Joe keeps a running log when he's in the Utah Outback.

When time permits, he sends out a colorful adventure log containing some of his favorite pictures.

Here are Joe's reports from 2004:

March 31, 2004

Hi Gang,

Jack (KD5MBJ) has finally made it up here to the San Juan river Goosenecks of Utah to meet me. He came with his new Dutch-Star, 38 foot long motor home. Wow is it really nice with slide-outs and everything you can imagine. It's Jack's permanent home.

We don't know if Irving, and Rick (KG6SNI) will be able to meet with us this trip. Irving is studying for his Ham license too.

I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment. I hope you like them.

Pic #1: This picture is called the "Lady in the Bathtub" I couldn't get up any higher to see everything, so you will have to use your imagination. This formation is located in the Valley of the Gods, not too far from the Rooster and the Hen. You remember where they are.

Pic #2: Rover discovered this large arena and had to explore it. Looks like it is in good shape and is probably used at least twice a year for cattle roundup and branding.

Pic #3: Rover and I had lunch all alone here, before Jack came up. Rover, I think that you are getting a little to close to the edge again. As always, Rover thinks that he needs to give me the very best view of the San Juan River gorge far below - especially for lunch. The infamous Mormon San Juan Hill is to the left of the picture and out about 4 miles, but just out of view.

Pic #4: That's Bob (KD7HLL) in the foreground and Jack (KD5MBJ). We all were having a party at Bob's wonderful Mexican Hat Lodge. Bob has some of the best Steak and Cowboy bean dinners with of course Utah (Texas) toast. Jack and I are going back for another steak tomorrow night. If Bob will let me borrow his phone line I will send this email to all of you tomorrow night.

Pics #5 and #6: Jack and I watched these brave people climb and descend the Mexican Hat Rock. The wind was really blowing hard. It was very interesting how these climbers pushed a rope up ahead of them on the right side of the Hat.

I could not determine what they were able to fix the rope to at several different points as they climbed around the right hand edge of the Hat. It looked like they had a 6 foot long and 6 inch wide board which they used to push their climbing rope up above them. Then they would hang in free space, and climb up several feet. They were really having an adventure.

PS: The Sinbad Abajo link receiver is down, but while we are at the Goosenecks you can get me on Echolink on node 57110 (KD7HLL, Bob's echolink node). Bob has it on his big antenna.

We will move camp to Hanksville, Utah later this week (probably move on this Thursday or Friday), and be there over Easter. You should be able to get me _then_ on IRLP node 3270, the Castledale node. However the Henry mountain repeater is solar powered, and turns off when not used, to save batteries.

Ask anyone you can reach on node 3270 if they can key up the Henry machine. Then it will link. If I can hear one of the other more distant Sinbad repeaters, I will be listening. If I hear you calling me, I can key the Henries to link it to talk to you. Don't be too quick to bring the link down if you don't hear me right away. Give it at least a full minute or two.

April 5, 2004

Hi Gang,

Jack and I have moved camp to Hanksville, Utah. We are able to use the Henry Mountain machine for our Ham radio contacts all over the world. However, I am having some trouble controlling the link radios.

Just before I left, I figured out how to measure and then I measured 10 db of "twist" in the amplitude of the individual tones of the DTMF keys (dual tone multi frequency) (touch- tone to you non-Ham, twisted-pair, and cell-phone fans) on my Kenwood mobile radio keypad.

It was simple when you know how. Using my sound card, I just digitized each of these DTMF keypad tones, and then performed a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) on the data and found 10 db of difference in amplitude of the two individual tones making up the "A" keypad key.

All of the other keys had almost as much "twist". Twist is a measure of the difference in amplitude of these tones. It's is important to control twist in linked repeater systems so that the end receiver decoder can decode them correctly.

I thought Lee Haim might get a kick out of this little story. Quick Lee, what's is the voltage ratio for this 10db of twist (The two tones should have equal amplitudes). Lee, "my office is bigger than your office", (about 1,000 square miles today) Ha Ha. Tell Jim Ackerman and Randy Cline that I sure appreciated the loan of the spectrum analyzer last year.

OK enough of that. Here are the adventure pictures.

