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 Previous: French Schoolteacher Speaks with NA1SS as Students Observe |  Next: Amateurs Invited to Participate in Armed Forces Day On-Air Event |
By Stan Horzepa,
WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
April 27, 2002
With the surfboard in the shop, now is the time to tie up some ends that turned up loose in previous installments of Surfin'.
This week, the surfboard is in the shop for a tune-up and a wax job, so this is an opportune time to catch up on the mail I've received during the past few months and tie up some loose ends regarding past installments of Surfin'.
I received lots of e-mail regarding March 30th installment of Surfin', "Hams Who Mac," including a note from Chuck Counselman, W1HIS, who reminded me about the Ham-Mac e-mail list run by John Rollins, KD7BCY. The list discusses Amateur Radio applications for the Mac OS.
"Hilltopping At 6288 Feet" (April 13 Surfin') was also very popular as measured by the number of e-mails it generated. One came from Tom Zicarelli, KA1IS, who wrote, "I worked and lived there (Mt Washington) for about a year as a weather observer during 1996-1997. I put up several HF wire antennas on the observatory and occasionally got on the air, but the rigors of the job had me too exhausted most of the time to do much DXing. Not to mention that the antennas constantly blew down, broke under the weight of rime ice, or just disappeared."
"I usually took my 2 meter H-T with me went I went out for walks along the Presidential Range. Every once in a while (probably during temperature inversions), I could hit repeaters in New York State, over 120 miles away."
Tom added, "Mt Washington is truly an amazing place to live during the winter." My response was that I have never been up there in the winter, but it is pretty amazing in the spring and summer, too.
 Hilltoppers can find the highest point in any county at the America's Roof Web site. |
Another e-mail I received in response to the Mt Washington story came from Efrem Acosta, W2CZ, who clued me into the America's Roof Web page, which locates the highest named point in each county in each state in these United States. Select a state from the links at the bottom of the page and the Web site returns a table listing each county, the name of the highest point in that county, its elevation, latitude, longitude, type (summit, building, etc.) and the name of the USGS (United States Geological Survey) topographical quadrangle map displaying that location. Click on the name of the highest point in the table and your browser displays a topographical map of the location, care of TopoZone.com.
Occasionally, I receive e-mail from readers complaining that they cannot access the Web sites described in this column. These complaints typically arrive during the first few days after the column first appears. When I follow up the complaint, I usually access the Web site without any problem.
My educated guess is that these complaints are the result of the extra traffic being directed at the Web sites immediately after they are featured here. I have received notes from Webmasters saying that the traffic at their Web sites increases up to 20 times the normal rate after I mention their Web sites. Fact is, some parts of the Internet just cannot handle the extra load. So if you encounter access problems, try again later.
Until next time, keep on Surfin'.
Editor's note:
Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, of downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, is an ARRL Life Member
and an incessant contributor to QST and QEX (589 pieces in 25 years), not to mention
the author of five ARRL books, contributor to a bevy of other ARRL titles, and
the new editor of Packet Status Register,
the quarterly newsletter of Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR). First licensed
in 1969 as WN1LOU, he upgraded to WA1LOU in 1971. Stan began using computers
with Amateur Radio in 1978 when he bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I computer
and wrote BASIC programs to dupe contests and calculate antenna bearings. A
virtual beach boy, Stan has been surfing the radio dials as long as he can
remember. Instead of surfing all over Manhattan and down Doheny way, however,
he now surfs the Internet searching for that perfect page. To contact Stan,
send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: French Schoolteacher Speaks with NA1SS as Students Observe | Next: Amateurs Invited to Participate in Armed Forces Day On-Air Event |
