Elecraft CW Net Announcement

[Kevin Rock]

Good Evening,
    Twenty meters was fantastic this week.  Forty meters has been good  
too.  On twenty I've been turning down the gain and pushing the headphones  
very far forward.  This makes hearing the sidetone more difficult but it  
does offer some protection from the very loud signals.  The ionosphere has  
been getting a steady dose of solar radiation lately from the coronal  
holes.  We are supposed to get a strong solar wind stream on the 22nd.  I  
think I will tune up on 15 or even 10 meters after it perks up the  
conditions to see what I can hear.
    The winds have died down and we've not had any rain in two days.  In  
fact I saw the sun which is not normal for this time of year.  Since it  
was dry I have gotten in a few good hikes.  Today I was wondering about a  
white cloud on the
horizon.  To it's right was the normal, albeit rare, view of Mt. Adams.  
It finally dawned on me: I was seeing the truncated cone of Mt. St.  
Helens!  I had never seen it from the property before.  Then I started  
scanning around the 'cloud' and realized the latest clearcut has provided  
a gap so I can see the top thousand feet or so of the mountain.  Before  
the top blew off it would have been an easy sight from here.  Must have  
been something to watch the sky fill with ash and the friction created  
lightning within it.
    I took another inventory of trees by walking the southern edge of the  
property.  We lost about a dozen fir trees.  The cedar, alder, and hemlock  
can withstand windstorms but the Douglas fir cannot.  Only the first ten  
yards of trees were effected, the rest are fine.  I am glad the trees  
closest to the house are the most mature and were able to withstand the  
blow.  I'd have lost my antennas and maybe part of the house if they had  
failed under the wind pressure.  Over the rest of the property the broken,  
hanging branches and the leaning trees were brought down.  Now I have  
plenty of firewood for the coming years.
   Let's hope for the wonderful propagation conditions I experienced  
throughout the week to prevail for tomorrow evening's nets.  I hope to  
hear you.  If you can hear someone I cannot please don't hesitate to relay  
that station in.  It makes the nets more fun when the effort is spread  
among many operators.

      Please join us:
Monday 0000z (Sunday 4 PM PST) 14050 kHz
Monday 0300z (Sunday 7 PM PST)  7045 kHz

     Kevin.  KD5ONS
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[aa7jc]

The Sierra is cousin to the K1.  A worthy radio of it's day (not that longs
ago).  I bought it after much research in a quest to buy the best of the
best in QRP and I was not dissapointed.  It has been on many campouts and
logged many a QSO.

I dusted off my Sierra today and found that it was drifting slightly and the
audio gain was scratchy so I popped the hood and cleaned it out with blue
shower.  To my surprise the drift problem went from barely noticeable to
unbearable.

Blue shower dissolved what little grease that was left in the bearings of
the main tuning capacitor so... I repacked the bearings with CaiLube M260Cp
conductive grease and wow... talk about a miracle cure!  CaiLube rocks!

The sierra is now perfectly rock stable.  zero drift (nada).  Like new.

I think I may pull out my Harvey Wells Bandmaster and repack it's bearings
too..   ;)

Ken Lotts
aa7jc

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