The Sweetwater Summit SNU Rally was a Field Day event with 5 Amateur Radio stations set up to test emergency preparedness. Here’s Don and Frank discussing strategy and radios near Frank’s battery operated station.
The June 27, 2009 event at Sweetwater was sponsored by the Sierra Nevada Unit of the WBCCI, the Airstream owners RV club. Field Day is sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio.
About.com has a few tips about how to cook a better burger. Keys are to keep it juicy and enhance the flavor just a tad. Check it out.
While the SNU is down at Sweetwater Summit for an Amateur Radio Field Day, the National Parks Conservation Association is sponsoring a special stargazing night at the Great Basin National Park.
Low humidity and light pollution combine with high elevation to create a unique chance to view stars at the park, located along the Utah border about 60 miles east of Ely.
The National Park Service’s Night Sky Team recognizes the park’s skies as the darkest and most unspoiled in the lower 48 states.
Ought to be fun no matter which side of Nevada you visit this weekend!
It looks like Airstream and Victorinox hook up for limited edition Swiss Army trailer. The Autoblog says they’ll make 125 of these Airstream trailers. See the link above for a PSA and photo gallery or the Airstream site for its Victorinox Special Edition Airstream.
The Health Business Blog takes a look at a Boston Globe story Older drivers bridle at blanket criticism as an example about How to mislead with statistics. As the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) explains it:
Per mile traveled, fatal crash rates increase starting at age 75 and increase markedly after age 80. This is largely due to increased susceptibility to injury, particularly chest injuries, and medical complications among older drivers rather than an increased tendency to get into crashes. Fragility begins to increase at ages 60-64. At age 75, older drivers begin to be markedly overinvolved in crashes, but fragility is the predominant factor explaining the elevated deaths per mile traveled among older drivers.
There are several lessons here. One is to be very careful and not take news reports at face value. Another is that we get more fragile as we age. Most of the risk from driving is with passenger vehicle occupants. As you retire and get more time to get your RV on the road, don’t let the fear mongering get to you. Take care.
Discount Tire has a page on Trailer Tire Facts that provides a good summary of things to know about your trailer tires.
They recommend inflating your tires to the maximum inflation indicated on the sidewall. This fits Take note of this Goodyear item
“IMPORTANT: It’s a common practice for RV owners to lower tire pressure in their search for a smoother ride. This is not only dangerous, it’s relatively ineffective, as the difference in ride quality is not significant. When minimum inflation pressure requirements are not met, tire durability and optimum operating conditions are compromised. Tire inflation pressure should always meet at least the minimum guidelines for vehicle weight.”
Discount Tire also notes that trailer tires are not designed to wear out but rather limited by time and duty cycles with a mileage expectation of only 5 to 12 thousand miles.
There is some confusion in this list as with many. Is tire storage best in a cool dark garage at maximum pressure or on the trailer with lower pressure shaded from sunlight? Getting to the basis of the recommendations is one good path towards clarifying the confusions and figuring out what is best for your circumstances.
Dr. Hinson has a few good tips for your dog about Dealing with the Summer Heat. The core ideas are to plan activity so the exercise and timing don’t stress the dog as the weather heats up, keep the dog cool with shade and fresh water, and be able to recognize heat related problems. Check it out, and the blog. Wag Reflex has lots of good stuff for those with pets.
The WBCCI NorCAL Unit held their June 2009 at the border of Nevada an California on I80 at Gold Ranch RV Park and Casino. SNU members visited for the Saturday happy hour and dinner and took a few pictures.
UPDATE: and there is another photo gallery featuring the NorCAL rally – see NorCal rally at Gold Ranch June 2009 – and view more pictures of Airstream RV’s and their owners having a good time.
Several discussions have come up on the forums about safety and risk. There are those who are very worried about hitch rigging or travel weight and other things being unsafe. The Nevada Crash report for 2006 (big PDF) indicates that worries are misplaced.
In the table about types of vehicles involved in all property damage, injury, and fatal collisions, 162 “motorized homes’ crashes included only 3 fatalities. Golf carts were in 3 crashes and tent trailers and travel trailers in 2 each with no fatalities in any of these. This is out of 114,632 crashes reported. That puts travel trailers at one percent of RV crashes in Nevada in 2006 or at a rate of about 17 per million of all vehicle crashes.
There are reasons for this that include driver maturity and a tendency to avoid traffic congestion. At just single digit events in a year it would be very difficult to accumulate meaningful numbers about causes and risks.
The bottom line is that the risk is very very small for the RV community. When you see someone on the forums spouting off about how some hitch is a safety hazard or expressing a desire to leave the state if someone dares to get on the road with some rig that isn’t on their approval list, write them off as a blowhard who has lost touch with reality.
Continue to take care of your rig and pay attention when driving. Enjoy the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin RV experience.
There’s been an update to the Owner’s Guide remodeling section on awnings. Check out the page on Awnings and see the photo galleries on roadside awnings, an awning replacement, and a roadside awning installation.
SNU Folks,
The June 2009 Newsletter has been posted. Links to photo galleries and additional information mentioned in articles in this newsletter can be found at the following there, too.
Topics in this newsletter include:
* Review of the rally at the Lyon County Fly-In
* Information on the June rally at Sweetwater
* A note from the Roots
* Notes from the SNU President
* SNU Treasure Hunt
* Share the Airstream Rally Tradition
* Start thinking about 2010 Rallies
June Rally at Sweetwater Summit
Thursday June 25 to Sunday June 28, 2009 the SNU will hold a rally at the Sweetwater Summit. It is a dispersed site on NFS land. Located on highway 338 in Nevada, which comes out of Bridgeport as California hwy182. If you are heading north on Nevada 338, at the Sweetwater Summit there is a large parking area (DOT yard) to the right with a weather gathering station at the south end. From the southern end of the parking area, there is a short dirt road that goes behind a small knoll where the area flattens out. That’s the rally site. The highlight of this rally is Amateur Radio Field Day.
