my father managed to mount the DBJ-1 antenna onto a bamboo pole, but it was still getting bad results. he tried hand holding the antenna and walking to the middle of the lawn for better clearance and managed to get better performance, but still about the same with the default rubber ducky antenna. we climbed the roof so he hold the antenna above the chimney while i keyed some local repeaters. quincy was hit or miss, the DBJ-1 was really sensitive depending on position, and maybe the current ground plane antenna might be interfering with it. we stopped testing when somebody on the quincy repeater yelled at us for repeatedly keying without talking.
DBJ-1 testing will have to wait until we can get more feed cable (50ft RG8X $21.25) and another chimney antenna mount ($15), hopefully arriving next week. also, brush up on basic ham radio transmission etiquette.
we ate the korean melon i picked off yesterday, as it was already yellow (the color of ripeness) and i was afraid it might rot if we left it on the vine any longer. it's also a lot larger than the typical korean melon we'd find in an asian supermarket. it was faintly sweet, but also had a sour aftertaste. if i didn't know, i would've thought it was a very crispy cucumber, not at all a melon. maybe it would've turned sweeter if we let it yellow even more, at the risk of rotting.
i was out in the backyard in the afternoon reacquainting myself with my tamron f/2.8 17-50mm lens. later i watered the garden. i found a new series for my mother, hulu/HBO's miss sherlock, a japanese production that's been getting a lot of publicity recently, even though the show already finished airing in japan back in june. i downloaded all 8 episodes via torrent magnet links from a china website that had hardcoded chinese subtitles.
riding home after dinner, i noticed the beginning of a dramatic sunset. after dropping off my things at home and grabbing my wide angle lens, i rode to prospect hill to watch the sunset. unfortunately the view of the setting sun from up on the hill is actually blocked by trees, in the opposite direction of the city, so not a lot to see. i snapped a few photos then left. need to find myself a better hill location, or probably a large empty lot or wide field would do just as well, as long as i can get a clear view of the horizon.
