|
And now for something totally different!
On Mar 20, 1:54Â am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote: On Mar 19, 6:10� pm, Dave Heil wrote: wrote: You were there a couple of years, as I recall. Yes--1998-2000. You should write a book! Or at least a collection of stories about your experiences in various services and locations. Military, dept of state, ham radio... You could put it on the web, too..... There's a certain British approach to engineering and craftsmanship that is underappreciated on this side of the pond IMHO. For example, the BBC was doing regular scheduled electronic TV broadcasting in 1936-37, and only shut down when WW2 broke out. They invented things like the re-entrant multiple cavity magnetron, practical jet engines, the dambuster bomb and delivery system (fly a Lancaster 50 feet off the water at night? No problem!) and much more. Somewhere here in the shack, I have a little green hardbound book on Baird's work. If you mean John Logie Baird, unfortunately he barked up the wrong (mechanical) tree for too long. But when he got together with Farnsworth things really started to roll. And yet people still think TV was first demonstrated to the public at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Whatever happened to World's Fairs, anyway? I have an RSGB handbook from the 1960s. It's quite different from the ARRL Handbooks of the time - more technical, more projects, more advanced and varied stuff. But nothing on operating, history, licensing, or the RSGB. You can make up for that lack of info if you can find a wonderful book from the 70's called, "The World at Their Fingertips". I'll keep an eye out, but my point was the difference in focus. The RSGB Handbook was more narrowly focused. I think it eventually influenced the ARRL handbook, too. Note too that the RSGB handbook wasn't a new edition every year, or even every 2-3 years. One thing that I think is missing from the ARRL library is a successor to "Understanding Amateur Radio". "UAR" was a great book that filled the gap between the basic intro books and the full Handbook. For example, the phenomenal G2DAF receivers, particularly the last version. Incredible sophistication and performance. Really great designs.  He kept at it for a long time.  He provided many mods for commercial rigs like the Yaesu FT-101 series. Those early '101s sure needed them! Of course part of that was the different economics of homebrewing in Europe at the time. ...and that went on through the 70's too.  Taxes on imported equipment were very high throughout most of Europe. I would not be surprised if imported *parts* were taxed/tariffed/ dutied much less than imported finished products. In the back of the RSGB book were ads for outfits that would sell you complete punched and drilled chassis, panels, brackets, etc. for various well-known projects like the G2DAF receivers, or would make up such things to your drawings. Also the Electronique coils, Jackson Brothers drives and capacitors, etc. Pete Millett's site. All kinds of stuff. There's also Frank's Tube Data Pages. I'll check that one out. "Frank's" is actually a collection of sites all over the world. Not only do they have data for tubes you never even heard of, there are often multiple data sheets from different manufacturers. So you can compare the GL-833A from GE with the RCA 833A, for example. � I have a 24 hour clock atop the amp, one in the computer and one of those "atomic clock" things hanging on the shack wall. I have a classic Numechron Tymeter 24 hour digital clock for the shack. It was made from parts of three junkers back in the 1980s and runs perfectly today. I might have three dollars invested in it. I used to have one of those and would love to find another.  They're getting rather pricey these days. Hamfests....  I'm happy to report that I have less in my atomic clock than you have in your tymeter.  My neighbor bought it new and gave it to me when the outside temperature transmitter quit working.  I found a web site where I can order the transmitter for ten bucks postpaid. That's The Southgate School way of thinking and doing, right there. P&H's later offering was a low profile, chrome plated until called the P&H Spitfire--the LA-500M. YES! I remember now! There was a smattering of amps with lots of tubes in parallel, aiming to achieve 50 ohm output impedance.  It used six 12JB6's at 500w input and was introduced in the early 60's. Yup. Back in the 1960s the ARRL Handbook had a single 3-1000Z amp that still looks good today. In inflation-adjusted dollars it probably costs less now than it did then. Those bottles are hard to come buy these days.  I think it is hard to beat a pair of 3-500's for legal limit or near legal limit power. They're relatively inexpensive, can be used with or without the air system chimneys and sockets and the graphite anode variants are quite rugged. Less than $200 each, too. Adjusted for inflation, they are cheaper than in the early 1960s when the 3-400Z first appeared. It is a sad state of affairs when it won't all fit in two rooms. Not at all, IMHO! Out here near Cameron, it is possible to buy a perfectly good house for under 30k. Boy do I want to move! But one has to go where the jobs are. ...right up until retirement time rolls around.  