Hi guys, it’s been a long while since I’ve posted here.
An update on my dad is as follows:
Dad has been moved once again to another care facility which is 32 miles, one way, from my house. Every day I make the 38 minute trip to there to see him. He is slowly but surely weaning himself from the breathing machine. He had weaned off of it once; but got a urinary tract infection and was forced to go back on the full support of the breathing machine.
Needless to say, this was a major step backward for him and as a result he ran out of time at the short term care facility which was only 10 miles from my house. So, seeing that there were only 4 places available that specialized in the weaning of people off of breathing machines my Dad was moved to a very good facility 32 miles up the road.
I told you all of that to tell you this: I made that trip once without any sort of backup communications. Well, I said “this will never do,” and I ended up picking up a new toy. If you will….
This radio does a whole bunch of stuff including APRS, Echolink, Crossband Repeater And a whole bunch of other stuff that I’ll probably never use.
Its purpose really was to provide some sort of backup communications should my cell phone fail and also to so my mom could track my movements, as I traveled from my house to where my dad is located which is 32 miles away. It was purchased from ham radio outlet in Wisconsin, it was red labeled via United parcel service. Parts of my order came from Wisconsin and parts of it came from California; let me say publicly that I am extremely pleased with ham radio outlet’s service and prompt delivery.
As for the radio itself, I have no complaints Kenwood has come a long way in their design of their VHF and UHF dual-band transceivers. Admittedly, the price was a bit steep as was the shipping but I had more enough in the bank to cover it and it arrived here as I wished it to do so.
As for what else is going on most of my time is consumed with visiting my Dad, making sure that my mom is taking care of, washing clothes, mowing the lawn and grocery shopping. Basically everything that my dad did, I am now having to do.
For the first time in a while yesterday, I actually hooked up my microphone, to my HF rig keyed up and checked into mid cars on 40 meters. I do still listen lot on the low bands; mostly the 75 meters, but I rarely key up and say anything anymore.
My dad has a long road ahead of him and I will be with there with him, every step of the way; helping him, when I can. This will be taking up a good amount of my time and right now; amateur radio, YouTube and everything else is on the back burner.
Thanks for reading. 73 and will see you on the bands sometime.
Chuck K8CPA