This just in!
The SNU has received an invitation to participate in Splashdown 2009 at the USS Hornet in Alameda, CA July 24 to July 26..Check the links listed with this newsletter for a flyer with more details. The URL on the flyer is incorrect. It should be www.uss-hornet.org
Check Zephyrs and find out what else is new on the website
–
SNU HQ
When the traffic on the road starts to rise, herd behavior becomes an issue. Physorg reports that Traffic jams follow explosive pattern, says researcher (w/Video).
Picture this next time you’re stuck in traffic: Thousands of wildebeests loping across the Serengeti Plain when suddenly a few spooked animals turn the orderly migration into a sea of locked horns, U-turns, head-on collisions and trampled calves.
The idea is that a disturbance in the traffic can propagate and it doesn’t do so evenly. When one driver hits the brakes in traffic, response times and other factors are going to be such that a driver a few cars back is going to crash into the rear of the car ahead and there is little or nothing he can do about it. This report talks a bit about the studies of this phenomena and how and why it occurs.
A point to emphasis is that you drive not only to make you safe but also for the safety of others on the road with you.
Flow with the traffic and avoid sudden moves. Be aware of what is ahead as far as you can see so you can anticipate problems before they get to you. This allows you to compensate without making sudden moves. Also be aware of what is behind you so you can anticipate potential problems from that direction, too.
When traffic starts to get crowded, safety is a mutual endeavor.
The SNU partnered with the The Lyon County Fly-In to help out in flipping pancakes and other tasks – and to enjoy the fly-in. See the photo galleries
First, the rally:
SUN rally May 2009 Silver Springs Air Field – Lyon County Fly-In
Then there is the event itself
Lyon County Fly-In May 2009
And some of the airplanes:
gallery 2
And what is a fly-in without a ride!
Here’s Gene getting ready to take off
4 Photo Galleries with lots of pictures – see ‘em all!
Instructables has a rundown on Electrolytic Rust Removal aka Magic. It’s a simple process of using a 5 gallon bucket of water with 5 tablespoons of washing soda (sodium carbonate) as an electrolyte. Rebar is suggested as the sacrificial anode. The part to de-rust is connected to the negative lead of a trickle charger. An explanation of the process is at Electrolytic Rust Removal.
Safety precautions include keeping the charger electronics away from anything liquid, protecting yourself from the alkaline solution with skin and eye gear, and using a well ventilated area with appropriate precautions for the hydrogen and oxygen released from water electrolysis.
Note that this process just loosens the rust. You’ll still need a bit of elbow grease to finish the cleaning.
The RGJ has a Map of Nevada farmers markets including Reno-Sparks
Here’s a look at all farmers markets in Nevada, as currently confirmed. This focuses on Northern Nevada but also includes eastern and southern Nevada. Click on the pinpoints for the day of the week, plus hours, date range and contact info when available.
Check it to find fresh vegetables near you!
It started out as a cake decoration. Nowadays the SNU Diorama is a virtual rally or a model of a typical SNU rally. Those familiar with the real rallies need to study the display as there are a lot of points of correspondence with some nuance.
Notice any problem getting to this website or sending to a SierraNevadaAirstreams.org e-mail address? On the Thursday night before the Memorial day weekend our web hosting service had to make some emergency moves that discombobulated services for a while. Websites were back up late Friday afternoon. E-mail seems to be back in gear Sunday.
If you are still having problems, please let us know. An alternate e-mail address is ‘office (at)) leippermanagement.com’
The National Motorists Association has compiled state rankings for the Memorial Day Weekend 2009 to determine where you a most or least likely to get harassed on your trip. The criteria listed at the bottom of the ranking list includes such things as speed traps per capita, roadblocks, freeway speed limits, courts structure, traffic enforcement camera use, toll roads, helmet laws, move over laws, and other such things.
Out west, Oregon hits #12 and California #14 worst. Arizona and New Mexico came in at the middle of the list. Nevada hits the list at #30 and Utah at #41. Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming came out as the least obnoxious driving states.
The National Motorists Association (NMA) was founded in 1982 to represent and protect the interests of North American motorists. We began by combating the 55-mph National Maximum Speed Limit and we continue to support efforts to retain motorists’ freedoms and rights. We work for more reasonable speed limits and fight for better driver training, fair enforcement practices and important privacy protections. The NMA believes in freedom and responsibility to make choices, not in “one size fits all” legislation, ticket cameras, unfair driving taxes, revenue-motivated traffic courts and speed traps. The NMA supports traffic laws based on sound engineering principles and public consensus – not political agendas.
Sometimes the bug bites and an RV becomes a bit more than an abode for those times away from home. Airstreams just for fun is a photo gallery of trinkets and collectables on the Airstream RV trailer theme.
Dark Roasted Blend has pictures. See World’s Most Interesting Bridges, Part 3
China is home to some of the most spectacular mountains, and some of the deepest gorges that need to be spanned with ridiculously tall bridges – and all these infrastructure projects are supposed to be good for Chinese economy.
There is only one problem: the amount of jaws dropped into the gorges by awestruck tourists and the sense of professional envy these bridges inspire in architects around the world, itching to land a similarly grand project:
The post has links to Parts 1 and 2 – all are worth perusing if you want to see pictures of some places to travel that are spanning the distance.
And, speaking of those bridge architects … See the Nevada DOT’s I-580 freeway extension construction website.
image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace
