We got up a little earlier than usual, and J had been awake since about 3:30. I made instant coffee to go and J started a mug of tea steeping. We left in the Jeep around 6:35.

We headed up Mt. Evans and I had Clif Bars for breakfast.

We stopped between Summit Lake and the summit to photograph some Yellow-Bellied Marmots. They were very cooperative and while we were photographing them, we spotted some American Pika nearby. We alternated between photographing the marmots and the pikas, and I was able to get a neat image of a Yellow-Bellied Marmot scratching (below left). The pikas were mostly just lounging around in the sun and occasionally eating some grass, so I mostly just got portrait shots (below right). The sky was clear and the wind was calm, so it was quite pleasant to hang out with them. Some of our friends from the Mile High Wildlife Photography Club (MHWPC) stopped as we were photographing: CS (the younger), RS, and HR. After we were finished with the marmots and the pikas, we headed back down the mountain.


We returned to the RV around 9:50 and clouds had already started to form. I downloaded the images I took this morning then downselected them in iView. Then I processed three images from yesterday for the blog and started to work up a blog entry.

I had lunch around 12:05 while reading some of the July 2009 Outdoor Photographer. Yes, it's a bit old, but we came across a stash of old magazines while cleaning up recently. I finished the blog entry then processed images for a stock submission while J took a nap. It started raining around 2:30. I took an hour-long nap around 4:30.

We had dinner at 6:20 of leftover J's Black-Bean Burritos. We had Tostitos Multigrain chips for the first time, and they were tasty.

Cell Phone Antenna

After dinner, I worked on our cell phone antenna. We installed a Wilson Cell Amp with a roof-mounted antenna shortly after we moved into the RV, but it didn't seem to do much. Almost a year ago, I looked at the cell amp and noticed that it had stopped working, probably because it had gotten flooded. (You may read more about that on the blog entry for July 14, 2009.) J wasn't too interested in shelling out more dough for a new cell amp, and lately she's been wanting to hook up our roof-mounted antenna directly to one of our USB727 sticks. I emptied out my wardrobe and then removed the floor to gain access to the call amp and antenna cables. I used a 2-ft (60cm) RG 58 Extension (N Male connector to FME Female connector) to break into the antenna line "downstream" of the lightening protector that has an N Female connector on each side. Because we didn't have the correct cable to plug the antenna into the USB727 stick, I just cut off the FME Female connector and stripped off the shielding to get to the main conductor. The signal wire was too thick to fit in the external antenna socket of the USB727, so I used a small sewing needle to plug into the USB727 — how high-tech is that?! To make the connection between the coax cable and the needle, I used a short (approximately 24-in or 60cm) test lead with an alligator clip on both ends — so much for shielding. I plugged the fancy antenna cable into J's USB727 stick while she was monitoring the signal in her VZAccess Manager, and she said it helped. So, I routed the new coax cable out through a hole in the floor of my wardrobe and then buttoned it up. I temporarily set up our Kyocera KR2 wireless router in the bottom of my wardrobe with the external antenna cable attached to J's USB727 stick. Then I put the rest of my things back my the wardrobe. I was quite surprised that it had only taken about 50 minutes to rig up the external antenna system — I had anticipated that it would take a lot longer. Unfortunately, the internet connection was still pitiful.

I downselected my images from this morning in Capture One (C1) then processed two image for the blog. I also looked into a special cable for attaching an external antenna to a USB727, and was finally able to find one — the net connection was S... L... O... W...!