Then you're free to live where you like. Sort of. Depends on the family situation, both spouse and kids. Also one's health and ties to the community. And most of all finances. With people living longer, having kids later and the greater dependence on 401K/IRA funding rather than company pensions and Social Security, retiring at 60, 62 or even 65 isn't nearly so doable as it was in times past. I've been going through realtors listings for the southern part of this state, getting an idea of what's available and what prices are like--this for our eventual sale of this place to the approaching longwall coal mine.  I'm not bookmarking any homes which are in subdivisions. IMHO the thing to do is to find a good RE attorney and agent, and explain to them *exactly* what you will and will not accept. If they don't "get it" right away, find somebody else. Realtor.com is a wealth of info, too. The best. Plus to the south are the drumlins and the lakes. Winters are tough but the folks there are used to them. I think you mean that they've learned to put up with them. Not just that; the folks really are used to them. Most but "stay putters" have the option.  You needn't sell the XYL on an antenna farm.  Practice saying things like, "plenty of room for a garden" and "park-like setting". Depends on the XYL. Some will not be interested in the garden or the park-like setting. Others may not want to move away from their connections to the community, or the kids. Or their career. Of course if the kids move.... The first table I built, way back in the early 1970s, was made from the wood in old shipping pallets. These were *old* pallets, and the wood in them was incredible. I figure they were at least a couple decades old in 1970. I had access to a radial arm saw and a planer, and made my own stock. There's an idea for a guy who needs a sturdy but inexpensive table for the shack.  A couple of local outfits near here have so many pallets that they are constantly running ads in the local paper for "free wooden pallets". The key is the planer. I'd take a pallet apart, carefully checking that all the nails and staples were out, and then run it through the planer. Took several passes but the result was square, straight finished stock. The pieces weren't long but they were long enough, and I knew how to do splices. I should get that old table out of storage and put it back to work... 73 de Jim, N2EY |
And now for something totally different!
|
And now for something totally different!
On Mar 21, 1:25Â am, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote: On Mar 20, 1:54� am, Dave Heil wrote: wrote: On Mar 19, 6:10� pm, Dave Heil wrote: You should write a book! Or at least a collection of stories about your experiences in various services and locations. Military, dept of state, ham radio... Funny you should mention it!  I've got most of the work done on a memoir of the travels as they relate to amateur radio with just enough of the non-radio events thrown in for flavor. This is truly excellent. You could put it on the web, too..... Naw, I plan to finance my next rig with the proceeds.  There'll be DVD's as well.  I'm still in the process of importing the videotaped material, editing and glitzing it up. Perhaps a sample could be on the web, such as how Amazon lets you see a small part of a book. If you mean John Logie Baird, unfortunately he barked up the wrong (mechanical) tree for too long. But when he got together with Farnsworth things really started to roll. Yep. The rotating wheel was wild. It was theoretically correct, but impractical for "high definition" TV in real time. I'll keep an eye out, but my point was the difference in focus. The RSGB Handbook was more narrowly focused. I think it eventually influenced the ARRL handbook, too. Note too that the RSGB handbook wasn't a new edition every year, or even every 2-3 years. I think that's probably due to the relatively small number of radio amateurs in the British Isles.  But the market wasn't just the UK. I suspect the Commonwealth countries, both current and former, would be a market. Aussies, Zedders, etc. As I recall, the RSGB handbook was nearly thirty dollars in the 70's. The one I have is earlier, and I think it worked out to about $13-15 or so - back when an ARRL Handbook was $4. Plus you probably had to pay postage, duty, etc. Having bought "real" engineering books, I can say that both the ARRL and RSGB Handbooks were and are true bargains. The ARRL Handbook back then was mostly the work of W1DX, aided by the staff. The book evolved over time - the whole book was not rewritten every year. The RSGB Handbook had many authors, and underwent serious expansion and revision between editions. Since there was not a set schedule for when the next edition would come out, the changes were much greater. Friend of mine is trying to collect all the post-WW2 Handbooks, and has most of them. He has all the post-WW1 QSTs, in part because an OT gave him a lifetime collection, knowing he would appreciate and care for them. The Southgate Library keeps expanding, too. What you see in the shack picture is but a small part of it. Then there's the stuff I have in electronic format... One thing that I think is missing from the ARRL library is a successor to "Understanding Amateur Radio". "UAR" was a great book that filled the gap between the basic intro books and the full Handbook. I agree.  