This entry is a test of how to do it. There is no useful content in this post.
I want to be able to create attractive content, but am not ready.
I am listening to thunder now and seeing some lightening. On the prairie a lightening storm is beautiful and frightening.
The caracara, Caracara cheriway, is also called the Mexican Eagle. One web site describes the caracara as a sluggish scavenger. We don’t see caracaras often around our home on the prairie. Occasionally one is perched on a power pole looking for a dead armadillo.
As we drove along last weekend I saw more caracaras than I have ever seen. Sometimes three or four would be feeding in the middle of the road and wait until the last minute to avoid my car.
Saturday evening I almost ran over several who just did not want to miss their dinner.
The usual white cattle egrets accompanied the cattle in the fields. We often wonder whether the egrets have a hierarchy that apportions two egrets to each steer or whether the egrets freelance.
Filed under: Ham radio
This past weekend, from 9 am Saturday to 9 pm and then from 9 am Sunday to 3 pm I was part of The Driving Burrito Brothers in the Texas QSO Party.
The TQP is a ham radio contest that tries to have representatives operating from each of the 254 counties in Texas. We operated in the multi-operator mobile category. As we rode along we tried to contact as many other hams all over the world as we could. Other groups operated from their own stations or from their cars.
Our group of four operated mobile in 41 counties from my Tahoe. We had ham radio operators on 4 bands (frequencies). Gary in the rear row of seats operated both phone and morse code on 20 meters. Larry in the middle row operated 40 meters, both phone and morse code. In the front seat Spouse operated 15 meters on morse code only. And I did all the driving, 1,095 miles, and operated 2 meters FM.
My Tahoe had antennas stuck to it with bumper mounts, magnetic mounts with huge multi-magnets, antennas on the roof rack, and a spare mount on the rear trailer hitch. The tallest antenna was about 14 ft. high, enough to clear bridges but we did clip some low hanging tree branches. The vehicle looked as if it were having acupuncture.
As a woman in a mostly male hobby I am used to being the only female in a group of guys. We have all operated together before and we all get along so it was a pleasant weekend.
We used three computers, one for each operator, connected with a router in a network. Each operator could see where the others were operating and the scores were sent to all the computers on the network. I went over one big bump that did disconnect everyone from the router. And, once we stopped to let Larry change his radio for the spare he was smart enough to bring.
We ate breakfast in Travis county and then I drove to Bastrop county for the contest start. Our route zigged and zagged south to Corpus Christi where the heavens opened in a real Texas frog choker. I couldn’t see where I was driving, slid on the wet roads, crossed my fingers, and kept going. At Harlingin, near the border with Mexico, we turned west and headed for Laredo. We arrived at our motel just as the contest broke for the night.
Sunday morning we started a roundabout route to Eagle Pass, then San Antonio, and finally Bell County north of Austin. I was tired.
We won our category in 2004, didn’t enter in 2005 because of Katrina and Rita, and won again in 2006. This year I do not think we had much competition.
Will we do it again next year. I had said I wouldn’t do it this year. I don’t know.
