Yes, there were some typo & other errors on the Cargo Manifest, and the
Farallon Special list was duplicated. Items were split out into two
separate carry cases at the last minute, but I ran out of time to modify
the lists. It was "close enough for Gov't work at the time...which had run
out...I had to leave.
There was only one item that I hadn't considered as "essential", and
subsequently also learned something about the contraction of aluminum
tubing during this trip that may be helpful to someone else here...before
you leave.
It was cold & windy on SouthEast Farallon Island. We got Mike QRV on one
band while I set about to install the Farallon Special. When I went to
insert the (male) swaged legs of the Force 12 X-Base into the (female) "X"
parts, they wouldn't fit. But they did in my driveway/test range before
the trip! My heart sunk to my feet, because duct tape would not solve the
problem with the high winds we had there.
In the cold, it turned out that the non-swaged (female) aluminum sections
on the X-Base shrunk more than the swaged (male) ends of the legs to be
inserted...just enough to not allow a coupling. I shudder to think how
much more difficult a problem this would have been if we were in much
colder WX.
As I stood there with the wind pounding me, and realizing I had not thought
about the need for any metal files (I did have a small piece of sandpaper,
but that wouldn't do the job), I realized that our rigs were set up in the
small "Carpenter Shop" building. I ran back inside to see if there were
any metal files there. WOW...right in the shop tool bins above the
workbench (our "operating table"), were two metal files sticking out.
So I "borrowed" one and went back out in the wind and filed away on the
swaged ends enough to get them to finally slide inside the female tubes on
the X-Base. Talk about a "Miracle" !!!
Yes, I bought two different sizes of metal files at ACE Hardware when we
got back, and these are now deemed "critical" items for any future trips.
FYI & 73...
RIck, K6VVA
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