The AM Forum

I will be lighting up the 304s on 1885 this evening.

Listening on Bev.

We won't be having 160 band conditions like these again for maybe 11 years.

Hope to hear you all.

Don't have band conditions to east coast on 160 tonight...Did have a good QSO with WD8CVY in central Michigan using his GK 500C. Maybe 1100 miles.

The NE guys are on now.

Bill. You where 20 over 9 here in AZ.  I could not hear the other guy in Michigan.  Tried to break in but you key so fast there is no time.

C

Sorry 'bout that. Will slow her down next time.

b

What's so special about this particular night?  We should have similarly good condx throughout the season on nights when QRN is low, given the sluggish activity on the sun.

I was out for the evening and didn't get back until everyone had signed out.  Just heard one or two slopbucket signals scattered across the band.  The Gates is tuned up and ready to go with the 160m vertical.  I'm also using the vertical on 75 until I get the dipole tuner reconstructed.

Had to go to ER last night for 3 stitches in my  right hand. Had a run-in with the bench grinder (ouch!) while fabricating a piece of hardware for the 80m coil, and naturally, the grinder won. :(

One more thing to delay completion of this project.

those ER visits can be really expensive.  A few years ago I was outside cutting off some old electrical tape with a pocket knife one August Saturday evening.  The knife slipped and sliced into a finger.  the stiches at the ER were around $1400.  I have insurance but still, I wound up paying $400 which is a heck of a lot for me.  When it came time to remove them, I looked at them and figured I could snip them and pull them out myself, so I did.   A few days later the Dr. office called to ask me why I had not come in and I told the nurse I had taken them out myself.  She was pissed off--I wonder if that partly had to do with them not being able to hit me with another bill.  After paying $400 I learned why some people just wrap a cut in duct tape.

I have Medicare plus insurance, but this is the first of the year, so the deductibles have just been re-set to start all over again from zero.  Yes, this will probably be a very expensive little copper bracket I was making to attach the feed line to the split coil for 80m series tuning.

The grinder is not permanently attached to the bench.  I just set it at the edge of the table where I was using it to finish off the rough edges of the odd-shaped piece of sheet copper I had cut out with tin snips.  I had finished the procedure and picked up the grinder to set it aside because it was in the way.  Somehow I let it slip and it fell over against the base of my thumb.  The power had already been cut off, but the wheel was still spinning enough that it ground a plug out of the skin.  No damage to any tendons or anything, but the cut was too deep and too big a piece was missing for it to heal without stitches.

I had a similar accident with a hack saw a few years ago. But the clinic where my regular doctor has his practice was still open. A nurse-practitioner did the work, the total charges were about $250 and insurance paid everything. I can  remember when the total charge for 3 stitches would have been less than $25.

My wife is a nurse, so she can take out the stitches if I don't just pull them out myself.

Krazy glue.

Yep. I have used super glue many times to close a big cut.  Works perfectly.   A few years back, I tore the top of my right knuckle OFF trying to get a spring back on a set of Drum brakes. The pliers slipped and I bashed my hand. Looking down I could see my entire joint of my forefinger. I flapped it back. Super glued the skin back, cleaned it and kept it wrapped for about a week.

C

It worked in Viet-Nam for treating battlefield injuries.

The only problem, even if you  successfully glue a deep wound and it heals, you don't know if there was some underlying structural damage.  The time I split the skin open between my fingers with the hacksaw mishap, the NP told me that I had just barely nicked the sheathing that covers the tendon.  If it had been just a little deeper, surgery would have been required to prevent some  loss of function of the hand.

But the super glue should work for superficial cuts.  In fact, you can buy the stuff at the pharmacy. They call it something like "liquid bandages". Regular super glue is probably cheaper.

Now, can anyone think of something that dissolves RF burns?

Watch out for puncture wounds.  Bites from a dog, cat, human - stabs, etc can inject some nasty stuff that will fester.   I once picked up a stray cat and carried him into the house to feed. Yaz II jumped up to sniff him and the cat bit my hand trying to escape. DEEP punctures but little blood.  I cleaned it and put a bandage on. About 5 hours later I was in the hospital with a swollen arm and a fever. Sick as a dog. It took 7 days with antibiotics before I could leave. 

Clean the cuts really well and make it bleed to have a chance.

T

i forgot about super glue.  yeah i have heard of it being used. 

judging by condx on the AM bc band 160 should be good tonight.

Clarke,

Wow, you've got guts, bro! No hospital visit for an injury of that severity? No fears of tetanus, etc.?

Was it the '56 oval you were working on, per chance?

73,

Bruce

What hurt worse was you reminding me I sold that car!   I have thought about searching for it. 

No.. I let a Friend stay in the spare room after he came home and found pictures of his wife and some other guys in her makeup drawer :(

He had to be at work at 7am, but came back and said "I have NO brakes".  It was a 98 Dodge pickup.  I was trying to do the rear brake job in a hurry because I had to be at work at 10.

It hurt like hell believe me.. But the finger worked fine.  I have no health care and the last visit to the ER I had cost me $4000 so I cleaned it out, and Super glued the skin back.

C

OK, let me get this straight...Your friend's wife is discovered apparently engaged in extracurricular activity, and then the brakes on his pickup totally failed?

..Naaah.

We have to take these reports from Mr C carefully. He lives close to Area 51 and we're not sure where this type of info comes from. I got lost after the word NO:::::
Fred

LOL..

I saw the pictures.  He said "thats two guys clearly in the picture".  I reminded him that someone took the photo making it 3  :o :o :o

The dodge had a leaking slave cyl and no fluid.

C

Gray Hair Net on 1945 kHz. 2000 EST

Pacific NW 160 meter group at 7:30-9:00 PM Pacific time.....1945kcs....  nightly...... Stations from WA, OR, ID, MT, and others.

We are on only Tuesday night