Nov 25, 2023

ad-ven-ture

 

The year 2023 has been full of changes, both big and small, and I can say without any reservation, life truly is an adventure. In early May, shortly after returning to Wisconsin from Arizona, I purchased an Airstream Flying Cloud 23FBT travel trailer to replace the tiny Flyer Chase. Obviously the Airstream will handle expeditions of longer duration more comfortably, like those I have been making to Arizona. The Flyer Chase will stick around at least until next summer as I contemplate it's future.

At the end of August, I sold the Wisconsin condominium and began living full-time in the Airstream. This is again another significant life change. Thinking back, only two years ago I sold our retirement home on Lake Michigan soon after Nancy passed away and bought the condo. And now the Airstream is my home. Wow, what a change!

As for amateur radio, the residence changes have greatly affected the ability and capacity to get on the air. For now, the home-made Yaesu/Raspberry Pi YSF repeater is off-line and will likely not be up for an extended period of time. The Alinco/Raspberry Pi APRS digipeater station is also down, and along with the Yaesu FT-991A, they too are in storage. The Barker & Williamson 90' folded dipole is rolled up and in storage, and the GAP Titan DX has found a new home.

Looking at these changes as an opportunity to try new things, I began considering what I could do to make the Airstream feel more like home as well as provide space for some of my interests. One of the first things I did was carefully remove the twin bed on the curb-side of the trailer and save all the parts in storage. In the resulting floor space, I added a nice pattern rug and a Stressless swivel reclining chair, minus the included footstool. This provides a clean and very comfortable area that reminds me of a small [very small] den-like space. 


On the floor at the rear of this space, the tankless water heater will eventually be covered by a custom bookcase and space for a printer. At the front, a desktop will extend from the curb-side, over to and including the existing nightstand. Under the desktop will be hanging file folders and some other storage. The non-lifting portion of the top will allow space for the Yaesu FT-710 AEES and FTM-7250D transceivers, as well as a mini desktop computer and full-size monitor. Until then, the radios are located on Nancy's small table at the rear of this space.


After temporarily removing some cabinet bottoms and backs, I found a great way to run coax to the outside without risking water intrusion or changing the trailer's clean exterior appearance. Above the refrigerator, there is a large 5x20 inch screened and covered vent in the roof, and a perfect place to pass coax through. From this vent, I was able to run coax down behind the refrigerator and forward to the fresh water tank plumbing passage. From there, the coax runs under the floor, on top of the water tank to the plumbing passage at the water heater. The result is a clean, totally hidden coax run from the radios to the roof. Perfect.

For the HF radio, the Yaesu ATAS-120A antenna that was on the Flyer Chase setup is used. Mounting was done by using a right-angle stainless steel mirror-mount bracket attached to the curb-side of the AC chassis. The lower half of the chassis is a steel pan with vertical sides perfect for this. The antenna is in the clear as  much it can be without any alterations to the trailer body or roof. After running some tests, the antenna shows a SWR of 1:1 on 10 meters,  2.2:1 on 20 meters, and 4.7:1 on 40 meters. With these results, staying on 20 or above is best. Good thing 10 meters is wide open for the next few years!

The VHF/UHF antenna is currently in "receive only" mode until I decide how to handle that.

For power, there's no worries while the trailer is plugged in. When running off-grid, power is supplied by 200Ah of batteries, 300 watts of roof-mounted solar, and a 35A charge controller. At some point, I may be doubling the batteries and solar collection, but for now, there is no pressing need.

May God bless you as you draw close to Him!

Jan 29, 2023

Jan 2023 Activities

 

January was a month of variety, with times of peace and quiet, sorting out life issues; finishing up the camper renovation, and finalizing a plans and installations for a proper "portable" station setup. With all of that came a good shakedown of what works, what doesn't work, what's needed, and what's not needed for overlanding and radio operations.

Amateur Radio


The solar power system was completed with the mounting of the two 100 watt solar panels to the roof of the camper. So far, everything is working quite well. Power seems to be abundant for my requirements with the 200 AHr lithium battery, having yet to drop below 13.2 volts after many hours of radio, lights, and refrigerator use. 