It was full of information set forth in an easy to follow style. Both theory and practice, code and voice, HF and VHF. Half the price of a Handbook. I would not be surprised if imported *parts* were taxed/tariffed/ dutied much less than imported finished products. You're right.  Finland taxed imported transceivers and amplifiers at 100% duty--even into the 80's. But what about parts? In the back of the RSGB book were ads for outfits that would sell you complete punched and drilled chassis, panels, brackets, etc. for various well-known projects like the G2DAF receivers, or would make up such things to your drawings. Also the Electronique coils, Jackson Brothers drives and capacitors, etc. As far as I know, Jackson Bros. is still in the business of making vernier reduction drives--top notch stuff. Yes, but not as top-notch as BC-221, LM or ARC-5 drive/capacitor combinations. Odd that you mentioned those two.  The only 833A I've got sitting around is an Amperex. I used to have an RCA 833A, but it got sold. I have some experience with them, but not as much as with the more-common "ham" amplifier tubes. � I'm happy to report that I have less in my atomic clock than you have in your tymeter. � My neighbor bought it new and gave it to me when the outside temperature transmitter quit working. � I found a web site where I can order the transmitter for ten bucks postpaid. That's The Southgate School way of thinking and doing, right there. I'm used to it.  I once repaired a Heathkit Warrior amp for WA8JOC with tandem copier transformers which I got for free. Another example of TSS in action! Yep, relatively low plate voltage and high current jobs.  One fellow did a homebrew amp design which appeared in CQ in the 60's, which used sixteen horizontal output tubes.  The most I ever saw was a picture in QST of a 75 meter monoband amp with something like thirty-six 1625s in parallel. Output impedance was 75 ohms; fed the antenna through a lowpass filter. Of course the output C was so enormous it couldn't go any higher, and IIRC there was quite a pile of bias pots. Now if a guy wants some oomph for cheaper, 811A's are a pretty good bargain as are 572B's.  With four 811A's making 800 or so watts output, that's an inexpensive way to get 9db more than the typical 100w rig and it is down only about 2.5db from the legal limit. Yep. But with four 811As you often need to neutralize even in GG, and depending on where you get your bottles a pair of 572Bs may be the better deal. The solid-state option has been around for decades, but the high cost stops a lot of hams. In April 1976, a legal-limit solid-state all-band HF linear amp was the cover article in QST. If someone had told me then that in 2008 there would be more models of tube-type linear amps being made for hams than in 1976, and that hams would be buying and using them, I'd have not believed it. (3-500Z tubes) Less than $200 each, too. Adjusted for inflation, they are cheaper than in the early 1960s when the 3-400Z first appeared. That's what I mean.  Price 3CX800's, 8877's or 3CX1200's and you'll get an idea of what a bargain the 3-500's are. Those ceramic-metal tubes were never inexpensive in the first place. Unlike almost all commercial/military applications, in ham radio, when an expensive final tube fails, it's up to the owner/operator to pay for the replacement. Well, there's likely a move in my future and something's going to have t o go. (sigh) Depends on the family situation, both spouse and kids. Also one's health and ties to the community. Pass it along to the kids now:  There is an applied implication that that they travel to visit the parents. That's good advice in theory but in practice it often works out to be more complicated. Traveling with little kids is both expensive and difficult, and in families with two careers just getting everyone off work and out of school at the same time can be a challenge. (Vacation and sick days are often used up when the kids are sick, and there's never spare cash laying around. So it's often more practical for Grandma/Grandpa to travel. Still, all that means is you draw distance circles around where the kids are. Doesn't mean you have to live down the street. And most of all finances. With people living longer, having kids lat er and the greater dependence on 401K/IRA funding rather than company pensions and Social Security, retiring at 60, 62 or even 65 isn't nearly so doable as it was in times past. Right now probably isn't a good time to hang it up so early. All depends on the situation.  Then again, many people seem to believe that they're going to need the same amount of money as they now earn in their retirement.  The house is apt to be paid off, they do less driving.  They don't have the kids to support. Many of them don't need as large a house. Agreed, and there are tax advantages, such as getting double exemptions after 65, the capital-gains exclusion for selling the big house, the lack of tax on SS after age 70, etc. OTOH things like health care costs, rising energy prices, etc., work the other way. What I've done in the past is to write it up in the offer, "subject to there being no restrictions on the installation of an amateur radio tower/s." After a couple of false starts with a Cincinnati realtor back in the 70's, I got the agent working with us up to speed on what we wanted in addition to style, size of yard, number of bed and bathrooms: no antenna restrictions and located on high ground.  