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Idaho Rally
A car crosses the stage 15 finish line at the 2010 Idaho Rally
Very few people know that Idaho has a rally race, it’s somewhat new, but gaining in popularity. This was the first year that my schedule allowed me to work this event, but I hope I can make it again. For me this was another dual purpose event as the safety communications were provided by area ham radio operators (i.e. me). So much like my yearly trek to the Jet Boat races, I’m there primarily to handle communications. That dictates where I’m at and what I’m doing, safety and communications always comes first. But, it’s hard to talk on the radio when a loud car (or jet boat) goes by so usually communications and photography coexist nicely. For this event I was at the finish line for stage 15, the last of the mountain stages, only one stage remained at the fair grounds.
As for the radio communications side of things, this one was tough, the finish line was a dead area, the nearest spot I could get a radio signal out was a mile away. So I had to turn my truck radio into a repeater, park and walk the mile back up the creek to the finish. (So much for having my truck at the finish with the AC running waiting after we closed the road). I used my handheld through my truck repeater, through the main repeater and back down to the start line on the other side of the mountain — a bit of a pain, but it worked. One of the cars (a non competing rally car) was nice enough to give me a ride back to my truck afterwards.
7 QSO Party
For the last couple of years we’ve been going on a short camping trip the first weekend in may, this happens to be on or near Joy’s Birthday. Its about time to get the camper our and get it on the road, though usually it’s already been with me up to the Jet Boat Races a couple weeks prior. But the first weekend of may the bulk of Joy’s classes are over and before the onslaught of her having to grade portfolios begins. This trip is just to hide… Get a little time away from everything and relax around a campfire for three days. No backpacking, hiking, fishing, photography or any of the normal work that accompanies a camping trip, just relaxing. Eat, Sleep, kick the fire, eat, sleep, read, kick the fire, eat, sleep… Last year it rained the entire weekend, it was great! This year, it rained, snowed and just about everything else.
This weekend also happens to be a ham radio contest, the 7th area call district QSO Party (7QP). I only worked the contest for a couple of hours total, but had some good contacts. It was also a great chance to think about and plan for Field Day.
I had planned to work until I got a contact in every 7-land state; Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. I thought I was done after making a contact into Wyoming which was a tough find, I even shut off the radio and power to get ready for bed. But I wanted to count states and contacts before so my wife and I read through the list, both realizing that I hadn’t made a contact with another Idaho station. It wasn’t going to be very easy either, most of the folks I had talked to told me I was the first Idaho station they heard. But I turned everything back on and searched 80 meters for a local. Eventually I heard KE7ADU from up in Boundary County (350 miles north). He was replying to stations calling CQ and working his way up the band, I went a few khz up the and started calling him, thankfully he found me and I got my own state. With Idaho on the log, it really was time for bed. As it is now. Keep reading for station/log info >>
Field Day 2009
I’m putting some finishing touches on my packing for field day 2009. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a yearly amateur (ham) radio event. To the American Radio Relay League, our primary US club, it’s an “operating event.” To some it’s a contest, to some it’s a public relations opportunity, to some it’s a emergency drill, to some it’s a chance to make a lot of contacts, to some it’s a social event, to some it’s just a day to go hang out in the mountains and “play” ham radio.
This year I fall more toward the last option. In years past I’ve run field day for an emergency communications team, some years I was operating to for points, one year I did VHF only… This year? Well, this year me and my 6 month old border collie are going to head up in the mountains somewhere, park the trailer and enjoy the weekend. Joy couldn’t go this year due to work, I didn’t have any prior commitments with any team or club so jasper and I will be flying solo.
I’ve got a spot picked out in Boise county (no the city of Boise is in Ada county) it’s not as remote as I’d like to be but given time constraints it’ll do. For you VHFers it’s on the grid line of DN23 and DN24. I’ll be operating as “W7ATC 1B ID” I’ll be operating 100% QRP (5 watts) too. I’ve done some QRP Field day work in the past, but never the whole event. Mostly PSK31. To get the computer ASUS EeePC and radio within my battery/solar power budget for 24 hours I have to run low power. Actually I will probably only work about 16 hours of the event, technically looking at my power budget I could run 20 watts but dropping down to 5 gets me a higher points multiplier.
