I went to the races, today. You may access the photography gallery by clicking here. I was listening to Queen’s best song about Bicycle Races! I met up with one of my bicycling friends, Steve. Steve told me that Mark McCormak was riding in the Pro/1/2/3 field. I was really excited. I took some pictures of the Masters 55+ races, Masters 30+ race, Masters 35+ race. I took a lot of pictures of the Pro 1/2/3 race. I missed the races for the ladies. I do not know why they start at the crack of dawn. Sheesh.
This was really amazing. They were approaching speeds of 29-30 mph. The average speed of the field throughout the entire 60 kilometers was 28 miles per an hour.
These bus systems are often quite extensive but lack any planning for transporting passengers towards downtown Los Angeles in conjunction with Metro Rail. One of my largest disappointments about the Gold Line is how the line terminates at an original set of passenger track at LAUPT as if it was a commuter rail service.
services such as the Red line, which is hardly convenient for most passengers or any disabled rider. This is not like the interchanges in Washington, DC, where you can get off a train and walk over to the other track and see the count-down to the pending arrival of your connecting train. In the next picture you can see an example of the viaduct required to transport the trainsets out of LAUPT and the downtown streets of Los Angeles. I would have rather seen this as part of a subway with seamless connections to the Red and Purple Lines made possible. Each of the lines runs through a subway underneath LAUPT. Access to the subway requires passengers to walk down the stairs from the passenger track level and navigate a subterranean corridor prior to accessing another set of stairs to reach the subway. It hardly qualifies as an easy to make connection.
My friends K1LWI, NG1Z, and K1JZP took a tour of the WBZ 1030 AM transmitter station in Hull, MA several months ago. I wish that I had the opportunity to take the tour with them. The station engineer is also a ham. They had a great time over there. They also learned that the coyotes stay nice and toasty by loitering around the transmitter site in the marshs of Hull during the winter. It really gets cold out by Nantasket beach, so why not stay by the 50,000 watts of RF floating in the air? Cancer? I do not think so.
K1LWI took a whole bunch of pictures that he sent to me for inclusion on the website. They have a really nice facility. Plus, they are historic in operating one of the first broadcasts, which featured simultaneous transmissions by two different stations in conjunction with sister station WBZA. They are one of the oldest transmitting sites in the country. The studios are elsewhere, but the verticals and the transmitters are located in Hull, which is a peninsula surrounded by saltwater.
N1EY
I lead one of my bicycle rides for the Charles River Wheelmen prior to showing up for Field Day. I was disappointed that the turnout was very poor. The whole ride was done in by heavy fog. I had 30 brave persons that arrived for the club ride. I was disappointed about the lack of sun, but I was wondering if we would have a tropo opening for ten meters! To make the club ride count towards points we rode by the WBZ towers to pick up any stray RF. I needed to be charged up for Field Day.
[LEFT - K3 in action on one of the CW Stations] I went up to Danvers in the northern part of the state in order to participate in Field Day this year. I never seem to participate in the same Field Day operations from year to year. I think it is fun to see how everyone completes Field Day. I have been to FIVE different Field Day locations over the years. The Capeway Club used to put on a very good show, but they have discontinued Field Day operations for the past few years. I had a great time during Field Day 2008. I was able to attend the Field Day operations of the North Shore Radio Association. Their webpage is http://www.nsradio.org/. My friend, NG1Z, invited me to participate as one of their operators. The NSRA ran a 4A station. I was able to work some big pile-ups on 40, 75, 20, and 10.
I enjoyed the setup, tremendously. NG1Z set up the club’s VHF station with his own tower and a good 6 meter beam. I had the chance to work a very nice 6 meter opening on Sunday morning. I showed KB1OZW how to make some contacts and handle a pile-up; it was a lot of fun to show a new ham how to operate. [RIGHT - an experiences extra works a contact on 6 CW]
I had a great deal of fun with some of friends and others from my bicycle club, the Charles River Wheelmen. We rode together to Provincetown last week. We left from a spot near the docks in Plymouth. After the ride we took the ferry back. It was a blast. I had always wanted to do this ride. All of my friends have told me about how much fun this ride would be. It also really broke up the monotony of a dull summer with few sunspots. Do not forget that field day is rapidly approaching us.
Provincetown was very interesting. I never had visited the town in the past. I was looking for mermaids, but I did not find any. I did a jump in the water to celebrate finishing the ride to Provincetown. I needed to do something! The ride was great and we went over some nice terrain. Some of the rollers at the end were really not tough.
I had a great sprint down Rt 6 into town. It was amazing to see all of the people and traffic in Provincetown after hardly seeing any traffic on Route 6 or some of the roads on the way to the Cape. It took us a while to manage through the throngs of people in downtown Provincetown. Eventually, I reached the parking lot by ferries and the beach at approximately 12:30.
My friends and I left the parking lot in Plymouth just a little bit shy of 7 AM. So, I think that we did a pretty good pace. We are all talking about the club’s next century, which is the Climb to the Clouds.
In the picture above is my buddy, Dana. We all switched over to street clothes after the SAG van arrived with our bags. Who knew that you could check luggage on a club ride? This was a first for me. I forgot my fedora. I wish that I brought it as we arrived in Provincetown as the sun was reaching the peak in the sky. It really started to warm up, which is another reason why starting at 7 AM is much better. We finished the ride prior to it getting really hot out there.
We made a bunch of new friends on the ride. Here are Joel and Gordon. Part of the club ride experience is making new friends. Everyone has a common interest in reviewing bicycles and discussing past and future rides. Plus, on big club rides you get to see a lot of different bikes that you might not see while riding in your neighborhood. There were a bunch of tandems on the ride. I want to do a tandem ride, but first I need to find someone that would consider riding a tandem with me for six hours.
Here is a picture of one of the tandem teams. They show up at lot of of the club rides. There were several tandems in operation during the day. On the P2P it is really easy to take the tandems back as they simply rolled them on the boat. I do not know how easy it would be to roll them on an airplane, if you just made a cross-country trek.
Some of the Crack ‘O Dawn group showed up for the ride. They really push a fast pace line. I am a little nervous with the impact of negative perceptions that they make towards motor vehicles with some of the rolling past stop signs that they conducted. However, they roll pretty fast. I think that the fast group did the ride at a 21 mph pace. I swear that some of them were talking about riding back from Provincetown to Plymouth.
Would you be tempted to do an 180 mile trip during one day on your bicycle? I am not quite sure. However, the terrain is pretty foregiving, so perhaps you would chose this ride over some of other ones.
There was a lot to see in Provincetown. Next time, I need some suggestions on good places to eat Portuguese food. Plus, suggestions on places on not to venture near. The last picture is a shot of some of the people having a great time on the ferry ride across the harbour. The sea was very calm. I rode up front and soaked in the sun and the fresh air.
N1EY
CQ Magazine is giving very boring predictions. Twenty years of no 10 meters?
N1EY
I guess everyone in the SE Ma area has a 900Mhz hand-held except for me.
N1EY
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