Items from my Oct. 25 - Nov. 12, 1996
Trip
This page has more detail than the e-mailed version but is NOT a trip
report. It reports items of interest to MVRC members for future club trips
or of general interest. I left Sacramento on Friday morning, Oct. 25, 1996,
driving my 4X4 pickup with a shell. I had mobile radio equipment for 80-10M
SSB and 2M/440 FM. My destination was Chapel Hill, NC to visit my daughter.
Mojave Road Trip -
Oct. 26-27, 1996. Those that are interested already know that this was a
trip for 4WD vehicles across the Mojave Desert on the old Army wagon trail.
I will confine this to what is new. This trip was led by
Dennis Casebier, the author of the BLM
endorsed guidebook, and other publications on the history of the area. The
trail starts on the the west bank of the Colorado River, across from Fort
Mojave. Both sides of the river are in the Mojave Indian Reservation, and
there is now the Avi indian
casino adjacent to the start of the trail. This is good news since access is
now easier. The casino has special room rates for Sun. through Thu. and is
much closer to the trail than Needles or Laughlin. Dennis is rewriting the
book, to be published Nov. 1997, and he is including new photos and maps.
Due to the probable abandonment of the Heritage Trail, he is including some
of the more interesting adjacent spots as side trips in the new book. We
took one side trip, not previously published, down a small canyon just west
of Mid Hills Campground, which brought us out near the junction of Kelso-Cima
Road, and the Mojave Road. There is now a mandated corridor through Afton
Canyon which varies slightly from the old book route. There was a Jeeper on
this trip from Montrose, CO. I mentioned our trips to
Ouray, and
he is sending me info on things around Montrose for our next trip there. In
conclusion, I suggest that we consider a 1998 Spring trip to try out the new
book, and to try out the new casino.
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Silver City, NM -
I arrived in Silver City on
Tuesday morning, Oct. 27. I stopped at the
KOA, four
miles E of town on a four-lane highway. The lady there is associated with
the Chamber of Commerce, and gave me a bag full of information on the area.
Silver City is adjacent to the mountains and is a historic mining area.
There are a number of
attractions including
indian cliff dwellings and trails suitable for 4WD. She and her husband have
a CJ Jeep. The town is good sized with an Albertsons and a
Wal-Mart. Gas, from
Chevron,
Phillips,
Fina, and
Diamond Shamrock is cheaper
than in Sacramento (of course). The Diamond Shamrock C-store is adjacent to
the KOA entrance. I originally suggested Silver City in response to an idea
for a longer Spring trip. But, looking at the rainfall chart she gave me,
and discussing the trails with her, it would appear that Sept. or early Oct.
would be best. There are four Kamping Kabins, with additional campsites
right by these. The distance is similar to Durango, CO, and there are many
things to see on the two possible going and coming routes. This is a good
candidate for later in 1997. See Sept. 1996 Sunset Magazine. Also see El
Morro, below.
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Elks' 20 M Net -
I checked into this net almost every day on the trip since MVRC member and
good friend, Ross, WØXJ, is a regular here. This net is open to all
amateurs and meets on 14.328 MHz SSB at 9 AM Pacific Mon.-Fri. Checking in
every day was interesting and helped the time go. They were all interested
in my progress, going and coming. W6IQH, W6RLP, and W6DFG, all in Sacramento
County, were NCS on various days, as well as others elsewhere. Ex-Vacaites
WA6IVI, and W6MKA (see later) were also on. Tuesday, leaving Silver City,
was my first check-in, since my antenna had developed an intermittent open on
Monday. This was repaired Monday night in my motel room. While sightseeing
Durham with my daughter, LeAnne, KF6FIP, the next Monday, I checked into the
Net. LeAnne got to hear our friend, Ross, WØXJ, telling us
Hello and was impressed, being mostly familiar with FM.
40 M - On the return trip I
unexpectedly worked friend Jerry, W6JRY, near Chico, on 40 M from Grants, NM.
