the park here hooked us up with a great mobile RV tech. They took care of the leak and a bunch of other pesky things that had been bugging us. We’re now on our third call to them to come out and fix various things. They’ve done a great job each time.

We just paid for a four-month stay in Tucson, AZ… Sept-Dec. Just exactly the time of year we’d want to be there. And, it looks like we’re upgrading our Thousand Trails membership to allow us more opportunity to spend time in Arizona and Florida, particularly during the winter months when it’s busy.

A real dog

When my wife and I got married almost 14 years ago… she had a “chi-weenie”. A dog that was a mixture of a Chihuahua and a Dachshund. Then soon after that, she rescued a dog that was a mixture of a Chihuahua and a Shih Tzu. These were both very small dogs. When we moved into our house about a year later. I told her I wanted a real dog. That’s when we rescued Kirby.

We’re not sure what breed Kirby was. He was definitely a hound. He taught our other two dogs how to howl whenever we left the house. He had the markings of a beagle but was definitely larger than a beagle would be. Maybe he was part blue heeler. At any rate… I think he was about 75 pounds.

So I got my real dog. And he was a great dog. But he was getting up there in years. And he developed a somewhat serious health problem. Almost assuredly the first of many. So after considering the quality of life situation for him. We decided that it was best for us to say goodbye.

I wasn’t really prepared for the sense of loss that I felt in the days after our decision. Of course we second guessed ourselves. Yes, we could have had more time with him. But… keeping him while watching his health decline would not have been good for anyone.

It really did surprise me how much a part of our lives he occupied. I’m still not used to waking up in the middle of the night to silence… rather than his loud snores while he’s taking up a quarter of our bed. We stood firm on not letting him up on the bed for years. But we finally gave in. And when we did, we were all much happier. He just loved being with us. And he stopped waking us up in the morning from the other room before we were ready.

It just won’t be the same without him. But… in a way that helps me to look back with fond memories. I would have loved to talk to my mom about losing our dog. She was a huge dog lover. And Kirby was her kind of dog. But she passed a few months ago. So it’s been a rough few months.

I think I’m supposed to wrap this up with some supposed words of wisdom. Not sure I have any. It’s safe to say we’ll be missing Kirby for a long time. And even though we miss him. Remembering him makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Just like remembering my mom makes me feel good inside. Not putting them on the same level of course. But I am learning a bit about the grieving process. I’m super glad to have very fond memories around those I’ve lost. I’m trying to lean into that good feeling I get when I think of them.

This was Kirby’s signal. Time for a treat.

2025 Last Year’s Improvements

People are currently thinking of 2025 new year’s resolutions. Instead of doing that, I want to look back at some things I did in 2024. None of them were new year’s resolutions.

  1. I set up a DNS-based content filter on all my devices. This keeps me from going where I don’t want to go. Of course, I can circumvent the filter in less than five minutes. But why would I want to do that?
  2. I quit social media. This is actually related to #1 above. I really liked keeping in touch with people on social media. But both Facebook and Twitter were both steady streams of almost-porn type material. There was no off switch. My wife said she never noticed any of that. Well… probably because the algorithms don’t target women with that kind of thing.
  3. I sold or gave away virtually all my ham radio gear. Although I did recently add one radio back in. My shack is completely barebones. I have one handheld, one mobile dual-band radio, and a power supply.
  4. The extra room I gained from ditching most my ham gear was used to setup a desk dedicated to a large and heavy ESV Study Bible… laying open underneath a desk lamp. This is my dedicated place for meeting with God. I know. One doesn’t need a dedicated place for that. But… I like this. I like that it makes it super convenient.
  5. I whittled the computer devices I regularly use down to a MacBook Air, a 13-inch iPad Pro, a smart phone, and a smart watch. Just getting prepped for life in an RV.
  6. I quit drinking coffee. This hasn’t been as hard as I thought. While this wasn’t a new year’s resolution… New Year’s Day was the first day completely without. I decided I preferred being tired and very relaxed over being under the influence of a stimulant most of the time. Caffeine is an addictive drug. I know how addictive drugs go. For that reason, I won’t claim victory on this until a few months from now.
  7. I quit drinking alcohol. I’m three months in on this. I don’t even think about it. I believe I can call this one a victory. I just came up with a good reason to quit. My health was never a good enough reason. Although it probably should have been.

While this is not in the area of personal improvement… I did trade my newish Mazda CX-5 in on a brand new motorhome that my wife and I will be living in after we retire. About that same time I found a 24 year old Lexus on the local bargain lot with only 81,000 miles on it. So that’s what I’ll be driving until we hit the road in the RV. The RV was in the shop for about 6 months after we bought it. We got to take it on its maiden voyage over Thanksgiving weekend. Now it’s in storage until next year. All the problems we know about are fixed.

