F  E  E  D  -  P  O  I  N  T

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The club has received a gift from Pat and Heman Adams of $400.00. Pat likes hearing about our club. She is not a ham.

Winter is here. Actually, on December 17th, a few days before the official arrival of winter, we had the coldest day of the fall. It was -6°F in the morning, the high was +6°F, and the wind was howling from the northwest. That was the day that Randy Lewis (K1XI) and Gene Giddings (AA1XD) arrived here to replace the 146.640 repeater and to work on my new HF coax. They left home at 3:00AM and arrived here at 9:30. They immediately went to work on my HF antenna and coax. They had to get ice out of the connection at the antenna. Then they put the analyzer on the antenna connection. The results were strange, however they thought the antenna tuner in the radio could probably take care of it.

We came in, went to the radio, and connected the coax. Gene tuned around and made a contact with a guy in North Carolina. This was good news. Stan thought the coax might have have been damaged when he put it through the porch wall.

In the meantime Stan was tryng to snowblow up to the tower. He didn't get far. Then he worked on getting the UTV up there with a kerosene heater in it. Gene and Randy drove up. I skied up. The change of the repeaters was very fast. The wind was blowing right into the building via the open door. The kerosene heater did help.
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Everyone returned to the house to soak up some warmth. While soup was warming for lunch, we got talking about programming HT's. I mentioned I would like to rewrite the manuals. Gene said he had to write manuals for some new hams for their radios. That talk reminded me that I still had my new Icom HT V82 in its box. Gene offered to program it for me. He did it very quickly. We ate lunch, and Randy and Gene headed home at 12:30. It certainly was a successful day. We have 146.640 back on the air again, my HF rig is useable again, and my Icom HT is in working order. We are thankful for all Randy and Gene have done for us. They will be back next summer to work on the tower.

65°F: Floridians turn on the heat. Mainers plant gardens.

60°F: Californians shiver uncontrollably. Mainers sunbathe.

50°F: Italian & English cars won't start. Mainers drive with the windows down.

40°F: Georgians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, and woolhats. Mainers throw on a flannel shirt.

35°F: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. Mainers have the last cookout before it gets cold.

20°F: People in Miami all die. Mainers close the windows.

0°F: Californians fly away to Mexico. Mainers get out their winter coats.

-10°F: Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Maine are selling cookies door to door.

-20°F: Washington DC runs out of hot air. Mainers let the dogs sleep indoors.

-30°F: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Mainers get upset because they can't start the snowmobile.

-40°F:ALL atomic motion stops. Mainers start saying... Cold enough foh ya?

-50°F: Hell freezes over. Maine public schools will open 2 hours late

The Christmas Potluck and Yankee Swap was held at Northern Door Inn on December 8th. KB1TBI, W1TCP, N1EVO, N1FRX, KB1OWW and Karen, N1FG and Stan, and Mike Daigle were present. There was plenty of good food. Rocky Mountain trail mix was presented to Mike Daigle and KB1OWW as a memento of their Rocky Mountain trips this fall. K1XI received his by mail. KB1OWW recived an ARRL 2010 Handbook as thanks for all he has done on the repeaters. There were four door prizes--a Christmas arrangement by Pelletier Florists, a pot of paper white narcissus, Bose noise cancelling headphones, and a bag of food items. We were sorry that several members were unable to attend.