[Elecraft] The Intrepid KD5ONS (WAS: ECN Report for 18 Dec 2006)

Mon Dec 18 22:43:37 EST 2006

Howdy Ron & the rest of you all,
   I've been called a lot of things in my life but never before intrepid :)  I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and seem to get a few things done.  Today I got in the load of wood, struggled with the intermittent phone system, discussed my reality with the power folks, and made plans with the insurance folks.  Then I cleaned out a bunch of buckets and found their lids.  The local beaver family had a fun time watching me chop a hole in their pond while I gathered enough water for a few days.  No, not for drinking, I went to town and bought that!  I saw a few brown noses poking out of a breathing hole with their little eyes watching me.  There were no tail slaps; they enjoyed my company and were curious about my activity.  I've been invited back to sit with them a spell.  Since they were so kind as to lend me some of their water I am sure their knowledge will be valuable to me as well.  
    I did not know the winds were that high.  I did know it was quite a blow.  I had been in a few hurricanes and quite close to tornados but this was all straight line wind.  It did vary in direction from one side of the storm to another.  I've only walked a few acres of the property but it is easy to tell when the trees fell from their direction.  I have not found the tree which used to hold my primary HF antenna.  I have found half of the antenna with two mounting points still intact.  Now to find a third tree in the devastated section of the property.  When the county folks cut through the property toward the lookout they said they cut fifty trees in the eighty feet from my shed to the edge of the clearcut.  Everyone else simply looked at the pile and turned around :)
   The hemlock is still in the eaves.  I would not let my nephew cut it even though he was eager and willing.  I looked at it and thought how it would crush whatever got in its path.  Green hemlock, sixty feet long and thirty to twenty inches in diameter.  I put in a lot of effort getting this drywall up.  One slip and the entire corner of the house would be rubble.  I'll wait for a crane!
   During the storm I did go out on the porch in a protected alcove.  Using my flashlight I was able to see the branches flying sideways.  Some of them were larger than four inches in diameter.  The surrounding timber was cracking and flying.  The sound was quite intense from the howling to the exploding timber.  Then there was the constant staccato sound of limbs hitting the roof.  The largest number of windows in the house are in the lee of a small rise and the shed where I store the wood.  This helped prevent any loss of glass.  Other than the series of branches poked through the ceiling the building remained tight.  It took quite a while to stop shaking enough to solder the next connection after the tree hit the house, the drywall exploded throughout the house, and the shrapnel from shattering branches to stop ricocheting off the walls.  Good thing I wear glasses because I was peppered with a lot of this.  No holes in me though ;)
   For the rest of the night any little creaking sound sent more adrenalin through my system.  I did not sleep more than a few minutes.  During the middle of the storm the wind died down and I went outside to inspect the roof.  The woodstove had moved and the stovepipe was at an angle.  I feared the tree was in the path of the hot gases and I would have to douse my only heat source.  I climbed the ladder and found my J-pole still intact.  I crossed through the limbs and found the top for feet of triple wall stove pipe bent and thrown eastward.  The wet hemlock branches were not very close to the remaining pipe so I kept the fire low until morning.  Since the VHF antenna was still good I tried a series of local repeaters until I found a kind soul who called my sister in Vancouver.  My nephew came out the next day to clear the roof, patch and cover holes, and see if my hair had changed color!
   I am hoping I can get a spare G5RV up for this next week.  Yes, I know it is Christmas eve, I think that is quite an appropiate time to gather together for a short while on the air and count our blessings.  I have to go back and thank the beaver people too.  They were kind; as were so many others.  A few days after this incident I was due to teach an ECOMM class to the local ARES folks.  I knew Pat would want me to continue learning how to teach after her prodding and coaching.  I was not going to let a little wind give me an excuse to bail out on my class!  After I finished the four hour session I got a nice round of applause.  I think they like me :)  
   Ron, luckily I did not set up those antennas you gave me.  They are in good shape in the lee of the shed.  If they had been where I intended to put them they would be scrap metal now.  Same goes for the roof work I had hoped to get done late this summer.  I would be up there repeating my work again next dry season.  As for the drywall?  Only a few whole sheets need to be removed.  The rest of the holes should only take a bit of patching.  The remaining bits of the G5RV tune on 20 meters for some odd reason.  I will try running a bit of CW tomorrow so I do not forget how.  My power source for the Internet, and everything else, is a bank of Trojan T-105s.  I bought an inverter to move files from my 400 watt desktop computer to this laptop for class.  Once the phone lines were fixed I got it up and running on the Internet thanking Tom for his running ECN yesterday.  

Now to find a spare antenna tree :)

Thanks folks for your kind wishes and simply wondering where I was and how I was doing.
   Until Sunday,
      73,
           Kevin.  KD5ONS  (Net Control Operator with no antenna, YET! :)

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ron D'Eau Claire <rondec at easystreet.com>
>Sent: Dec 18, 2006 5:25 PM
>To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: [Elecraft] The Intrepid KD5ONS (WAS:  ECN Report for 18 Dec 2006)
>
>We had hurricane force (100 mph range) winds throughout northwest Oregon.
>One state highway (Hwy 6) that runs near Kevin's QTH to the coast had an
>estimated 600 trees fall onto it that night, most of them in a 10 mile
>section, according to the state forestry who removed them. These were almost
>all healthy Douglas fir trees that have withstood many, many winter storms. 
>
>Kevin, being on a hilltop, got the worst of the winds. Those of us at lower
>elevations were spared that. Here in Forest Grove, about 20 miles from Kevin
>and down at 300 feet elevation, we had winds only hitting about 70 mph. Even
>so lots of trees and large limbs were flying. Those trees are *heavy*. Just
>a year ago, early in the morning of January 1st 2006, our neighbor across
>the street had a pair of 60 foot Douglas fir fall onto his house, moving an
>entire 2500 sq foot two story home crooked on its foundations. They just
>finished the rebuilding a couple of months ago. Nothing landed on it this
>time! 
>
>Many thousands of people in the countryside around the area, like Kevin, are
>still without power. It's expected to be several days more before all the
>repairs are completed.
>
>My hat's off to he intrepid mountain men like Kevin who live in the high
>forest lands. I have enough trouble keeping that hat on my head and my feet
>dry down here in town! 
>
>Now, it says something about the way our world is changing. A mountain man
>like Kevin is isolated up there, no power, no light, heat only by the wood
>he chops, yet he has internet access! 
>
>Ron AC7AC 
>
>  
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Matthew D. Pitts
>Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 1:47 PM
>To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] ECN Report for 18 Dec 2006
>
>
>Tom,
>
>Thanks for the message from Kevin. I'm glad to hear that he's all right 
>physically, though I can imagine that he's shaken up by the situation. Pass 
>along my well wishes the next time you have a chance to talk to him; I'm 
>sure I'm not the only one on the list that would like him to know that we're
>
>thinking of him.
>
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