Bicycle almost tiptop

After some hammering and fastening of some extra bolts and nuts it seems she's almost ready to be broken apart.. and be fitted in the carton box.

Expiration date

Some say it's dangerous to eat food that's way past the expiration date .. they're wrong. But concerning these meds, I'll take no chance of self-poisoning. Just went to the vet and ordered some new blue papers. Received some gifts from the lady behind the counter at the shop and now my hair will be shinier as ever, for as long as it's up there. Just have to find a place in the bag to put away al these boxes. Alright, looking at the pic it seems like I'm participating in the TDF 2011 ..

Hamradio preps

Taking along anything more than my old faithfull Yaesu FT817nd and 10 meters RG174 with very small HF-wiredipoles would be overkill on this trip.
I was considering to take a gellbattery like I did on former trips but the factor weight vs. pleasure is too high. So I'll go along with rechargable NiMH batteries and possibly a LiPo4-pack. My D-Star portable is also staying at home, almost no gateways (luckily ;-) on the way.
Echolink and FM will be the the way to go on 2 and 70cm with a telescopic 2*5/8 and 1/2 wave antenna.
As the sunspots go up and conditions improve on HF I hope to make some SSB DX on 20/17 mtr. to Europe with the dipole. Wherever I'll have the place the dipole will be vertical and centerfed. If there's a willing HAM that let me use his shack I should be vissible on the clutser. 
APRS is activated using an app on the android. Should be visible wherever I got wifi or cellcoverage.




HF-conditions :
Using the nice online-tool with Voacap, it was as easy as 123 to fabricate some predictions all along the path. With QRP power it seems that QSO's are only possible from the eastcoast to the old continent on shortpad around 2000 UTC on the 20 meterband, but one never knows what the sun does... So 14306 kc. will be rather quite around 1030 locally ;-)

Fargo / Winnipeg

San Fransisco

Niagara / Buffalo

St. Johns

The enroute plans

Two weeks before starting in Frisco the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps , this is the route laid out in my mind.
The route will bring me in quite a lot of the Northern American and Canadian states : California, Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba, Ontario, State of New York, Quebec Province, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Some 9000 km or some 6000 miles from the westcoast to the eastcoast with some nice POI's on the way.

On the menu are :

• Golden Gate Bridge
• The Pacific Coastal Highway
• Vancouver Island & city
• Jasper & Banff National Park
• Glacier National Park
• Flathead National Forest
• Yellowstone National Park
• Black Hills National Forest and Mount Rushmore National Memorial
• North Dakota plains
• Winnipeg 'city'
• Kabetogama State Forest & surroundings
• Thunder Bay and Lake Supperior Provincial Park
• Great Lakes of North America
• Toronto and Buffalo (Niagara Falls)
• Saint Lawrence River (Montréal & Québec)
• Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and St. Johns
• Kennebunkport and Boston Logan Airport