Settling In

We moved to the new apartment in North Plano over the holiday weekend (thankfully a 4 day one for me).  It was pretty smooth, all things considered.  Saturday and Sunday we did most of the boxed up items and all that was left for the movers on Tuesday was the real big stuff like the couch and washer/dryer.  There's still a smattering of things at the old place to bring over but we're pretty much out of there now.  

I found a few minutes to get something set up radio wise on Sunday night too.  I put my Arrow J-pole antenna and a 20m hamstick on the balcony railing.  I don't have enough coax to run back to the shack yet but I had enough to do some testing from the living room and it looks like my NE facing balcony will be OK for HF and not so OK for VHF.  Unfortunately most of the activity on VHF/UHF will be back towards the center of the metro which is through the building for me.  We'll see how things go once we get everything unpacked and I have more time to play.  

I got my desk put together yesterday and started setting up the operating position again.  Here's a quick snap showing my new TH-D72A along with the 590.  I'm enjoying the HT but I have to say that the stock antenna is kind of crummy and the coverage for APRS is really surprisingly bad.  Even with the J-pole on the balcony, I have trouble getting packets in.  I'm not sure what the deal is with that.  

This weekend is CQWW WPX CW and I'll be travelling to the Houston area to the NR5M super contest station along with a few other guys from the DFW Contest group.  I'll be sure to make a full report when I get home.  It'll be the biggest station I've been to yet and I hope we put up a good score.  NR5 is a pretty good prefix I think so we should be plenty busy if the bands permit it.

Until then, 73!