The AM Forum

Day 2 after the big storm - huge oak came over just missing pool. We got off easy only a foot of snow. Two of three antennas down hard but managed to get the invertted L back up at about 25 feet and have the TCS emergency AM station operational.

Wow.

Hope you guys up there in the NE are OK  and will be to get back on the air.

Phil - AC0OB

I had the TCS station as my emergency AM rig with 12 Watts of carbon mic modulated bliss. Power just came back on at NOON! The power transfer system worked flawlessly, the generator -not so much. Carb issues.

Worst possible combination of wet snow and trees with leaves and wind....
Might be many dayz no juice

fred

If your gen set is gas operated, keep double the recommended dose of Stabil or equalivent in the fuel.  That should preserve the gas for about a year or more.  There is also a new additive by Stabil for ethanol.  I haven't read the label for it, but bet it helps with the alcohol and preserves the fuel.  With diesel there is also and additive for long term storage.  LP or natural gas...donno.

also use a higher octane fuel.  I found that my muffler does not glow at night when using 89 vice 87.

Keep your car filled and also keep a length of 1/4 inch clear hose and draw it out of the car. This way you always have fresh gas. Clear hose is great when you are bogarting the hose...you see the gas coming in time to not get a mouth full.

Most of the newer vehicles are a real PITA to syphon. Most of them, you cant get the hose deep enough into the tank to hit gas. I used to do it that way, but now I keep a couple of jugs around. The newer fuels just taste too bad...............

Frank the smaller tygon tubing works fine but sometimes you need to rotate it to get into the tank.
Yes, the new stuff is nasty so clear tubing is a must.

If you fill up the tube first, its a lot easier to syphone.....  Or try the  thumb-on-the-end-o-the-tube.  Stick her in, then place yer thumb on the tube, pull her out a bit, release into yer jug. If yer luckey, it'll start to flow like the Saint Laurence. If it stops, do it untill you have enough olean in the jug to fully prime the tube.  Its a bit envolved, but unless its 99% ETHL & H₂O, I don't want to drink it.

razor blade on the license plate,

klc


 

 ???  ???  ???

Why siphoning gas may be difficult on newer vehicles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k39E2PRofIo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k39E2PRofIo)

Newer fuel is an acquired taste.

I went to clear tubing due to the after taste. 1 drop and I spit for an hour trying to kill the trench mouth.
I use a 10 foot length so I never get any liquid

Yes, but the newer fuels are loaded with Ethanol. E-85 is particularly good once you get over the gasoline taste...

why not be a pansy like me and use a bellows?

Hmmmm................. Age it for a few years in a charred oak barrel and you will be good to go............ Jack Daniels, eat your heart out! ! !  ;D  ;D

bellows suck Bob. BTW I bet we cross paths in the morning. Been living at GFZ south and driving north to work.

Yep, bellows suck gas.

You got a heck of a commute!  I'm on the road at 430A and at work by 500A.

Just a typical stormy day for us, Summer, Winter or inbetween...the power goes out for 2-10 days  ::)  Just too damn many big trees right next to the power lines and its death to any politician that mandates a tree free fall zone.

Power was out here in Pelham NH for 71 hours, from 6PM Saturday to 5PM Tuesday, about 12-13" of snow on the hilltop and about 4-5" down below in town but its surrounded by hills. The "town" as we call it is about 150' ASL and Im at 675' Other hills are in the 300-450' range .
Temps were mild, the genny did its thing (bought it in 85 just before Gloria hit) and was shut off when not needed so we werent bothered when sleeping. No food lost and a couple of books read. Only damage on this property was an 8' rhododendron had one side split but didnt seperate, Im going to try taping it up and clamp. Havent been back in the woods yet but all the Beverages seem to be working.

There are still towns in the area that arent 100% yet but serious property damage appears almost nil.

Carl

Get the Alaska model with the clear  hose and the check ball in the end  if you can get it down the fill tube ,,,, it's shake and bake...no sucking

Still on generator power here. Lost it Saturday at about 5 pm. Lots of tree branches down which took down my dipole and folded over my VHF/UHF discone mast. The 10M ant is still up, but the tree that it is hanging from dumped a large branch that almost missed the above ground pool. I took down the 6M antenna for the hurricane in August and its a good thing that I did not put it back up yet. That would now be scrap metal. Anybody know why my Mcullock chain saw won't start? Its got good spark, recent spark plug, proper gap, but it leaks fuel from the exhaust. WTF? I guess the mix is rich!  ......Larry

The float sprung a leak or the rotgut gas ate a gasket.

This was a nasty storm. Amazingly, with thousands of pounds of wood crashing down, there was no damage to the house, but I lost all my wire antennas. A tree also brushed the tower and cleaned out the 6 meter and 2 meter beams. We lost power for 5 days and just got cable/phone/internet back today, 11 days later.

My wife and I have grown fond of the sound of our chainsaw and we now know all the guys at the landfill by first name from hauling brush there for the past 10 days. The front and backyard are all cleaned up, but I still have a lot of work to do on the west side. I did manage to get a 130 foot open wire fed antenna up this morning to use for 75 - 40 meters. With the destruction of several large leafy trees, I now have a lot more "open sky" now and was able to get it up about 20 feet higher than the 250 foot center-fed. Ah well, someone said change is good...

It's nice to have power/cable/internet/phone and other such nice things again!

Rob W1AEX

Rob I'm glad you're getting the place sorted out. 

My brother lost a bunch of trees to Irene when the storm came through, and it was costing about $1000/tree to clear out. He said the same thing about the sky looking very different now with all the open space, but his reaction to it wasn't good.

Wow, a kilobuck a tree... I really got a break, only $200 per tree here :o :o :o

The Lorain tornado of '86 ripped down 5 big oaks along my back boundry. When I got home from work that day I felt like I was driving up the wrong driveway the skyline had changed so much.

After the 2008 ice storm an out of state tree outfit was in the area doing final trimming days after power was back.

I caught them just coming up the street and asked how much to trim my damage since it was across the street from the power lines. A $100 took care of a 300' frontage with considerable damage. Watching the guy in the bucket with a hydraulically operated telescoping chain saw was a blast. A couple of other workers even cleaned up what was on the lawn initially and fed it into the big chipper they were towing.

I guess the outfits in CT figure all the yuppies can pay the big bucks ;D