The Yaesu FT-710 AESS with the ATAS-120A antenna has been a nice upgrade from the FT-991A, though I sure miss my Barker & Williamson BWD-90 folded dipole. On the next trip, it's coming along! Quite a few years ago I bought a Yaesu FC-40 long-wire tuner but have never put it into service, so I think I'll install it in the camper as yet another arrow in my quiver of HF antennas. 

The FTM-7250 fits the need, though I think I would like to see a FTM-400 in the camper so I can run an APRS digipeater, as I do at home, without the need for yet another radio. 

I haven't been spending a lot of time on the radio - mostly grayline times - but I've been able to make a few QSOs. My QRZ log is up to date, but I didn't bring my Linux computer so the CQRlog software and LoTW logs are behind until later.

The Camper


I was finally able to run a propane line to the Propex heater. The issue was the gas connection on the heater is/was a 7mm female, and the kit only came with a 7mm to 1/4" copper line L-connection. I needed to run a feed line to the heater with a T-connector so I could also run propane to the stove just above the heater.

As I was talking with Roy, a fellow camper and former tool and die guy, he suggested tapping out the 7mm connector to a 1/4-18 NPT, as it is slightly larger than the 7mm, and there is plenty of metal on the female connector to make this change. After a trip to Harbor Freight, and a few minutes of elbow grease, I now have wonderful propane heat in the camper and a permanently connected stove! Thanks Roy!

Overland & Outdoors


This month was filled with many hikes, bike rides, and miles of off-road exploring. For several of them, I recorded video and have published them on my YouTube channel. All but one were day trips, so I wouldn't say I got any real overlanding in. Plenty of off-road though.

Jan 1: Tucson to Globe, AZ

Jan 2 & 3: Ironwood Forest National Monument, BLM land

Jan 6: Cocoraque Archaeological District

Jan 7: Mt. Lemmon, Willow Canyon

Jan 8: Saguaro National Park, hike Wasson Peak

Jan 9: Tucson Mountain Park, bike trails

Jan 10: Ironwood Forest National Monument, climb Ragged Top mountain

Jan 12: Tucson Mountain Park, hike Brown mountain trail

Jan 14: Coronado National Forest, overland Granite Mountain and Cedar Flat via Box Canyon

Jan 19: Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, overland "Square to Nowhere"

Jan 20: Tucson Mountain Park, hike Sarasota and Explorer trails

Jan 22-23: Ironwood Forest National Monument, camp and star gaze

Jan 25: Ajo, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Mexico border, road and off-road trip

Jan 26: Nancy's Birthday, a day of thankful reminiscing of our years of marriage together 

Jan 27: Connecting the Propex heater! 

The one overnight trip was to star gaze and photograph the Arizona night sky, but at that time I didn't have the Propex heater connected, so it was a cold night. I woke early to take photos, but since I was warm in my bed, I fell back asleep and missed the opening time of a cloudless night. Bummer. I did get up just after 2:00 AM and took some photos, but I missed the best opening between 12:00 and 2:00 AM. Note to self: set an alarm and place it far from me. Next time...








Dec 31, 2022

Christmas in Tucson

Alder Picnic Area, Mt Lemmon

The Wisconsin is weather making it too cold to work in the storage shed, Tucson seems to be the best place to finish it without freezing my fingers off. All packed up Tuesday morning, I had breakfast with my friend David J, then hit the road at 09:30, avoiding interstate highways as much as possible. 

Wednesday, I had lunch and took a short nap at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, drove south to the Mexico border and Hwy 9 west to the Arizona state line. At 21:00 I arrived in Tucson and boon docked on BLM land. Thursday, I spent the day at one of my favorites, Gilbert Ray campground, then Friday morning, moved to the RV Park site where I'll likely be for the next three months.

This morning, Christmas Eve day, was a bit slow and emotional. As I watched the "clouds" go by, I set up the FT-710 and FTM-7250D radios in the camper and made my first QSO with N0A, the Christmas Train special event station operating out of Fort Worth, TX on 14.258 MHz. Nice, because I love trains, Christmas, and amateur radio!

Late this afternoon, I spoke with my oldest son on the phone. He and son number 3 are together making fireball meatballs and our family's traditional Christmas sticky roles. Since I am not there with them, I was given an assignment: build a snowman tomorrow, Christmas day, and post it on my photo album. I accept the challenge. I'll head over east of Tucson to Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. I'm sure they will have some snow. I will build an awesome snowman for the kids up there! And so I did!

