In Southern Arizona the honey bees are mostly Africanized (i.e. "killer bees")
They have killed people and animals up to horse sized. I have a little water
feature in the back yard, that unfortunately has goldfish in it. My late wife's
idea, so I don't want to kill them. Hence I get a lot of algae because I can't
chemically treat it. I also get a lot of bees that come in for the water.
Generally, we coexist, but a couple of years ago on a Sunday afternoon I was
clearing some algae and one of the little SOBs stung me on the palm. I didn't
think too much of it until my hand swelled up to double size and I developed a
rash in some very sensitive areas.
I didn't want to go to an ER but I did find a Walgreens with a nurse
practitioner. She gave me a steroid injection and a prescription for EpiPens.
These cost Medicare about $600, thanks taxpayers.
A few months ago I had a repeat, but got the stinger removed very quickly. This
time I couldn't find handy medical attention so I sat around EpiPens at the
ready, but I never had a serious reaction. Still I shudder to contemplate being
stung hundreds of times.
Wes N7WS
On 7/30/2018 5:54 PM, Dave Sublette wrote:
We were putting up a 2 element Moxon for 40M this week and I ran over a
Bumblebee nest. Two of them got me before I bailed out and left the
tractor running (in neutral).
Oh the joys of country living :-)
73,
Dave, K4TO
On Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 7:54 PM Wayne Burdick <[email protected]> wrote:
I operated pedestrian mobile in Sunday’s /BB QRP event, using a KX2 with a
prototype AX1 4’ whip (15/17/20 m) and a dragged 13’ counterpoise.
The whip was attached directly to the back of my Patagonia Atom 8L sling
bag, which turns out to have rugged, stretchy loops in exactly the right
places, holding the antenna perfectly upright with no additional mounting
hardware. The antenna is exactly the right length for this when the
telescoping part and base are secured together.
For control purposes, I just held the rig in my hand, with nothing but a
coax cable running back to the pack. The rig weighs only one pound with
batteries, so this turns out to work much better than putting the rig in
the pack and trying to control everything with fancy firmware (something I
reported on earlier).
Later I operated a bit of /PM SSB, using the rig’s built-in mic and XMIT
switch as PTT. The KX2 fits easily in one hand, so you might think of it as
a mic on steroids, one that happens to have and all-band/all-mode radio
built in :) I think I’ve finally found the magic elixir -- pure HF Pack
Light. The sling pack gives this lash-up a bit of Errol Flynn cache.
As for operating, this was no walk in the park!
During one memorable QSO I was sending fast CW with the built-in keyer
paddle while climbing a narrow 45-degree trail, praying my shoes had enough
tread to grip the loose soil. The operator at the other end put up with a
bit of dodgy sending as the trail’s slope hit a local maxima.
Arriving at the top of the bluff, I found myself in a maze of imposing
weeds sculpted by some evil California parks department employee. The
plants were Vulcan in appearance, 7 to 8 feet tall, and simply irresistible
to the local oversize bees. Dozens of them. I was ducking left and right to
avoid the real bees while finishing my QSO with the contest “bee." About
halfway through the maze, tuning the VFO knob with the thumb of my
rig-holding hand, I found another /BB station to call. I’m guessing I now
hold the all-San-Mateo-County record for in-maze pedestrian mobile CW
contacts.
Overall, the experience was somewhere between Little Shop of Horrors and
The Shining. But I didn’t get sunburned, stung, or ejected for public
nerdiness.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
Wayne
N6KR
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