Hello, I am new here

[Soldier4Christ]

Yes, there is a lot of information out there like that. Especially since the advent of the internet. That's why some call it the mis-information highway. We are also seeing it a lot in the 'world of politics'.

I was pretty heavy into ham radio at one time. A backyard full of different types of antennas, a 2 and half car garage lined up full of radio equipment, a repair work bench and a lot of trips to many of the ham radio swap meets. We have had to down size on a lot of things due to health and income situations so I've had to sell off or give away all but one old radio that I still have. Currently I don't have a place to put up even a small anttena though. It is hard to get rid of the clutter sometimes but it also becomes neccesary at times.

[nChrist]

When ya'll get through cleaning stuff out, come do mine.     I'll tackle it one of these days. Most of the work is out in the garage, but we still have room to park one car.

I've never done ham radio, but I did do CB radio many years ago when it was popular. There's a lot of bad things on the internet, but there's also a lot of good things on the internet. I use the good and avoid the bad.

[islandboy]

Soldier4Christ,
Did you know that now days you can do and listen to the ham radio on the internet. Lots of people communicate that way and can hook up with many repeaters computers in the their area and around the country and world. Is your ham license still valid?  If so you should look into it there is lots of info on youtube and on the web about how to do it.

My family was into CB radios, long before the idea of using ham radios came to our town. Now lots of people have chosen ham over CB, and the only ones that still use CB are the truckers who use a lot of bad language. That is why lots of people don't talk on CB anymore.

I have become a full time caregiver to my mother and have very little time for anything else. We are redoing her house making it more handicap accessable, as well as, cleaning it up. It is very stressful and time consuming. Most times I have very little time for the internet or my favorite forums.

I hope all here are managing in this very cold weather. It is -0 degrees out tonight and heaters are being strained to their limits trying to warm houses. I hope it is better where all of you live.   

[Soldier4Christ]

Hello islandboy, Glad to see you here.

I've seen ham radio software for using via the internet but haven't checked into it. No, my ham license expired when I was out of work and no income due to heart problems for several years. I didn't take the time or effort to get it again since I didn't have the equipment to do so. Maybe some of it is just being lazy and taking the easy way out with the internet.   

CB radio is very limited on what people can do. The regulations on CB radio went really lax so it degraded quickly. When that happened and new technology came out a lot of people dropped it.

We've had temps getting down to -5 to -10 range but it has been the wind chill factor that has caused so many problems. Wind chills as low as -20 has caused a lot of pipes to freeze. It is in the forecast for a few nights of -35 wind chills this coming week so we're trying to get ready for that with more heat tapes and small space heaters.

[islandboy]

The temperatures dropped again up here and a main drain for sink and sepic froze up at our camp. My brothers are talking about letting it go, and not running anymore water, until warmer weather but I am worried about pipe leakage in the cellar. Do heat tapes do a good job or are the space heaters better when something like this happens?
Sometimes I really get upset when I am told only part of whats wrong but not how to go about fixing the problem. I know if it were their house it would have been fixed long ago.   That is the trouble with being a woman. Lots of clean up work but no answers.  lol

[Soldier4Christ]

I'm having to go through somewhat the same thing. I am living in a mobile home in somewhat of a retirement park now. I've worked on houses for years. I never had problems with freezing pipes because I would have them fixed ahead of time. I never had to rely on heat tapes or insulating pipes before. Getting the pipes thawed out quickly I tried using a space heater but couldn't get one close enough to the problem to work. I ended up using a hair dryer on the high setting taking it up and down the pipe until I found where it was frozen. There was already heat tape on a portion of the pipe underneath the home and it kept the pipe from freezing there. It froze in a section where it went through two walls and in a space too small for the space heater. I had to open an inside wall to get to it. I also found it wasn't insulated there either. Once it was thawed out I put another heat tape on it and wrapped pipe insulation around it. It's supposed to get real cold tonight so I'll be seeing if I got it right or not.