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distortion

The UnChucked ride Blue Hills

Being the first real nice day on a weekend we were excited to hit the trails. So was everyone else. So we got an early start and were in the Blue Hills parking lot before 7:30am.

The wx was great! It's a bit early for us to be riding the Blue "Kills" but I am on call this weekend and wanted to stay local. Outlined in blue on the the above map is what we set out to do. Hopes were to avoid any unrewarding climbs. We managed not to avoid these climbs. It was a nice day for a walk, a walk with your bike. Some of the trails are unrideable, well for us at least. Here are the grid number we tried to hit today: 2053, 2092, 2132, 2135, 2140, 2149, 2154, 2155, 2172, 2190, 2189, and 2176. The plan was to get from the parking lot to the rt. 28 parking area and descent down the pipe line onto the old route 128 paved path. We ended up doing this more or less. It's nice to end the ride on the paved section. It provides a nice wind down. The fun part of the ride started at grid 2149. It was a sweet sweet down hill with nice turns, and just a nice flowing descent. Next time instead of ending on the pipe line, we will complete the Mon a ti quot Path. And now that we know where to go it will be a very cool descent without stopping from 2149 all the way down to the old route 128 path.

The unChucked ride Rockland/Hanover

Team NotAchuck:



For the last few weeks Pete has been working on finding trials from Rockland to Hanover. He has done a great job. Today he guided a tour of what he found so far. This means that today's ride was a great 13 mile workout. Some sweet riding! Thank you Pete. Today we started around 8:23am from an industrial park in Rockland. The day was great for riding, nice and cool with no rain. The trails start in Rockland behind the industrial park. They are made up of old military roads. Lots of rotting infrastructure left behind, including buildings, bunkers, roads, telephone poles etc. The roads are so old they have become trails. After a while we were on the Greenway in Hanover. Nice groomed trails. The people of Hanover care very much for their Greenway. We ended at the Falls in Hanover. About 1 hour out, and 1 hour back.

I brought my MTX925 with my, and noticed that Jeff's (N1ZZN) 900 Meg repeater in Marshfield covers the whole trail system quite nice. We will see if this is still true when all the leaves are out in full bloom. I did have a Quick QSO with Randy N3HFK at the trail head, and received a good RST report.
I can't wait for the next trip to this trail system.

George's Bridge

Pete's Crash Site

At the Falls:

Ideas

The text below is from the inspiration for the name ceMental. My Dad. Of course the name ceMental does not describe the man. But his hard work and dedication inspired the name.

jay - regarding your cMental address - i just now happened to think of some more word "play" between construction and mental: cement (one part) plus sand (two parts) plus stone (4 or 5 or 6 parts) = concrete (for construction)so...... cement is "not all there" => ceMental or mentally...

Thanks Dad!

Antenna Party at the new location

The ham radio mentor n1jfu, Steve generously offered his help, time, resources to getting an excellent start to the ham shack here at the new home location.

Steve teaches that design is very important in getting your station set up. A well thought out design can save you time and give you flexibility as you try out different modes, radios etc. throughout your ham radio career. He also teaches it's better to use high grade connectors and transmission lines. Why buy an expensive radio and have junk for your weakest link?

I am grateful for Steve's help.

Thank you Steve!

The LMR 400, 200, and connectors arrive


2 inch hole in the ceiling of the closet


standard electric outlet with 2 inch hole
drilled in the back. So if the shack is moved
this hole can be covered by a standard plate.


the 'workshop'



Steve does great work! Will be adding ground.


900 MHz antenna



n1jfu and the 20 meter dipole.




results so far with attic antennas.

Quincy Ride

Today we rode from my house to the Black Creek / Furnace Brook area trails in Quincy.
Riders: Pete and myself. Meeting time, 8:30am.
Mostly cloudy, Cold.

After last weeks repair and tune up; The bike is working like new!
Fun ride today minus all the unleashed dogs and their dog shit all over the place.
Using power gel and cito max, I had a couple of speed bursts.

Pete brought up one of theses questions: Is gun oil the same substance as bike lubricant?
According to Pete, they sure smell the same. Jove! Gun oil is less expensive than bike lubricant.

Looking forward to next weeks ride in Hanover!