One more thing

Of course… most people who know me won’t be surprised that I have decided that one handheld wasn’t quite enough. I suppose it could have been. But I realized I really do want to stay engaged with the local ham community, such as it is. And for keeping tabs with the local community of course I need a 2m/70cm mobile rig to hook to my dual band antenna that is still in the attic.

So, tomorrow I go pick up my new ICOM ID-5100. And yes… I’m having to buy a new power supply to replace the three that I gave away.

Now, with the ability to scan all the local repeater frequencies… I’m more likely to catch the little bit of activity that does take place.

I will add… just before I sold most of my gear, I had been participating in a couple of local nets that I really enjoyed. One was a 2m SSB net. The other was a 6m net on a local repeater system. This stuff was kind of fun. But it sure doesn’t justify having a rig that does 2m SSB or one that does 6m considering that both of these modes are dead as a doornail when those nets aren’t happening.

To be honest… I was right on the edge of deciding whether or not a regular FM 2m/70cm radio was worth it. Normally, ten times out of ten when I call out on a repeater, I get nothing. But having the radio will at least allow me to contribute to the activity level. And I like that.

The end of the messing around

After some careful reflection… I decided to drastically scale back my involvement in the ham radio hobby. I literally got rid of every piece of equipment except for my Kenwood TH-D75A, an Allstar node, and an openSPOT4 Pro.

I sold most of my bigger items. And gave away what no one seemed to want. With my Kenwood HT, my Allstar node, and my openSPOT4 Pro… I can still talk around the world. And… I can talk on a least four local repeater systems that have Allstar hookups. So I still have one foot in the water.

Post-purge setup

After my major purge of computer and ham radio gear… I added a few things. Granted these were things I didn’t need. I think I’m cursed with first wanting things I don’t need. Then later wanting to get rid of things I don’t need.

At any rate. I added the following:

  • Yaesu FT-991A
  • Kenwood TH-D75A
  • ICOM ID-52A Plus Anniversary Edition
  • MacBook Air

Even after adding that new gear, I came out pretty close to even on my selling vs buying. There may have been a small deficit.

So now I have both an ICOM IC-7100 and a Yaesu FT-991A. In theory, both of these radios do the same thing. But I’ve worked things out to where I can use them both together, for different things.

I have a 2m/70cm antenna in my attic hooked to the IC-7100. Where the FT-991A only has a dummy load. So I use the IC-7100 for repeaters. And I use the FT-991A for my hotspots/nodes. This works well. I also use my FT-991A for HF when the HF mood strikes me. That’s not very often. As shown in the picture, I have desk mics for both radios. And… these are now my only two desktop radios. Everything else is handheld.

Major purge…

I’ve been doing some serious house cleaning lately. This was partially in preparation to live in an RV in the not too distant future.

First, I got rid of all my computers and traded in my 11-inch iPad Pro on a new 13-inch iPad Pro. This new 13-inch iPad Pro will be my main computing device. I’ve kinda done this before as an experiment. So I already know what to expect. This time it is more out of necessity. But, I am leaving open the possibility that I could pick up a MacBook Air. I’d really like to make the iPad-only thing work though. Technically, we still have a Windows laptop. But it doesn’t really count. It only gets used when there is no other way to get something done.

Second, I cleaned out virtually all of my unneeded ham gear. I’ve been selling stuff left and right. What I have left is about six handhelds and one desktop radio. The desktop radio is the ICOM IC-7100. So I will use that for repeaters and the occasional HF work. The handhelds will be used with my openSPOTs and my Allstar nodes.

As part of my “shack cleansing” I sold my WiRES-X node. I gave away the desktop computer it ran on to a co-worker. I had two co-workers that were interested. So we flipped a coin.

I also decided to sell all my ZUMspot-USB sticks. This will remove the indecision where I’ve occasionally switched back and forth between the Raspberry Pi hotspots and my openSPOTs. No more switching. Not sure what I’m going to do with the six Pi 400s that I was using with these ZUMspot-USB sticks. Probably just Goodwill them.

As I was picking through my stuff to sell things… I came across my Alinco 70cm monoband radio. And I got to thinking. Why don’t I put my IRLP node back up? Of course I won’t be running an IRLP node in the RV. But I might as well run it until that time comes. Just for fun. So… the AI7HL IRLP node is back up and running!

