Just gabbing
18 messages in this thread
Guy
I just got back from another trip. I wanted to head for the McCall area in W.
Central Idaho but because of the nasty fires in that region decided to head for
E. Central Idaho and check out some things (near Salmon and Challis).
Unfortunately, the air was awful thick there with smoke from fires NE of Boise!
Most things didn't work out, but I did prove one long rumor wrong. One can find
fluorite crystals in the old, long abandoned Meyers Cover district. Nice green
sharp cubes and crusts of coarse purple druses of fluorite.
One word of wisdom, more like a warning, when you push your tires a little too
far (too many miles) your Trimble Scout will be no help when you get 2 flat
tires at once when way up in the mountians! Wish you were there.
Lanny
Hi, Lanny
> One can find fluorite crystals in the old, long abandoned Meyers Cover
> district. Nice green sharp cubes and crusts of coarse purple druses of
> fluorite.
Cool!
> …when you push your tires a little too far (too many miles) your Trimble
> Scout will be no help when you get 2 flat tires at once when way up in the
> mountians! Wish you were there.
ROFL! Considering that my spare probably would fit your rig (and yours mine,
not to mention my hilift jack…) I bet you did wish I was there. <g> Assuming
that you could contact Triple-A somehow, (Cell phone? CB? Not likely…) you
could give them the exact Lat/Lon/altitude to send the tow chopper. <G>
BTW, I'm allowed to laugh at your mishap 'cus I went through the same drill in
a rather remote location in SE OR a couple of years ago. The utility trailer I
was pulling was loaded down with about a ton of thundereggs, 50 gallons of
water, and all the camping gear that wouldn't fit in the two cab-over campers
that came along (We even brought our own picnic table and benches!). You can
guess how that worked out on the roads around Leslie Gulch! Don't bother
wasting a can of Fix-a-Flat when the holes the rocks poked in your tires are
large enough to stick a finger through. <g>
Cheers, Guy
P.S: Great subject name for this thread. We could keep this going all winter
without the thread police jumping on us, (although I've never been jumped on
in this forum – and I'm one of the worst offenders). <g>
P.P.S: Jerry D, Good to see you back. Jump on in here.
Poking holes in the tires of your utility trailer is one thing, you have the
truck to drive out with and get some flats fixed. And yes, the CB was useless
with those narrow canyon walls, they barely work around the first corner
anyway. By the way, did you know that a walkie talkie will not work
underground, even a straight shot in a mine level? Apparently the bounce of the
wall manages to cancel the signal out.
Yeah, wish you there. The company would have been nice, the spare might have
fit, but at least we could have driven out in your rig to get the tires fixed.
As it was, farmer Brown was very helpful, after I rolled that tire just shy if
5 miles down the road (down hill all the way fortunately).
My fault, don't try to push and extra 5,000 miles out of your tires, especially
when driving the roads we get too drive. But I wasn't very happy about getting
only 20,000 miles out of those fancy Firestones Ford stuck me with.
Lanny
Larry
>> By the way, did you know that a walkie talkie will not work underground,
even a straight shot in a mine level? Apparently the bounce of the wall manages
to cancel the signal out. <<
This is a very interesting tid bit. Can you hear the on off click of the
transmitting unit?
Has anyone else has experience this?
As I recall, you hear nothing. It is easier to holler down mine workings!
>> By the way, did you know that a walkie talkie will not work underground,
even a straight shot in a mine level? Apparently the bounce of the wall manages
to cancel the signal out. <<
>> This is a very interesting tid bit. Can you hear the on off click of the
transmitting unit?
Simple waveguide problem I think. Wavelength of CB is around 11 Meters, of 48
MHz walkie talkies about 6 meters. It's very difficult to get a signal down a
waveguide that is too small (unless you send it down a wire). I was smarter 25
years ago, and could have told you the minimum dimension that will allow a
signal to pass, but it's defintely no smaller than wavelength/4 and it might be
wavelength/2 or wavelength/1. If you are trying to use a 48 MHz walkie talkie
in a passage that's only 3 feet wide in places, it won't go.
The entire wave must propagate to get any signal?
It seams as though the signal is actually in the form of globes traveling
outward from the source isn't it? That is how I view waves. If the wave bounces
off the walls it should still carry some signal shouldn't it? Even if not
enough to recreate the total modulation.
Physics was not, to put it mildly, my strong subject. When you get into the
world of wave propagation, a lot of phenomena are wierd to outright bizarre.
As I understand it, the signal won't propagate and won't "bounce" if all the
dimensions of the "waveguide" aren't large enough to allow its passage. I seem
to recall a device in a ham radio magazine 3 decades or so ago that used a
small cavity to build a variable attenuator (i.e an "RF Volume Control").
There was a transmitting antenna at one end and it worked by moving a receiving
antenna up the cavity. The attenuation per inch of cavity was specatacular.
Don
Thanks for the data, tucked away for future reference.
Hi, Lanny
> Poking holes in the tires of your utility trailer is one thing, you have the
> truck to drive out with and get some flats fixed.
