Paul's Place, N4EJ

Our New Toy
Lots of Travel In Our Future
Last Update 07/05/14


Track Me with the SPOT locater,
A link to the SPOT Locater map. CLICK here.

Track Me On APRS...N4EJ-9, select the RV line.
A link to the APRS locator map. CLICK here.



Ready for our tour to Natural Bridge, near Lexington VA.






The antenna mount plate takes care of all my amateur antennas. The flexible aluminum plate, fabricated by my friend Butch, KB4ILB, worked out very well. My initial use of the automatic tuner with a random wire hung in the trees was rewarding. Reports are that it works as well as my home station.





Siding is closing in on the RV Garage





Construction progresses after additional trusses were obtained





Construction of our new RV station





Construction of our new RV station (continued)





Construction of our new RV station (continued)




      Look what happens when you volunteer to install a satellite dish on a neighbor's motor home--you go out and buy one.
            Specs:
                  36 feet long. Diesel pusher (bus)
                  More when we get it. Pick up week of 10/28
      Take a look at the following video for a tour of inside outfitting of the machine.
                   (click) Outside Features and Inside Tour of RV


A Photograph of The New RV In Our Future





N4EJ's and WD4HAH's Houseboat Trip
on Smith Mountain Lake 2012
Reason For The Trip

      Barbara, the XYL, who is also a HAM (WD4HAH), and I have had a place on Smith Mountain Lake since 1978. Our first place was a small 2 bedroom cottage with no heat (summer use only). When I retired for the second time in 2002, we decided to sell the home QTH in Lynchburg and build a new year-round home on our property at Smith Mountain Lake. We now live here permanently and it is beautiful; however, we discovered one problem. We no longer had a vacation place.
      After watching the tourists go by our cove in those beautiful rental houseboats (see www.parrotcove.com), Barb had a great idea. Rent one ourselves and have a VACATION on the lake.

(Read More at Bottom of Page)

View of the "Ship"





The Ship From the Rear. Note the Antenna installation.




Ship's Bridge





Ham Radio Operating Position




Ship's Galley




Captain and First Mate... You Figure Out Which is Which.



(continued from above)

The Ship:
      The vessel is a 39 foot houseboat built on pontoons. The manufacturer is Keycraft and they have a fabrication facility at Smith Mountain Lake. It is powered by a 115 HP 4 stroke Yamaha outboard. It is nice and quiet and is easy on fuel consumption. We have been running at 2,500 RPM which gives us about 5 MPH per the GPS. Not fast but fun cruising. The fuel tank holds 90 gallons and feeds both the propulsion motor and the generator. After 4 days of cruising and running the generator all night for the air conditioning, we are at 50% fuel.
       We have a 6.5 Kw generator which provides power for the air conditioner and charges the 12 volt DC system. All lighting and auxiliary motors (like the fresh water pump, marine toilet etc.) are 12 volt. The stove, refrigerator, water heater and outside grill run on propane. We have two grill size propane tanks. There is a 120 gallon fresh water tank and a nice head, which includes a shower. The waste system is zero discharge using a holding tank.
       The boat has a lot of freeboard so maneuvering in the wind is tricky. The crosswind landing skills come in handy.
The Electronics:
      I debated about using a remote internet connection back to my radio at the home QTH, but that felt like that was cheating so I decided to do the real radio thing. I took my ICOM 706MKII and a 120 volt power supply along with a Hustler mobile whip and the loading coils for all bands. The Hustler is an oldie but a goodie. I have used it for many years when I was traveling. I had the base section cut and threaded to form short sections that I could put into a suitcase. In fact, I took the Hustler and a Kenwood 747 to Australia with me in the early 90's and worked the guys back in Lynchburg on 20 meters.
      The Hustler mounted nicely to the port side handrail of the upper deck. The handrail is quite extensive and makes an adequate ground plane. I also took some car battery jumper cables and jumpered the upper handrail down to the lower handrail which is bolted to the pontoons, giving me coupling to the water.
      I mounted a Ringo Ranger on the starboard upper handrail to give me a VHF antenna for the marine and 2 meter frequencies. The two meter hand held (secured by a lanyard around my neck), was useful in communicating with the bridge from the fantail during anchoring operations.
      I also put a GPS antenna on the upper handrail which was used to drive the map program in my laptop. Lastly, I used my Verizon 4G smart phone to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot which gave my laptop and Barb's iPad access to the internet and email.
Conclusion:
      A great time! A chance to spend some time alone with the XYL, do some Hamming, cruising, swimming, and water sports as well as some nice quiet dinners. Thanks to those on the net for helping peg out the fun meter!
73, Paul