Category: Places

A visit to W1

Dave Mueller

I just got back from a two-week Chief Warrant Officer professional development course at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. While there, I had the opportunity to spend an evening with some very good friends.

Dave, NN1N, arranged the get together. Fortunately Randy, K5ZD/1 offered up his QTH as a meeting point. It was a great opportunity to see some old friends, plus to see the NN1N and K5ZD QTHs for the first time. Too bad there was too much snow to walk around to see the towers.

Lots of snow at the K5ZD/1 QTH in MA!
K5ZD SO2R setup
Plaques-O-Plenty!
K1AR gives an Elecraft K3 demo to K1EA, K1DG, KM3T, and NN1N
L-R: K5ZD, K1DG (seated), NN1N, N2NL, KM3T, K1DOG (seated), K1EA (seated), K1AR
Heading home: Newark to Tokyo flight – New York City
EWR to NRT: Flying the great circle path

Thanks to NN1N for setting up the dinner, and to K5ZD for hosting us. Also thanks to K1EA, KM3T, K1AR, and K1DG for showing up! I have not seen most of these guys since WRTC 2006 in Brazil, and it was an enjoyable break from two weeks of class.

Former KH2/N2NL QTH: Then and Now

Dave Mueller

My family and I currently live on Navy owned Government Housing about two miles south of my former home on the Navy Communications Station (NCTS). Most of the homes in my former housing area were demolished. I recently went back and took photos, trying to match the exact spot where I stood 12 years ago in 1998.

Then:

1998

Now:

2010

Then:

1998

Now:

2010

Then:

My son Jordan in 1998 (age 3)

Now:

2020 – the coconut tree has grown!

This whole area is set to be redeveloped into a base for US Marines scheduled to be relocated from Okinawa.

I stumbled across this old photo of this housing area being constructed. My former house is the one to the right in the foreground.

Photo taken between 1956-1958

Williamson, Mel. Retrieved from http://www.navycthistory.com/guam_mel_williamson_56-58.html on 30OCT10.

Tarzan Falls

Dave Mueller

A couple weeks ago, I took my family on a hike to Tarzan Falls, located about 1.5 miles off the road in Central Guam. I had not been here in nearly 20 years, having last visited the place in 1993. We are moving into the dry season, and it had not rained for a couple days, so I figured it would be a good time to go.

Unfortunately, when we got down to the falls, it was still very muddy

My daughter, stuck in the mud!

The mud wasn’t fun, but there was a plus size – lots of water going over the falls! The water was nice and cool, and a fun break from the heat of the day.

Future Guam house photos

Dave Mueller
Front of the house
Looking up the street from the front porch
next-door playground. There is an embankment between the house and the playground which will keep random kids away from the house.
Living room/dining room area
living/dining room looking toward the dining table end of the room
dining/living room, TV end of the room, looking out to the rear patio
kitchen – the door opens to the same back patio.
another look at the kitchen counter area
Laundry room area
Back patio
Looking northwest from the patio

Not shown: two identical bathrooms, one common, one in the master bedroom, both full with bath tub.

Also not shown: there are four bedrooms along the back of the house, all in a row connected by a hallway. The two on the ends are the largest, but are still pretty small. One will be the master (the one with the bathroom), the other will be Jordan’s. There are two smaller bedrooms in between, which will be used by Alex and Justin.

there is also a small one-car garage with automatic door lift. My plan is to build a wall to split the garage into two ends. The garage door end will be used for storage, and the other end for my office/radio room. The garage seems to get cooled from the house AC and it was not at all hot in the middle of the afternoon. I suspect my “office” will be cooler once I have the wall built and stuff stored against the non-insulated roll-up door.

There is also a walk-in closet/pantry next to the kitchen.This will probably become Mickey’s shoe shrine.

Panorama of the back yard

The open space around the house was a big plus. When facing the house, it is on the corner of a circle. There is one house directly to the left, and one caddy-corner to the right. Everywhere else is in the clear. This is one of the most spacious yards in the most spacious housing area on island.

The Brown Boobies of Cay Verde

Dave Mueller

My crew recently spent two weeks patrolling the southern Bahamas, and we spent some time anchored next to Cay Verde.  My Executive Officer and I spent some time exploring the island.  As we soon discovered, the island is inhabited only by birds, lizards, snakes, and crabs.  Brown boobies were nesting all over the island, most tending to a pair of eggs.

There is a small natural bridge on the southwest side of the cay, near the place where we landed.
My XO walks along the beach with most of the small cay visible behind him.
One of the thousands of nesting boobies all over the island
One of several snakes we saw, all of the same species. I’m sure they ate well, feeding on bird eggs. I imagine these snakes are an invasive species which probably arrived by ship at some time in the past.
Here’s the view of the northern side of the island, exposed to the prevailing seas
The CGC Pea Island at anchor, with a nesting booby in the foreground

The story behind my header photo

Dave Mueller

I took the photo used for the header image.  It shows the USCGC PEA ISLAND’s cutter small boat, transiting southward just off the east coast of Anguilla Cay.  Anguilla Cay is the eastern most island of Cay Sal Bank, part of the Bahamas, which is located about mid way between Cuba and the Florida Keys.  Back in 2008 when I took this photo, Cay Sal was a commonly used stopping point for Cuban migrants trying to make their way to US soil.  We went ashore not only for a chance to explore, but also to look for evidence of recent migrant activity.  I loved this photo because of the turquoise waters.

Anguilla Cay