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USS Cairo -
I had been hearing about this Union Civil War Gunboat that they recovered out
of the muck in the Yazoo River at Vicksburg. It was sunk by an electrically
discharged mine. It had some good-sized fire power on board. I recommend
stopping. Go to the visitor's center at the first exit after crossing the
Mississippi River and ask for directions. You must go through town
(interesting), starting in front of the visitor's center. However, if you
tour the Vicksburg National Military
Park, the USS Cairo is right by the back gate.
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Chapel Hill Hams -
I got to Chapel Hill on
Friday night, Nov. 1. Daughter LeAnne, KF6FIP, and I went to the Orange
County Radio Amateurs weekly Saturday morning breakfast in Hillsborough
and met those present. It was deja vu with all of the HTs on the table.
Their net is during the breakfast, so they check in from there. Very
efficient. They have a good 440 repeater which David, W6MKA, and I used on
Tuesday night.
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David, W6MKA -
I mentioned David being on the Elks' Net. He lives and works now in
Lynchburg, VA. He had a rig that Ross, WØXJ, wanted and I was going
to see Ross and Helen on the return trip. We arranged on the phone for David
to drive 100 miles to Chapel Hill after work on Tuesday. I talked him in on
the Orange County 440 repeater, which he hit an hour or more out. This was
using an HT and a mag mount. I accepted the rig, and we had a nice visit.
His e-mail address is w6mka@juno.com,
which I added to our growing list of addresses.
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Ross and Helen -
I left Chapel Hill on Wednesday and arrived in
Ellsworth,
KS on Friday afternoon, Nov. 8. I had stopped at Ross, WØXJ, and
Helen, WA6KHD's on a previous trip, but had no time to see the area. This
time, Ross showed me
around.
There is a nice concrete curve remnant of US Hwy 40 that Lew should use to
film a Messy Production. Then he can go out to the caves. Dinner was at the
spaghetti feed at the American Legion. Ross introduced me to the other Ham.
After enjoying their hospitality, I continued on my trip home the next
morning.
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Caravan Club -
My Saturday night destination was
Albuquerque, NM. I had
exchanged e-mail with the Secretary of their Amateur Radio Caravan Club of
New Mexico in August, and they were close to designing a web page. They
started in 1954 as a club much like the RAMS, except
on 10 M instead of 75 M. This trip, I got on their linked 147.06/444.00
repeaters (100.0 PL), but made no contacts. Since I arrived Saturday night,
and left Sunday morning, all of the activity was before or after I was in
dependable range.
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El Morro Nat Mon -
El Morro is a New
Mexico stop that I almost didn't make, but I was glad that I did. I took an
hour and a half hike past inscriptions in the rock dated back to 1604, and
indian ruins on top of the plateau. Some of the later inscriptions were from
Beale's trip, when he brought the camels to the desert. This was the major
route until the Santa Fe RR was built to the North. Union Pacific did survey
this route, but of course they didn't build. With some backtracking this
could be part of a Silver City trip, and we could include the nearby
El Malpais lava fields.
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Midland, CA -
Sunday I listened to the Sam's Radio
Hams net on 7268 kHz while arriving at El Morro. They were planning
their annual RV trip to Midland, an abandoned slab city in the desert, North
of Blythe, CA. They were to start arriving on Tuesday, but I was curious
enough to look when I went through on Monday. Midland is about 20 miles from
Blythe, but halfway there is an area posted as the BLM Midland Long Term RV
Area. Both had RVs camping there (not Hams). The Sams said they would
monitor 51, which I assume is 147.51 MHz FM.
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Bob, KD6BRL -
Monday night I stayed in Victorville and spent the evening visiting with Bob
and Marilyn Martin in Phelan. Bob did the maps for the original Mojave
series of books, and is responsible for the Arizona
Mohave trip we took in 1995. Bob had some interesting videos from a
recent Baja trip. I gave him the frequency for the Tehachapi
Intercity
Net repeater, but he later e-mailed that his 5 W rig won't bring it up.
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On Tuesday, Nov. 12, I finally got home. - Les, W6TEE
Update: March 15, 1998 - CompuServe: Nov. 14, 1996 - PacBell: Aug. 1, 1997
Return to Les' Amateur Radio Page - W6TEE.