Not snow, it's white sand. A perfect 68 degree weather at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Site C6 at one of my favorite campgrounds, Gilbert Ray, in Tucson Mountain Park

Trail setup of the HF and dual band radios in the newly renovated Intech Flyer Chase camper

Marshall Gulch, Mt Lemmon

Redington Pass overlooking Tucson

Nov 1, 2022

Camper Remodel


Almost finished with the remodel, soon it will be time to stuff the mattress in and head to the southwest!

2022 was filled with many new adventures while camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, making new friends and visiting old friends. Travelling with the truck and camper all around Wisconsin, western Michigan, eastern Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah provided plenty of time and experience to discover some flaws with the camper setup and find remedies to some of those issues. In late summer, in between trips, the planning and remodel began. Once complete, a final shake-down will be done before hitting the roads and trails again!

The Cabin

The first remodel of the front cabinets has been removed. The twin mattress was moved forward and placed up on a 1.5 inch raised deck to force tempered air under the bed and prevent issues during cold weather camping. A full rear divider wall was installed to establish a rear-access kitchen and separated location for the new Propex furnace and battery/charging unit. A small shelf table is positioned under the passenger side window between the rear wall and the side door.


Propex thermostat, 120v outlet with USB charger, Renogy battery monitor and remote 2000 watt inverter switch are on the back wall. 

A new electrical system was installed consisting of a 200Ah LiFePO4 lithium battery, 40 amp LiFePO4 smart-charger, a 12 fuse 12 volt panel, 2000 watt inverter, 30 amp 120 volt breaker panel, and 300 watt roof-mounted solar panels with expansion for 300 watts of remote panels. The battery and charger are now in the rear of the trailer because the tongue box where they were located conflicts with the truck's bumper mounted spare tire during truck/trailer articulation. New interior lights, exterior LED rock lights, and a 4" axle lift for the camper are under way.

For amateur radio items, I'm unsure exactly how and where the Yeasu FT-710 and connected computer will be mounted, but the monitor, keyboard and mouse will most likely be at the side table. The FT-710 can be remote-operated using the CQRlog software, however, the Yaesu FTM-7250 dual band will need to be within reach for use.

A cold air return routes air under the bed panel to prevent cold weather camping issues under the mattress.
On the wall are three switches for interior and exterior lighting, and a 120v outlet.

With the large tongue box removed, there may be room to mount two Scepter water cans flat against the front, and my fat bike above them!


The Kitchen


Though not yet completed in this photo, this is the general layout of the kitchen.
The battery, inverter, and solar charge controller are mounted to the left of the refrigerator.

The trailer's rear double doors now open to a dedicated kitchen area that includes a cook stove and a split refrigerator/freezer, both on locking slides so they are very accessible. The Propex heater is mounted on the floor to the right of the refrigerator. Above the heater is a removable shelf for added kitchen storage. To the left of the refrigerator is a 200Ah battery, 40A charging unit, a 2000 watt inverter, the solar charge controller, the main battery shut-off and fuse block. Above the refrigerator is a full width shelf that holds the cook stove and storage areas on both sides.

Yeah, I think this will work just fine for what I want to do!

Update

With most of the work done, the camper is now my home for the next several months. It's small, but it's very comfortable, but it suits my needs for a go-anywhere camper and radio shack. I'll mostly be in an RV park, but am planning several trips to do some POTA and SOTA stations, and do some remote boondocks camping.





Mar 22, 2022

Desert Experience

Desert Trails RV Park site 15, Tuscon Estates, Arizona
I haven't been able to do anything with ham radio since Nancy's illness. It's been about nine months since she passed away, so I am slowly moving forward with my life without her. I took off from the Wisconsin winter snow shoveling by staying at an RV park in the Tucson area for two months. I have a few more days here before I start heading home.

Before I left home, I thought I would bring the FT-991A and accessories along, and I'm sure glad I did. I mounted the radio by it's mobile mounting bracket to the cabinet shelf I made. I placed a fused line directly from the battery to the RigRunner so I can have extra connections for the Garmin GPS and a few other things, and my Heil mic is on a short boom. So far it has worked out great! An upcoming test will be when I get back on the road with the trailer. I'm planning on leaving everything in place except for the antennas.

