CQ World Wide DX contest

More than 600 contacts worked this weekend on 80 - 10m.

New Office / Radio Shack

This weekend I'm working on the finishing touches for my new office space / Radio Shack.

The partition wall I put up needs a second coat of paint and I need to find matching skirting board and cornice for the ceiling. I've decided to cover the painted concrete floor with laminated flooring as it is durable, quick and easy to install.

I've made the hole in the wall for my RF cables; I have a bench that will fit nicely in this space.

Watering system connected

Today I connected the drip watering system to the recently planted strawberry bed. The setup is quite simple; I have 32mm tubing run from our water source to the vegetable garden. A 1/2" hole is made in the distribution tube - I heated a small piece of 1/2" copper water pipe and pressed it into the pipe to make a hole that is just the right size for a rubber grommet which the plastic fixture pushes into, making a water tight seal. A short piece of tubing then connects the control valve, which has a special twist connector on the other end to connect the drip watering ribbon.

Once all the planted rows have been connect, I'll bury the distribution tube to protect it from the sun etc ..

HF vertical

With the CQ World Wide DX Contest just round the corner, Alex - CE6SAX and I decided to see just how much aluminum tubing we could get vertical at his country location near Puerto Saveerdra.

Read more here: http://ce6lnj.com/hf-vertical-experiment/

Preparing the strawberry beds

This year we are taking the strawberry cultivation to the next level. The strawberry beds seen here have been covered in a special plastic, white on the upper-side to reflect the sunlight and a black underside to block light getting to the soil thus keeping in the moisture and controlling the growth of weeds.

A drip-feed watering system has been installed down the center; circular holes will be cut in the plastic for each strawberry plant.

To the right, a small bed of peas are beginning to sprout. 

As always, our son likes to join in :-)