The vertical seems to like 20m and finding focus.

Well, after a few more days of comparisons, the vertical is still most definitely hearing DX SSTV better in a lot of cases than the dipole. 

Interesting. It also seems to hear the local 80m net pretty well too despite not being an 80m antenna. It certainly seems to hear it a lot better than the old vertical.

The other night I was listening to phone on 20m, and I was hearing stations in France and the UK perfectly fine with the vertical and they were a lot better than the dipole. 

Moving along...

I've been obsessed with trying to get another radio for a while, but I've decided I need to stop trying to find excuses to spend money for the moment. 

I think spending has become habitual with this pandemic. Things that keep me mentally occupied given the significant amount of time spent at home. I do however really need to sort out some new things. My car needs tyres, I need new glasses... and I really need to move on to some property work. To achieve the first two, I really need to ease off spending for a while. 

The property work however has some radio relevance. 

Our garage has been a mess from about a week before we moved in (the builder let me move some gear into the garage). It's always wound up as storage and workshop space rather than what I'd like it for.... putting cars in. 

I've been meaning for a few years to put in a decent sized shed in the backyard - so that's first on the list. We can't easily pour a slab - yard access is challenging, so I'm opting for building a timber framed base that we'll build the shed around. It'll only be a 3x3m so its not huge. 

It'll be along the back fence line, so it's as far away from everything electronic as I can get (especially all that UPS fed tech). 

I'm planning on adding a solar panel (or two) and using them to feed a deep cycle battery. I'll have some LED lighting hooked up to that, and I'll have an inverter in there for charging up the batteries for the cordless tools. 

I'm also planning on putting up the old vertical at the rear of the shed (at least until the XYL complains). I'm curious to see how it behaves down there away from all of the electronics. I will be able to disconnect all of the solar gear if that interferes with the radio.  I guess it'll be something of a "shack" though I can't see it getting a lot of use - more so it'll just be somewhere to set up out of the house and will probably be mostly SWL. 

The shed will be about 40% storage and the rest will be my workbench. I tend to use mostly cordless tools these days. Those that aren't - like my soldering iron, will work fine on an inverter for short periods. 

Once that's done, it frees up the garage for the next project - a veranda. My wife has been at me for years and we're still a while away from being able to fund building what we want. We can however probably start on the paving for it. That'll be a long, slow, tedious job that I won't be rushing at. Given the logistical challenges of this property - we need storage for the sand and pavers. The garage will be it.  I'm hoping by the time we've actually finished that, we'll be in a good position to do something about the veranda itself.

I've been sticking around on 20m a lot - somewhere I can for now only listen thanks to my license limitations. I'm hoping the frustration will drive me to hurry up and focus on studying again. More study, less toys. For me, that's a big ask.

I really need to nail down the electronics side of my study so I can get through the next exam. Right now, I'm not quite proficient enough to pass.

Study. Kill rats. Work. Kids. Eat. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.

Rats.. first we had mouse plagues due to the seemingly endless earthworks behind us. Now another set of earthworks have started nearby and we've been upgraded to rats. My little garden shed that has been used for storing boxes of stuff is full of rat droppings. The dogs "Kong" ball - something that our Staffy can't actually damage has had the holes chewed by the little sods. First we saw one, then two. I've managed to clobber one. I've seen the first evidence of them coming in through the dog door. The bait boxes are out and I'm waiting on some new ones. I'd put old school traps out if it wasn't for said Staffy being likely to break his snout in one.  Red baits inside. Green baits outside. At least we'll be able to track what has been where.