The Yaesu FT-991A and FT3D in the camper
For ease of operating, I purchased a Yaesu ATAS-120A screwdriver antenna for HF, and a separate 2m/440 antenna, both mounted to the rails on top of the all aluminum camper. I made some heavy braided ground bonds from the mounts to the aluminum skin roof. So far, so good, but I will likely make two custom mounts from aluminum and bolt them directly to the roof. The SWR suffers a little with the current setup, so I believe a closer bond to the counterpoise will likely fix that.

With this setup I quickly made eight contacts, four of which are trans-equatorial on 10 meters. Pretty fun thing to do sitting in a tiny camper! I can hardly wait to do this in the middle of, well, anywhere!

Next on the list is getting my Raspberry Pi computer in the camper so I can use my logbook and other ham software while away from home.

East of Gates Pass, Tucson

Jan 6, 2021

GBM Brain Cancer

Ken, Nancy, Tim, Sarah

On November 25, 2020 my beautiful wife was diagnosed with a terminal grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumor. Nancy had brain surgery on November 30 which allowed us almost seven more months together. We traveled out west a bit and prepared for what was to come. God blessed us with a time of new closeness and personal growth together unlike any we experienced in the previous 42 years. Two of our sons, Tim and Matt, were with me at her bedside when she passed away June 19 at 00:30. We all miss her dearly.

You can read about our journey at savorthebittersweet.blogspot.com.

Obituary


Nancy Lou Severn, 58 of Oostburg, passed away early Saturday morning, June 19, 2021 at her home, surrounded by her family.

Nancy was born to Glenn and Jean (Schnell) Steinbrecher on January 26, 1963. She graduated from Oshkosh West High School in 1981

Nancy was united in marriage to Kenneth Severn on June 4, 1983 in Oshkosh.

She was employed as a special education teachers’ aide at Plymouth and Cedar Grove-Belgium School districts.

Nancy enjoyed the Lake Michigan beach, paddle boarding, hiking, biking, but most importantly, investing in people and relationships, and living out her faith in Christ Jesus.

Nancy is survived by her husband of 38 years, Kenneth; children, Andrew, Timothy and Matthew (Malorie) Severn, and Sarah (Ross) Fale; grandchildren Desmond, August and Isla; parents, Glenn and Jean Steinbrecher; siblings, Deb, Susan, Brian, and Lauri; parents-in-law Doris and Robert Lowell; sister-in-law, Ruth; nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.

She was preceded in death by her sister Judy in November, 2020; her sister in-law Susan, March 2020;  and father in-law William Severn.

Private family services will take place at a later date.

Nov 17, 2020

Raspberry Pi 64 bit OS Boot from USB

The X857 mSATA shield makes a nice, clean package for a USB boot Raspberry Pi 4 with SSD

For some time now, I have been trying to get the Raspberry Pi 4 to boot from USB. A couple reason to make this change are, the integrity of SSD over the SD card is substantial, and of course the benefit of greater data transfer speeds. 

As more Pi fans jump on this wagon, hardware is becoming available for this specific upgrade. One example of this is the Gookworm X857 mSATA shield for the Raspberry Pi 4. This fits directly under the Pi 4 and connects with one of the USB-3 ports. Under the shield, I mounted a 120 GB mSATA SSD. 

To boot from USB on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB or 8GB), install the new Raspberry Pi 64 bit OS and the USB boot configuration will be exceptionally easy. Here are the simple steps to follow.

  1. Download, install, and update the Raspberry Pi 64 bit OS to a SD card
  2. Copy the SD card to a SSD and connect the SSD to the Raspberry Pi 4 USB-3
  3. Open Raspberry Pi Imager, write Raspberry Pi 4 EEPROM boot recovery to a clean SD card
  4. Shut down, remove the OS SD card, insert the EEPROM boot recovery SD card
  5. With the SSD connected to a USB 3, and the EEPROM SD card in, power up the Raspberry Pi
  6. A constant, fast flashing green LED and green screens means it worked
  7. Shut down, remove the SD card, and restart
  8. Grin at your new USB boot Raspberry Pi 64 bit system
The mSATA drive installed with the armor case bottom (upside down)