Pic #7: This is an old foot bridge that Jack and I discovered by Jeep. Anyone want to walk across it? The only place it goes is to the other side of the San Juan River. It's out in the middle of "nowhere" today. The cables look strong, but the wood floor might be a problem if you stand on one plank too long. Maybe the technique is to move across the bridge fast. The water below is swift and very cold. Rover got me down to the bridge, but said it wasn't a good idea to go out onto the bridge.

Pic #8: Jack and I found this horizontal mine shaft, and Rover just had to go exploring. That's Rovers headlights and Halogen side-lights that you see illuminating the dark walls of the mine. Breath deep, it's a uranium mine full of Radon gas. What is the half-life of Radon gas? Will I still glow in the dark if I return to Phoenix?

Pic #9: I thought I heard Rover making a clicking noise. Jack said he would follow closely behind Rover and have a look. This is what we found. I must have picked it up while driving inside the above mine shaft in the dark. Wow was Rover lucky. The 10 inch long nail just went through two of the big lugs on Rover's tires, and did not puncture the tire! I had to use large pliers with a twisting motion to finally remove the nail.

Pic #10 and #11: What a find this was. This cliff dwelling is in excellent shape for the shape it is in. It seems that only the roof is missing. The roof is usually made out of wood. Is this about 1200 years old? See the close up in the next picture. We even talked to KC7LRS (Joyce), KC8PJ (Steve), and N7ESD(Howdy), by Ham radio from this location. Ham radio is great.

Pic #12: Where's the water!!! This is a view from Rover high above the confluence of the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. Actually this is just below the confluence. That is the Lake Powell Hite marina boat launch ramp that you can see in the picture. It looks like I could walk (drive) across the lake. We are in for another dry year in Utah and Arizona. Don't play with matches or fireworks this year kids. Hite may be our next camp site since there won't be anybody there because the lake is dry.

Pic #13: Rover had another tire problem! This one hurt. In fact it ruined the $180 tire! Don't worry though, Discount tire will give me a free new tire when I return to Phoenix, because I have road hazard insurance on all of my tires.

This happened while I was towing Rover to our new Hanksville camp. Since it was the right front tire, when it went flat, it caused Rover's steering to go hard right. It is a wonder that it didn't cause my camper to jackknife on the highway. Anyway, I kept control, and then had to pump the tire up three more times just to get to camp.

The next morning I put 6 plugs into the sidewall puncture. It has held air for three days of Jeeping so far! I need to get a new tire before I tow it at high speed again. There is a good probability that the tire will split wide open while towing or driving at highway speeds. I have seen that happen before. Thus a new tire before we move camp very far again.

I hope you have enjoyed these adventure pictures. I am going to try to send this tonight. I can only send and receive my email when I can get to a phone line in the outback - about once a week. Call me on the radio when you can catch me.

April 15, 2004

Hi Again Gang,

Jack and I are still in the Hanksville, Utah, USA area. There is a lot of Jeeping and scenery to see along the old Jeep trails in this area. However you would never guess that when you drive through the town of Hanksville.

Rick (KD6SNI), and Dottie (from California), and Cheryl (from Colorado) may come and Jeep/hike with us later this month. It will be good to meet them all finally.

I may have to return to Phoenix on May 2 (two weeks early) this year. We will probably move camp to the Hite, Utah area next week.

Here are the adventure pictures for your enjoyment.

Pic. #14: Jack and I saw hundreds of these foot prints along the old East River Jeep trail. Does anybody know what animal this print belongs to?

Pic. #15: Rover, you are getting to close to the edge again - and that's your bad paw too! The views everywhere are spectacular!

Pic. #16: Rover is getting a new paw, thanks to John (K7JHM), Günter (KE7DYV), and Günter's father, as well as other friends of John's.

This team ordered, purchased, and delivered Rover's new paw to the small town of Green River, Utah. There was a truck stop there that had the equipment to mount and balance Rover's paw. Thanks a lot guys!

All of this was accomplished via HAM radio. (Even when we Jeep 2,400 feet above Hanksville in the Swell, we can't get reliable cell phone coverage!)

