Advent Pro

Picked up this 2450 cubic inch pack for some ultra lightweight backpacking that’s been on closeout at several places including mgear.com. Being an adventure race pack it’s designed to quick packing and lashing, which really means too many zippers, bungee and mesh pockets to be a true ultra lightweight backpack. Despite all the extras Gregory was able to keep the weight down to 2lb 8 oz using a super lightweight pack material. After loading up the pack with 2 sleeping bags and two gallons of water, a stove and a few extra clothes pieces of clothing I pretty sure I could make it work for up to a week. Lack of an easy to reach water bottle pocket is the only real annoyance I’ve had so far. So I’m forced to use a hydration system. The newer version of this pack does away with the sleeping bag zipper and is 1 oz heavier, so pick up the closeout model if you think you might want one for backpacking.

LEKI Ultralite Ti Ergometric

AT 13.6 oz hiking poles are getting pretty light.

Evernew Titanium Teapot

Decided It was time I owned a titanium pot for backpacking. Ended up getting a Teapot, that would double as a bowl. Now I have to figure our what kind of fleece would make a good cozy? Any suggestions?

Crabby Critic

Last night Emily was kind enough to take me to The Barber of Seville. I enjoyed the set and the modernization of the characters. I got a kick out of this review which totally pans the show. Guess I have yet to achieve crabby critic status for Operas.

VX-7R

So what was it that motivated me to get my Amateur Radio license? After dragging out my cheap shortwave radio and not able being able to tune even local FM stations well, I started looking at a few high end shortwave radios. Seeing how much they could run I decided that for a little more money I could get a radio that could also work as a Ham radio and if I threw in just a little more I could also have a hand held marine radio. Well if I'm going to spend all that money I might as will get a license to use it ;-)

For the supper teck geeks I'll post some of the selling points of my new radio:

The VX-7r features a rugged magnesium case with rubber bumpers and gaskets. It clearly sets the standard in ruggedness, versatility and water resistance. It is actually submersible (3 feet for 30 minutes).

Utilizing a reliable FET power amplifier circuit, the VX-7R provides a full 5 Watts of power output on the 50, 144, and 430 MHz Amateur bands, with bonus coverage of the 222 MHz band at 300 mW (USA version Only) of power output. And for 6-meter. AM enthusiasts, you also get 1 Watt of carrier power on the 50 MHz band! Four power levels may be selected, for optimum battery life.

The VX-7R is capable of four modes of Dual Receive, including simultaneous reception on (1) two VHF frequencies; (2) two UHF frequencies; (3) one VHF and one UHF frequency; or (4) one General Coverage frequency and one Ham frequency. And when a call is received on the Main band, you can set up the VX7R to reduce the audio level on the Sub band, if you like!

With continuous AM/FM reception coverage of 500 kHz to 999 MHz (cellular frequencies are blocked and non-restorable), the VX-7R is ideal for monitoring HF shortwave broadcasts, the AM and FM Broadcast bands, plus a wide variety of Marine, Public Safety, and Government bands. And special memory banks for the Weather, Marine, and Shortwave bands make station selection effortless!

-- Whew that was a lot tech speak!

KI6GFR

Two weeks ago I decided to earn my amateur radio license. Last night Rich Greenwood was driving out of San Francisco and decided to see if I could actually put my license to work. Well after about a minute of fiddling with my little 5 watt radio and trying different repeaters I managed to make contact with his mobile rigg about 10 miles away. Thanks for helping Rich! Tomorrow I'll blog about my radio and also explain why I decided to geek out.