I had trouble with a southern West Virginia realtor before we bought this place.  I'd specified "high altitude.  She showed me a couple of places with a great view of a hill perhaps 500 feet higher than the house.  I might have had to become an Asia specialist. bwaahaahaa But a good example of the problem, and the need to get the RE attorney and realtor to understand *exactly* what you will accept. Realtor.com is a wealth of info, too. ...and homes.com and a number of other sites I'm presently browsing. Good. You have the most important resource, too: Flexibility. You don't have to move this month, or this summer, or land in a specific school district or some such. I'm thankful that my XYL and I agree that neither of us wants to be hemmed in by neighbors.  She likes vegetable and flower gardening. I like multiple towers. Works for me!  I'm thinking 3 or 5 or 8 acres. *grin* Think big, think flexible. Could you subdivide some acres for other homes? Lease for farming? One thing that was/is popular in WNY is to have a woodlot. Usually a piece of land that is heavily wooded, had no utilities and won't pass the perc test. The owner cuts a couple of cords of wood every year, sells some, uses the rest for heat. The profit on the wood sold pays the RE taxes. Only the crowded and not-so-good trees are taken; the really good ones are left to grow and given room. Of course you have to love to cut, split and stack wood, but a lot of us do. "Wood warms you twice - once when you cut it, again when you burn it" 73 de Jim, N2EY |
And now for something totally different!
|
And now for something totally different!
On Mar 24, 1:41 pm, Dave Heil wrote:
wrote: On Mar 21, 1:25� am, Dave Heil wrote: wrote: I've got most of the work done on a memoir of the travels as they relate to amateur radio with just enough of the non-radio events thrown in for flavor. This is truly excellent. I dunno if any excellence is involved, but the material is factual. While I'm not an editor or proofreader by profession, I do have some experience in those fields and would be glad to proofread/comment on your memoir if that would be of any help. Just for the fun of it. Perhaps a sample could be on the web, such as how Amazon lets you see a small part of a book. There's only a couple of short video clips from Guinea-Bissau, much more from Sierra Leone and Botswana (including a colorful cast of characters) and quite a bit of Finland (shot in the early and mid-90's and in 2003). The DVD's will be fleshed out with photos and audio clips. Sample clips may well be made available. That would be good. But the market wasn't just the UK. I suspect the Commonwealth countries, both current and former, would be a market. Aussies, Zedders, etc. You're right. Add South Africa to the "etc." Even if we added those amateur populations, the RSGB Handbook wasn't widely distributed but it was known to be a very good one. Its sister publications--and I'm specifically including the series of "Technical Topics" books by Pat Hawker--were also very good. I'll keep an eye out. Having bought "real" engineering books, I can say that both the ARRL and RSGB Handbooks were and are true bargains. I'd have to agree. The current ARRL Handbooks have much more material than the older ones. The ARRL Antenna Handbook is another bargain. Always have been, really. The ARRL Handbook now covers a lot of material, yet does not require an extensive engineering background to understand and use. The ARRL Handbook back then was mostly the work of W1DX, aided by the staff. The book evolved over time - the whole book was not rewritten every year. Agreed. There were often just minor changes from one year to the next. I still have a number of the early 1930's Handbooks on the shelf here. My earliest is 1948. It was a similar story with the excellent "RADIO Handbook" edited by Bill Orr. It was updated only periodically and not on any particular schedule. I'm not certain how many contributed to the effort though. That it is listed as "edited by Bill Orr" says the author list was extensive. Friend of mine is trying to collect all the post-WW2 Handbooks, and has most of them. He has all the post-WW1 QSTs, in part because an OT gave him a lifetime collection, knowing he would appreciate and care for them. I'm not bothering will all of 'em so I have selected editions from the thirties through present day. I haven't bought one since 2003. The League currently has the 2007 Handbook on sale at a bargain price so I may have to grab one of those. Me too! W4HAV, then one of the corporate VP's at Cincinnati Milactron, gave me a run of 1934-1958 QST. That was the start of my collection. I bought the 1958-1963 and the 1920-1933 runs, a year at a time from various hamfests, typically in one-year bundles. I have only one issue from 1919 and that cost quite a bit. I ended up purchasing the QST CD's covering the early period. Mine came from many sources. Of course the most recent 40 years I got by being an ARRL member. The Southgate Library keeps expanding, too. What you see in the shack picture is but a small part of it. Then there's the stuff I have in electronic format... The expanding library is