The latter part of May and all of June have been very busy months for me, so that is why I didn’t post an article last month. As of this writing I will be on the NEW job as the Denver based Colorado Engineer for the KLOVE facilities here. I am very sorry to be leaving my wonderful boss and crew in Colorado Springs at the Salem Communications facilities there, but God has called me on to new things in a very amazing and I still can’t quite believe it way. I will now be covering all of Colorado and some of Nebraska, Wyoming, and New Mexico looking after the EMF/Klove transmitters and facilities. I am very excited and looking forward to many new explorations and adventures! And I will have the Icom 706MK2G installed in the new company truck totally ready for some hamming on the road too!
The KLOVE NOC in Rocklin California, looking after 700 or so sites across the entire country!
Many have contacted me over the first part of July of course about the Waldo Canyon fire in the Colorado Springs area and have been concerned for the many who have lost homes on the NW side of the city, plus asking about how my Salem facilities were effected. There was no problem for our stations there, as we are located just to the EAST of I-25, on the north side of Woodmen Drive there. BUT, the evacuations all happened just on the west side of I-25. Here is a map of the main fire boundaries during the evening of Tuesday, June 26th when it was just obliterating neighborhoods on the west side.
I took this picture of KMGH-7 off our TV during this evening. Also, a video was put together from a vantage point NE of Colorado Springs showing a time lapse over several days of the fire. It is absolutely fascinating but really frightening at the same time. Fortunately as of this writing the fire is contained and no one else is in danger, but as the news has pointed out, “Colorado is burning”, with many fires statewide. We are most definitely praying for rain!
See the video at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBA7eHY022k
The High Park fire west of Fort Collins was still burning at the same time. One of the Klove facilities are located on top in the old ATT bunker building meant to survive even a bomb blast if needed back in the Cold War days. But the fire burnt up and over the mountain, with many of the facilities there off air for several days until it cooled down enough for people to get up safely. My co-worker Butch, Alan from EMF/Klove in Rocklin, and the new Denver area tech Patrick went up to check the Klove transmitter there, and while there was no trouble with the transmitter, the satellite dish behind the building indeed suffered some heat damage, take a look at what the heat did to the coax feeding the LNB there.
You can see how the outer jacket of the coax melted down in a curve off the cable. Amazing picture!
Don’t forget our SBE hamnet is happening still the 1st Saturday of the month as always. Details on how to join us are at www.qsl.net/ke0vh/SBEhamnet.
More to come next month!
73’ de KE0VH