We didn't have the day and half to drive to the Burns Les Schwab to buy the
new tires and return to the trailer (if it was still there…). Out of the two
used tires we bought in Jordan Valley, only one made it to Burns. Fortunately
after the trailer's spare died we found that my spare fit the trailer (so what
if the trailer has a 14" on one side and a 15" on the other <g>).
> By the way, did you know that a walkie talkie will not work underground,
> even a straight shot in a mine level? Apparently the bounce of the wall
> manages to cancel the signal out.
That doesn't surprise me a bit. In fact it never occurred to me to even bother
hauling a walkie talkie into a mine or cave (or even a steel framed building).
The optimum sized antenna for any portable CB (walkie talkie or mobile unit)
is the 108" 1/4 wave whip. The walkie talkie's shorter antenna is 'loaded'
electrically to work, but still requires the free space around it that the
full sized antenna requires. In the close confines of a mine the antenna is
'grounded out' by the walls and ceiling. In fact it would be unlikely to get
any decent performance out of a CB from the inside of a 'through-truss'
bridge, such as the Rainier to Longview bridge that I love to hate. <g>
> But I wasn't very happy about getting only 20,000 miles out of those fancy
> Firestones Ford stuck me with.
I hear you. The tires the manufactures inflict on the public are pitiful at
best, but look at the money they save in a multi-million vehicle model year!
Best, Guy
Never thought about antenna loading problems. But then I never was very active
with my Ham radio experience (which should have taught me something).
BTW, heading underground tomorrow to do a little malachite collecting in a
hidden mine (hiding across a river in the woods, not known to many people). It
is a nice spot with very nice small malachite needles in tufts and sprays. One
just has to move the pack rat nests a little and not fall over the edge of the
stope down the winze and drown.
Lanny
> It is a nice spot with very nice small malachite needles in tufts and sprays.
> One just has to move the pack rat nests a little and not fall over the edge
> of the stope down the winze and drown.
Sounds like good, clean fun! Stay away from the winze. Pack rats are
interesting critters. I've been run over by the Boca Cave pack rat in my sleep
a few times. So far I've been lucky – the little varmit hasn't swiped anything
– yet!
Guy
Guy,
Just as long as the Boca Cave rat doesn't stop and build a nest in your
sleeping bag.
Actually, at the malachite site, the pack rats were of the "bushy-tailed
woodrat" variety and rather cute. Although the one that kept running over the
timbers and stope ribs over my head and knocking pebbles down on me wasn't
popular with the fragile specimens in my flat. Then again, I didn't like the
"shower" he gave me twice either!
Lanny
Hi, Lanny
> Just as long as the Boca Cave rat doesn't stop and build a nest in your
> sleeping bag.
Not a chance – he'd jump up on the bag, I'd awaken with a start, and we'd
both spend the next few seconds flailing about – him looking for somewhere
else to be, and me grabbing my flashlight to catch him in the act. Great way
to spend midnight in a cave. <g>
> Actually, at the malachite site, the pack rats were of the "bushy-tailed
> woodrat" variety and rather cute.
Same here, tan or yellow fur, bushy tail, and bright yellow eye reflection in
the flashlight beam. You're right, he's cute, and I don't even mind (much)
being kept awake by his antics (as long as he stays out of my breakfast). <g>
I usually make a point of leaving a 'peanut offering' to discourage him from
searching my pack for goodies.
> Then again, I didn't like the "shower" he gave me twice either!
<ROFL> <G>.
Regards, Guy
Guy–
Please explain: I've figured out what a <g> is, and what <BTW> is, but what is
<ROFL>?
You haven't had fun with packrats until one moves into the bottom of your
truck. We had one stay there all night, we even drove away, about 3 miles once,
hoping it would scare it off. Didn't work. This thing was incredibly noisy,
holding a dance party or something. Then again, the continual
pounding/hammering noise was more like he had his little cutting torch,
riveting machine, etc down there taking out truck parts and building a little
scooter or something. We didn't sleep much in the back of the truck that night,
but sure were curious about what was going on.
Lanny
(ROFL = rolling on floor, laughing)
What was the pack rat doing? Probably eating some of that tasty plastic, and
making a nest.
Lanny,
> I've figured out what a <g> is, and what <BTW> is, but what is <ROFL>?
ROFL=Rolling On Floor Laughing. GR&D=Grinning, Running & Ducking.
> Then again, the continual pounding/hammering noise was more like he had his
> little cutting torch, riveting machine, etc down there taking out truck
> parts and building a little scooter or something.
<ROFL> See – you just did it again. <G>
One of my more memorable nights at Boca cave involved several members of our
party chasing (in their shorts) the pack rat out of a bread sack that
contained bread that we intended to eat the next day. The little bugger spent
the rest of the night in retaliation dragging empty beer cans around the floor
of the cave keeping the whole party awake. <g> OK, it was our fault that we
left our beer cans laying around. In our defence, they were all squashed and
packed out the next day. In 20 years of camping at Boca, I've always found the
place pristine, and I've always seen to it that it was left that way.
Guy
Hi Guy!!
Good to be back. Except for Phoenixville, I've managed to land in places all
summer which had no good rocks to speak of! No problem, I still have a ton of
Colorado and Bancroft stuff from last summer that I'm just beginning to
sort……..JayDee