one of my worries about a move. There's mostly complete run of Popular Electronics through the early 1970's, a mostly complete run of Electronics Illustrated from the same period, a mostly complete run of 73, a mostly complete run of Ham Radio and Ham Radio Horizons and a complete run of CQ from its beginning in 1946. It took a number of years to find some of those rare 1946 issues. There's twenty-some feet in technical books here in the shack with the overflow out in the heated barn. Do you need ham radio Vol 1 No. 1? (Understanding Amateur Radio) Both theory and practice, code and voice, HF and VHF. Half the price of a Handbook. I don't recall when it was dropped from the ARRL technical book series. Do you? I will look it up but my guess is late 1970s. But what about parts? (imported to Finland) They weren't taxed at anywhere near that. That same thing extended (and may still extend) to imported automobiles. My '95 Dodge Neon cost me around $12,000. It's European equivalent, the Chrysler Neon, sold in Finland for $44,000. A Lada (Russian Fiat) cost about $20,000. And people say Americans pay high taxes... Yes, but not as top-notch as BC-221, LM or ARC-5 drive/capacitor combinations. Then again, the military could afford to pay. Of course. But why not turn those swords into plowshares? It would be interesting if Ivor or another G-land newsgroup reader could tell us if Jackson Bros. made high quality drives for the British military. Let's not forget Eddystone and the 898 drive. Odd that you mentioned those two. � The only 833A I've got sitting around is an Amperex. I used to have an RCA 833A, but it got sold. I have some experience with them, but not as much as with the more-common "ham" amplifier tubes. WNOP was a 1 KW daytime only jazz station in Newport, Kentucky from the fifties until just about a decade back. Their studio, for the last twenty or so years of the station's existence, consisted of three large, connected vertical steel cylinders. The whole shebang was painted bright orange and bobbed up and down on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River across from Cincinnati. The transmitters and three-tower critical antenna array were on top of a hill in the Delhi neighborhood of Cincy. Until the early 80's, WNOP's transmitter was a 1948 Raytheon running a pair of 833A's at a nice dull red glow. If the transmitter final stage efficiency was 65%, those tubes were dissipating about 250 watts each. Given that the 833A's maximum rated plate dissipation is 400 watts and that at that level the anode color is warm orange- red, the "dull red glow" was completely normal. But with four 811As you often need to neutralize even in GG, and depending on where you get your bottles a pair of 572Bs may be the better deal. Well, not just "may be" but, IMO would be the better deal.  An 811A i s good for 65 watss plate dissipation for 260 total watts of dissipation for four.  Four of the 572's are capable of dissipating 640 watts for just a little more money. A pair of 572Bs is good for 320 watts plate dissipation, which is about the same as three 811As. In Class B GG they will do a kilowatt on CW and 1200 watts on SSB (input, not output). The solid-state option has been around for decades, but the high cost stops a lot of hams. The MFJ AL-600 costs roughly what the company's AL-572 runs.  The AL- 572 will run 1000 watts CW output.  The solid state AL-600 runs 500w CW. Twice as many dollars-per-watt. Unlike almost all commercial/military applications, in ham radio, when an expensive final tube fails, it's up to the owner/operator to pay for the replacement. Right.  Destroying one or more high power vacuum tubes while in the employ of a company or government with deep pockets isn't the same as doing so when you are the guy responsible such expenses. Exactly. Depends on the family situation, both spouse and kids. Also one's health and ties to the community. Pass it along to the kids now: There is an applied implication that that they travel to visit the parents. That's good advice in theory but in practice it often works out to be more complicated. Traveling with little kids is both expensive and difficult, and in families with two careers just getting everyone off work and out of school at the same time can be a challenge. (Vacation and sick days are often used up when the kids are sick, and there's never spare cash laying around. So it's often more practical for Grandma/Grandpa to travel. My grandparents always sat at home and we did the traveling even when we lived in Florida in the pre-Interstate Highway days. Which was (ahem) a few years ago, when life was somewhat different. For example, did both parents have full-time jobs? Still, all that means is you draw distance circles around where the kids are. Doesn't mean you have to live down the street. If the kids have jobs which cause them to relocate every few years, it might be better to choose a place you like. Of course. What I'm saying is that Grampa and Gramma can often find a place they like which is within a reasonable distance from where the kids are.  We're a much more mobile society than ever.  There are exceptions.  My neighbor was born in his parents house across the road.  That's all the farther he ever got fr om home.  Now his son has the old family farm and a younger son has buil t a home 1/4 mile down the road.  