It’s not just ICOM

My last post was a little harsh toward ICOM. After thinking more about this, I realized the Yaesu FT-991A has a different but very similar problem. The fact is, neither the IC-7100 or the FT-991A are good for use with digital voice hotspots, if you are going to use them with repeaters at the same time.

As previously discussed, the drawback with the IC-7100 is… the level of mic gain that is suitable for regular FM repeater work is totally unsuitable for D-Star use. So trying to use the radio with both regular FM repeaters and D-Star hotspots requires a ton of knob twisting to adjust the mic gain back and forth every time you change what you’re doing. This is because there is a single stored mic gain setting for the entire radio. All they would need to do is store separate settings for each mode and the problem would be solved.

A similar drawback with the FT-991A is… the power level setting is not stored with the memory channel info. So whatever your power level is set to, it applies to all memory channels. This means extensive knob twisting to move the power level from one end of the scale to the other every time one switches between a repeater and a local hotspot. I guess we’re all spoiled with the newer Yaesu radios where each memory channel has its own stored power level.

The IC-7100 doesn’t store the power level with the memory channel info either. But at least it is stored separately for each band. So… that technically works if all your hotspots are UHF and most of the repeaters you work are VHF.

All this being said, the answer to these problems is EASY. I cannot believe I didn’t see it sooner. If one uses a handheld for their local hotspots, then none of these aforementioned problems really matter. To be clear… I think there are obvious problems with some of the design decisions made for both the IC-7100 and the FT-991A. But the level of impact these have totally depends on your use case. And there is probably a good reason why virtually no one I’ve spoken with has really understood what I’m griping about. They simply aren’t using their radios the way I want to use mine.

The ICOM problem

I’m a little irritated at ICOM. My latest ham radio purchase was an ICOM IC-7100. Before that I bought an ICOM ID-5100A and an ICOM ID-50A. I generally like ICOM radios. They have some really nice features that competing radios don’t have.

However, I also used to have an ICOM IC-9700. And I sold it because of a design flaw in the radio. The design flaw has to do with the mic gain setting. If you are using this radio for FM… you would probably have the mic gain set to around 50%. Perfect. Until you want to use D-Star. When you want to use the radio for D-Star you will have to dial down your mic gain setting to around 15% to make it usable. This is serious inconvenience for people who are constantly scanning a mix of FM and D-Star repeaters/reflectors and wish to use the radio for both.

As I discovered today, the ICOM IC-7100 has a very similar problem. The perfect mic gain setting for me on analog FM and SSB is 50%. But to use the radio on a D-Star reflector… again… the mic gain needs to be adjusted down to 15-20%. Not a feasible situation when you are scanning dozens of FM repeaters and D-Star reflectors at the same time. Every time you want to talk, you’d literally have to see what mode you are in and adjust the mic gain before you key up.

This problem could easily have been solved by simply having separate mic gain values for each mode stored in the settings. But no. ICOM chose not to do that. They have one setting for all modes and as a result the setting must be adjusted when changing modes.

This mic gain problem goes way back. The ICOM 706 Mark II G had a very similar problem. If you were happily talking on SSB… you’d better turn your mic gain down before getting on an FM repeater or else you would blast people out of their chairs. Seriously? That was like 30 years ago. You would think ICOM would have learned by now.

Prepper stuff

We have been thinking about being more prepared for awhile now. Simple things like having some extra toilet paper and non-perishable food on hand.

But we recently took a big step. We contracted with an electrician to wire the power panel of our house for use with a generator. This allows the generator to basically power everything in the house with no need to run extension cords and such.

There were two key components to the project. First… we had to add a circuit for the generator “inlet”. This included a beefy new circuit breaker and wiring that went from the power panel to the back patio. The second component was an interlock kit. This ensures that you can never feed power from the generator back into the power grid. The interlock kit is simply a sliding metal plate. It’s notched in such a way that it physically prevents the main power breaker from being on at the same time the breaker for the generator is on. Nice and simple.

A fair portion of the cost for this project was running the circuit for the generator all the way to the back patio. On the back patio there is an “inlet” for the generator to plug into.

Generator inlet on the back patio

We did spring for a “tri-fuel” type generator. This generator can run off regular gasoline, propane, or natural gas. There happens to be a natural gas outlet right out on the back patio next to where we placed the generator inlet. That should work nicely in most cases. In the case where the natural gas supply is disrupted, we can always fall back to using propane.

For the curious… the electrician work, wiring, etc… cost about three times as much as the new generator. But this “manual” solution is still only a fraction of the cost of those next-level systems that automatically switch over whenever the power goes out.