For those of you who are ham radio operators. I’m trying to set up a schedule with a couple people, here is my plan for
(all times mountain)
Friday night:
7.285mhz SSB at 8:30pm
14.285mhz SSB at 9:00pm
14.070 PSK31 at 9:30pm
Saturday Morning:
Saturday morning before field day starts I’ll be monitoring 7.268.5mhz SSB from 10am till 11:30am it’s the “Noon Net” frequency.
It should be fun, always is. Operating at QRP power levels this year is going to be a challenge.
Seven Three
Quick and Easy Dutch Oven Breakfast
Brunch cooking in the Dutch Oven
I want to share a quick and easy Dutch Oven recipe with you. If you are a dutch oven pro, you can skip this and maybe teach the rest of us a thing or two.
My first experience with dutch oven was ten years ago when some friends brought their dutch oven kit to a cookout. The food was great and I wanted to give it a shot, but until recently hadn’t. Last year my parents gave us their old camper trailer when they got an upgrade. Among the paper plates, instant oatmeal and random supplies was a cast iron skillet twice my age and a Dutch Oven. The dutch oven needed some serious TLC. With some determination I was able to clean and re-season the dutch oven.
We’ve had it for almost a year now and have learned a lot, but so far we’ve liked everything we’ve cooked in it. I find it ironic that I’m about to share with you my recipe for breakfast when, I’ve yet to use a recipe for anything in it. Thus far I’ve just tried a my own ideas, things I’ve thought would work and so far, the all have. Some of them have been built on generic foundations but some were off the wall. I know you’ve probably already seen a million recipes similar to this, but I’m gonna share mine anyways.
This works best in a 10” Dutch oven, our 12” is a bit big for it. This feeds two to four or in our case two and a Border Collie.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage (or if you’re back east and can get Tennessee Pride Sausage, you’d better – and send me some)
- 8 Eggs
- 1 pack of flaky biscuits (10 biscuits) – you could use home made biscuits, but I really like the flaky layers for this.
- A Bunch – Cheddar Cheese
- Some – butter
I’ll leave the Dutch Oven 101 stuff to any of the million sites already out there. Read them though, it would have saved me some trial and error (at least the error part).
Start with about 4-5 coals on bottom and 4-5 on the lid. This is to pre-heat it, once the oven it warmed up a bit take the lid off and set it on a rock, or if you’re fancy one of those $12 lid stands.
Throw the sausage in and get it started crumbling, we don’t want to cook it, just give it a head start. Once you’ve got it warming up and just starting to loose the red color, flatten it out and poor in the 8 eggs. You can use as little as 6 or as much as 12 depending on how many people you’ll serve. I suggest 8 for 3 or 4 people. Once the eggs are in, add a layer of cheese, don’t be shy with it. Finally place the 10 biscuits on top of the egg/cheese mix. Tap them down into the mix a bit.
Put the lid on and double the coals on top, then throw on a few more. I’d end up with five on bottom and 12 or so on top.
Amazing as is, but plate it with some Strawberry Jelly and there won't be leftovers
You will want to turn the dutch oven ¼ turn and the lid ¼ turn in opposite direction every few minutes as everything suggests; this will ensure an even cooking temperature. Check it at ten minutes and every few after. Once the biscuits are turning gold on top, it’s done. Take the lid off and rub a bit of butter on the top of the biscuits.
It’s great by itself but for a added treat get a squeeze bottle of smuckers strawberry jelly, once you have it plated and ready to eat, squeeze a little of that on top. ENJOY!
When I really needed it
So I mentioned elsewhere on the site we had an adventure filled trip back from Salmon on Saturday night. I just finished sending an email saying thanks to KE7KQB a ham radio operator in Oregon. The email explains what happend and how Ham Radio really came though (for me this time). So… I’ll just post the email and let it explain.
Jeremy,
Just wanted to say a big thanks for you help the other night/morning… My wife (KD7VKY) and I were driving back from Salmon, ID to Boise, had been visiting my parents for Christmas. We’ve driven those roads millions of times in all sorts of weather and on several occasions have had to stop and help other people who broke down or got stuck. That night the roads weren’t especially bad, Banner summit had a foot of snow in the road since it has been plowed and an icy base under that, I was surprised the road was open from the number of avalanches we saw, none really big, but a lot of them. By the time we got down to lowman and turned onto the banks-lowman road, the road was a lot better and were out of the avalanches (so we thought).
