2009 Disney Trip

We got back from a trip to Orlando and Disney World last Saturday. It was a pretty fun trip although I am still fighting bronchitis that doesn't want to go away.

Nothing really ham radio related here, although I understand that there are two repeaters on the Contemporary resort where we stayed, and Disney has a club open to cast members only.
For some reason, the Toy Story Mania wait was only 20 minutes that evening, so we decided to go for it. We had a great time, and resolved to ask Santa for the Wii game.

The Osborne Family Christmas lights were amazing again, and we wandered through them muching popcorn.

On Wednesday evening, we went to EPCOT to see Turtle talk with Crush. This is the hot ticket here, but to fully get the magic, you need a very outgoing kid. My daugther is a "watcher", and fully analyzes new situations before she joins in. Consequently, she didn't get a chance to interact with Crush as we hoped she would be able to, and EPCOT's hot new attraction didn't really do much for her.

Dinner was at the Germany Beer Garden, spaetzle, rouladen, sausages and sauerkraut. Lennie got a liter of Spaten, and I got a Franziskaner. They give you to-go glasses so you can stroll along the world showcase with your beer after you leave.

Thursday morning saw us back at DHS, and the first thing we did was get fast passes for Toy Story Mania. The regular line was already 70 minutes. We went to Disney Kid's show and had lunch. Then we did Honey I Shrunk the Kids. It's true what the guide books say, you will never see your children again. Not good. The thing is a labyrinth of (for adults) hand and knees crawls and blind alleys, all covered with playground rubber, which absorbs the sound of your calls for your kids. After about 40 minutes of not seeing her (panic: did she leave the play area?) Elisabeth popped out somehwere and we went to play TSM again.

Lennie got us tickets to the Very Merry Christmas party on Thursday night, which ended up being great fun. When we went two years ago, I almost came to blows with another dad as we were jockeying for position to watch the parade. This year, we lined up way ahead of time, and I remembered something from the last time -- NO LINES!!! Between 7 PM and parade time, people are lining the parade route, and the rides are virtually empty!

So, we blew off the parade. The Buzz Lightyear shooting gallery was fun, and we did not have to wait at all. Same for all the other rides. No lines. There were dance parties and shows, strolling carolers and characters to meet. We saw Peter Pan's flight after about a ten minute wait, and that was the longest. I think we really enjoyed it this time.

We discovered that we really liked the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority (tram) which provides a serene, sedate circle tour of tomorrowland, and Space Mountain. Space Mountain was shut down and light up, and we were able to see inside it. It basically looks like a wild mouse rollercoaster.

On Friday, it rained all day. We went to the Magic Kingdom and did Buzz Lightyear and TTA again, but quickly headed back to the Contemporary for lunch. We spent the afternoon of our last day shopping and playing in the resort arcade.

Except for the Christmas party, the crowds were bigger than two years ago. We remember the week after Thanksgiving as the one with the lightest attendance, but I think Disney put on a marketing push to get people in to the parks to help stay afloat during the recession. We got the free meal plan with our park passes, and found that we could not really get into any restaurants when we wanted. I think everyone else got them too.

We also came to the conclusion that if you want to enjoy your Disney vacation, you have to surrender to Disney's way of doing things. Eating, going to the parks, transportation, seeing shows, riding rides, arriving at the resort, all seem to be carefully planned and orchestrated. If you do something different, say wanting to eat lunch at 11 AM, you will be disappointed.
Five days became a little of a grind for us. We just had so much we wanted to do that we didn't get to last time, that we forgot that we should leave ourselves wanting more. Along about Thursday morning, we had visited all four parks, and began the "I don't know, what do you want to do?" game.

Outer Banks and Radio

I just came back from a vacation to the outer banks. While we were planning, Lennie found a ham radio connection there. It turns out that the Outer Banks is where Reginald Fessenden proved the viability of AM Radio during tests he made there in 1901-1902. The photo is from the marker at Weir Point. There is another marker just over the bridge to Pea Island. We passed it, but were pretty tired from our trip to Ocracoke and didn't feel like stopping. Besides, as Lennie said, "How many Fessendens does any one person need?" More info and a photo of the other marker are in a paper by VE2VC (PDF).

I got a chance to operate QRP from the beach this trip. My station consisted of an MFJ 40-meter QRP Cub transciever, an MFJ 30-meter 9030 transciever, and a Hendricks QRP Kits SL Tuner. For most of the trip, I used a 51-foot length of copperweld tied to the wooden handrail of the walkway leading out to the deck. I had a 16-foot length of copperweld dangling down to the sand for a counterpoise. I didn't have much luck on either 40 or 30 meters. Finally, on the last day, I got out my DJ9SQ mast and set it up with a "folded vertical" fed by the SLT. The 51-foot length of copperweld became another radial. This time I had better luck on 30 meters. I just need to brush up my code. Apologies to those I assaulted with it.

Update: Another great article on Fessenden and the Outer Banks is at coastalguide.com.