However, thanks to the Sinbad Amateur Radio System and Bret (WX7Y), we have complete Ham radio coverage everywhere.

Pic. #17: Here is what my patching job looked like inside Rovers old paw. I have always wondered how good a job I did when I need to perform surgery on one of Rover's paws. Now you know.

It held air for over 5 days, but you never know when the side wall may split wide open if you are driving or towing at high speed.

If you remember several years ago, one of our repairs did just that at 50 MPH on Jacks Jeep. We put on Jack's spare and made it back to camp OK.

Pic. #18: Jack and I found thousands of pieces of petrified wood along this very remote old Jeep trail. Here is one example.

Pic. #19: Here is some of the spectacular scenery up "Little Wild Horse Canyon" Jeep trail in the San Rafael Swell. It was a very exciting drive up the two old eroded dugways to enter and to exit the canyon!

I can only check my email about once every week or two. I have to wait until the Hanksville restaurant closes at 9:00PM, then wait until all of the patrons finish eating and use their Visa cards (only one phone line), so about 9:45 PM I can finally get to use the phone line, while Sherry is cleaning up for the evening.

April 18, 2004,

Hi again gang,

I am having trouble finding a phone line so I will try to send two adventure emails at once. I hope I can get it out over the phone lines between Visa card interruptions, and that it doesn't overload your inbox. Jack and I are still exploring the Hanksville area.

Here are the adventure pictures for your enjoyment.

Pic: #20. This is a tight squeeze on the Little Wild Horse Canyon Jeep trail near Rover's 1/4 million mile mark. Yes Rover took me through without a scratch.

Pic: #21. This is the old Jeep trail down onto Bert Mesa. Rover is performing a "2G left turn" to the airstrip (Jeep trail) far below. (Actually the trail goes hard right here and the roll angle gets a "little high" too).

Pic: #22. "Beam me up Scottie" I saw this "mother ship" far out in the "Blue Lagoon" The Blue Lagoon scenery is like being on another planet. Really wild and scenic like "Hell's Half Acre".

Pic: #23 and 24. Yesterday (4-16-2004) was a REALLY BIG day for Rover and I!

Rover turned over the 250,000.0 mileage mark. Yes a "quarter of a million miles!"

The location was right in the middle of the beautiful San Rafael Swell! The scenery was spectacular!

Rover's engine has never been rebuilt. In fact the heads have never been off! (Hey, Al Baker, tell all of the boys! Better yet show them the pictures. Remind them that I am still running my same T5 transmission, and it has never failed.)

Yes after I took the pictures, Rover started right up again and we finished the "Behind the Reef" Jeep trail in the San Rafael Swell. Rover uses about 1 pint of Valvoline SAE 10W-30 oil every 3,000 miles and still runs very smooth like a spinning "top".

My secret is to change the oil every 3,000 miles (maximum), and seal the air filter housing (and other orifices) so no dirt will get inside the engine. Yes a "sensible-right-foot" helps also. Easy don't you think. What I want to know now - is there a 3 above the 2???

Pic: #25. Jack spotted these wild horses, and took video pictures. This is way up in the Swell. That's the big black boss (stallion) looking back at you.

"Don't mess with my girls - or else!" He sure looked young, frisky, and all business.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures. It's hard to know what you will enjoy, so I select a few pictures from the many.

PS: We just found the site of a crashed private single engine airplane. It happened in 1983. More about that in the next adventure.

I will leave for my other home on May 1.

Ham radio is great, and so is Utah Jeeping.

Keep at least two wheels on the Slickrock!

Keep all of the old Jeep trails OPEN!

Re-open closed Jeep trails!

Stay ON the trails!

Joe Ruby
KC7GHT
(Kilo Charlie 7 Going High Tech)
IRLP Node 3820, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Uplink DTMF 3820, Downlink DTMF 73
http://irlp.wb7tjd.org/

May 1, 2004
Webmaster's Note:

This year saw the first time Joe had to leave early. Due to personal committments, Joe had to return to Phoenix in late April, so the 2004 adventure to the Utah Outback had to be cut short.

Maybe we can talk Texas Jack into sending some more pictures when he returns home.