About half way between Lowman and Garden Valley we went around a curve and there was a small avalanche on the right side of the road. I moved to the left but not far enough apparently (the stereotypical it happened so fast I’m not 100% sure what happened applies here) the next thing I know is we’d been turned and sent over to the ditch on the right side of the road. Both right wheels were off in the ditch and while I was still had momentum I tried to pull back out of the ditch, but it didn’t work. To make maters worse, there had been another avalanche into the ditch and we nosed right into it. When I got out I found the hood of my Ford Ranger was buried in snow, both right side tires were off in the ditch and the road under the left two tires was solid ice.
It was around 10:15pm when this happened. We always call my parents when get to cell service back in Boise, they would have been expecting our call no later than midnight. At this point I figured we’d dig out and still make it to a phone in Garden Valley to call them so they wouldn’t be worried or call the police.
I was fairly confident I could get out of it, but it’d take time. We hadn’t seen another vehicle since back in Stanley, so I didn’t expect to have help anytime soon. I always stress being prepared for anything. I always have food, water, warm clothes and everything needed to survive 72 hours in my truck no matter the season. I also have plenty of tools; shovel, hand winch, saw, tow straps, flashlights etc. “Just in case.”I guess I had been working for over an hour before I decided to turn the radio on and see if I could get anyone. Obviously we were no where near cell coverage. I have an HF radio in my truck but my antenna for it is disassembled for repair at the moment. I had a portable antenna kit that I could have put together if I really needed to. I turned on the 2m rig and tried all the repeaters and simplex. I’ve got a pretty nice 2m antenna that’s served me well in the back country, I’m always amazed what I can get from where. I figured Shaffer Butte was my only chance, from previous experience while driving this road, and it was spotty at best. I knew the Cinnabar machine was out of the question, but tried it anyway, as well as every other memory in my radio, Simplex and even the Shaffer reverse pair. I finally dialed around to the Snowbank repeater surprised to say the least to hear it back. I know I can hit it in other places between Stanley and Boise but I really didn’t expect to hit it from here. It had to take at least two bounces to make that path, especially considering I was up against a steep mountain blocking me in that direction. I’m sure the weather helped
It was around 10 or 15 degrees and snowing pretty hard, so I was cold from the weather and hot from all the work… Needless to say I was really happy when I heard you answer my call (not sure if you were on the .62 or if the link was up and you were on the .84). I was still 51% sure I could dig out, but wanted to let someone know where we were and to let my parents know we were ok. Given the number of avalanches we’d seen, I did have a thought in the back of my mind of a larger avalanche coming down the mountain and burying the truck. I know it wasn’t the best signal and you had a hard time understanding me, it probably didn’t help that I was a tad stressed, but you were great. I can’t tell you how reassuring it was once I knew that we had a link to help if we needed it and you had called my parents to tell them know where we were and that we were ok. Just knowing someone knew where we were made an incredible difference.
It still took a LOT longer to dig/winch out than I would have thought. Apparently you gave your phone number to my parents, when you tried to call us for an update, both my wife and I were outside the truck and our new puppy (just picked him up that day) had stepped on the remote mic for the radio and turned it off). Given the lack of radio contact, this is probably when they left 3 messages on each phone we have, plus email and text messages, thinking we may have gotten out without letting them know. As I understand it, this is the point where my parents called the Boise County Sheriff’s Office to report us missing in the area to see if anyone could drive out to check on us; The dispatcher told my parents no one was on duty and they didn’t want to wake anyone up. (reassuring isn’t it?) Wonder if they would have regretted that had another avalanche buried us and they found us dead the next morning?
I don’t recall exactly but I guess it was around 2am when we finally got the truck back up onto the road and were able to get word out to you that we were moving again. We stopped in Garden Valley to change into warm clothes and made the rest of the trip uneventful. We did see one other avalanche on the banks-lowman road which had about eight to ten feet of snow across most of the road but were able ease around it. Glad we weren’t involved with that one.
Again, I just wanted to say thanks. I’ve been working in or volunteering with emergency communications since I was 14, but this is the first time my rear end has been the one on the line, and I’m very thankful you were on the other end. It might not have been a life or death emergency at the moment, but who know what could have happened… Having someone know our location could have made the difference had something else gone wrong.
I’d also like to thank the Voice of Idaho Amateur Radio Club tech team as some of the upgrades made to the snowbank repeater in the last few years made it sensitive enough to pick up my weak signal where it wouldn’t have in the past.
73Zeb PalmerW7ATC/m
Also posted in Ham Radio
Tagged avalanche, bad weather, banks, banner summit, boise county, Ham Radio, jasper, lowman, snow, stanley, stuck, Voice of idaho
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