This approaching coal mine means a windfall for me.  It is a family tragedy for the neighbor and his fam ily. Both extremes have their price. Highly mobile societies do not form stable communities, immobile ones fall victim to changes such as you are seeing. If you have a pile of money, any time is a good time.  A lot of folks don't have a pile of money or their investments have taken a beating or their home has lost value or they are unable to sell it. Agreed. But even in good times it can be a challenge. For example, even if the house can be sold fast for a good price, if the retire-to place is also expensive there's no savings. People flock to states with no income tax or with no tax on pensions or government pensions.  A lot of those states are in the warm, sunny southland. Yep. But over time those tax situations may change. As the population age mix changes, those states see increasing burdens on Medicare and other services and less revenue because of all the exclusions. Sooner or later, something has to give. OTOH things like health care costs, rising energy prices, etc., work the other way. Exactly. Look at the water shortage problem in Georgia. It really boils down to having too many people in the wrong place. Look at the property.  Ask questions.  Get confirmation in writi ng. Take along a portable receiver.  No place is a good amateur radio location if there's some noise source blotting out big pieces of the radio spectrum. Agreed all around. The big problem many folks face is lack of time. If a move is 100% voluntary, doing the research is easy, but when it's because of a job relocation or such, there may not be time to wait for the perfect place to come on the market. When the local RE market was really hot, a couple of years ago, it was not uncommon for a house to go on the market at noon and for there to be multiple offers above the asking price before the sun went down. Buyers had pre-approved mortgage papers in their back pockets with the checkbook. Research CC&Rs? Line up a professional home inspector? Make an offer with conditions? Forget about it, that house is SOLD - to somebody else. You have the most important resource, too: Flexibility. You don't have to move this month, or this summer, or land in a specific school district or some such. That's right, but I'm not looking forward to dismantling antennas and towers and putting something similar up in a new location.  I shudder when I think about holes to be dug, concrete to be poured, etc. One Thing At A Time. Best is that she doesn't object to the aluminum and copper overcast.  I have friends whose spouses have apparent veto power over towers and antennas. The days when Dad was Final Authority on everything are long gone - if they ever really existed. One of my friends rented some of his land to a local farmer.  After a few years, it became more trouble than it was worth. I don't want to spend large chunks of my life just mowing grass.  Some land can be allowed to grow up, leaving cleared areas for towers.  Some can be planted in widely spaced clumps of trees.  I think my pal intends for some of that land to be used for beverage antennas for 160 and 80m.  He has a farm tractor and will just brush hog the land a couple of times yearly. (sigh) One local fellow (retired from the Postal Service) bought up better than 1,000 acres of hilly land out the ridge from me.  He became a millionaire after his retirement in just one short day.  How?  H e sold a million dollars worth of timber to the Amish. Great folks, but often misunderstood by outsiders. We could do well to emulate some of their values IMHO. Lancaster County is not far west of here. One thing that was/is popular in WNY is to have a woodlot. Usually a piece of land that is heavily wooded, had no utilities and won't pass the perc test. The owner cuts a couple of cords of wood every year, sells some, uses the rest for heat. The profit on the wood sold pays the RE taxes. Only the crowded and not-so-good trees are taken; the really good ones are left to grow and given room. See above. The difference is firewood vs. lumber. Of course you have to love to cut, split and stack wood, but a lot of us do. ...and a lot of us don't. I'll happily pay someone to cut, split and stack wood.  I did some of it when I was younger. "Wood warms you twice - once when you cut it, again when you burn it" I don't think many folks have suffered a fatal heart attack while burning it, heh. One way to prevent those heart attacks is to stay in shape with exercise - like splitting wood... Back at the house on RadioTelegraph Hill, about 1982, there was a maple about 80 feet high which had few leaves one spring, so I called an arborist. Who said "You better take that tree down before it falls down in a storm, it's sick and won't get well." So I had the tree taken down and the wood cut into fireplace lengths. But that's when I learned that "cut" and "split" meant different things: the wood was in fireplace lengths but some parts were several feet in diameter. So I bought an axe and a couple of wedges and learned to split wood by hand. I got pretty good, too. It all went to the fireplace in that house. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:48 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
RadioBanter.com