Found my antenna!

This week we cut down ALL the bushes along the north side fence. Not only does this make things look a little different, but now my HF6-V vertical antenna is more exposed and not surrounded by Honeysuckle plants.

In the picture at right, you can just see the vertical antenna between the two palm trees.

It didn't happen without problems. After doing some work on the coax, and adding two more radials, the antenna just didn't work right. I made several adjustments with no success.

Finally I found the "ground" connection from the coax to the antenna had broken, effectively turning my vertical into a piece of tubing at the end of a wire. A quick fix with the soldering iron and it works as good as new!

The Santa Rosa Plateau...

Today Robbin and I finally visited the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve. It's only 4 miles from our home, but in the 12 years we've lived here we haven't visited :)

It's over 9,000 acres. In late spring (after we get some solid rain) several large "vernal" pools form. A unique shrimp, found only in this area, hatches during this time. Perhaps we'll go back and watch the action!

The trails are well maintained, and there are many of them, so seasoned hikers can spend all day (from sunup to sundown) and still not see it all. After Santa Rosa we took the back roads to Temecula, then south to Fallbrook for lunch and shopping. With weather in the 80's, it was a beautiful day indeed.