[450] BA's

Sat Sep 17 15:53:05 EDT 2011

Thanks Rich.  I have no water yet or heat (next week) but when I get the chance to hose them down, that sounds like a good first move, anyway.

Be well.

Jay
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rich 
  To: 144.450 Mailing List 
  Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 3:49 PM
  Subject: Re: [450] BA's

  Hey Big Guy, sorry about your misfortune. Glad you are OK though.

  if you have somewhere to keep them, my advice would be to wash them off with clean water and let them dry out. Then you could haul them up to Nearfest and sell them for parts. You won’t get much but at least they wont go in a landfill.

  Again, sorry to see all the damage up there in your neck of the woods.

  Let me know if you need a hand.

  Rich

  From: WRIP-FM Studio 
  Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2011 3:39 PM
  To: 144.450 Mailing List 
  Subject: [450] BA's

  Hi Folks:

  Three weeks ago tomorrow,  my area of the Northern Catskills, a mountain valley about 35 miles west of the New York State Thruway and 50 miles southwest of Albany, was hit by the heavy rains and winds of Tropical Storm Irene.  

  Some 14 inches of rain fell inside of ten hours during the early morning hours of Sunday, August 28th.  The storm surge overwhelmed spillways, culverts and the single creek that feeds the New York City Watershed system.  The single waterway, known as the Batavia Kill, runs through five mountaintop towns and hamlets, Including Windham and Prattsville - two of the hardest hit areas situated along the Batavia.  

  Through the early morning of August 28th, incredible amounts of runoff and debris quickly filled the creek bed.  The water kept coming, and by 8am we had a quarter mile-wide four to eight foot river that engulfed homes and businesses along its path.  Two homes collapsed and washed into the creek.  More than 70 trailers were washed away. One woman was killed when her trailer split in two and she was pinned against a tree with 70mph waters and debris.

  Propane tanks, lumber, cars and even construction equipment were swept away in a matter of minutes.  That's how fast this water rose.

  I'll never take flash flood warnings lightly again..

  My apartment is above a three car garage on the banks of the Batavia Kill in Windham.  Had I not left late Saturday night for the radio station with a suitcase of clothes, my meds and a few necessities,  I would have been stranded inmy apt until Monday morning. 

  I'm writing here because I am sorry to report all of my boatanchor transmitters and receivers were inundated by the floodwaters and silt for over four to five hours.  They were all sitting on a pallet in my garage. I had no renter's insurance or flood insurance.

  FEMA's inspector took pictures and an inventory, but informed me that the agency has "one price" for radios when it comes to renumeration for loss, so there might as well have been clock radios on that pallet.

  So - before sending these rigs to the junk pile, I will offer them to anyone in this group who feels they might find a home with someone who might even be able to restore them, for themselves or pay it forward to a ham or JN in need.

  Some of the gear includes a National NC-300 receiver, A Johnson Viking Valiant, a TRL Globe Scout TX (cherry before the flood), two Johnson Rangers (one in need of a TX/wafer switch, the other a parts rig, a Heathkit Apache Rx, and a Hammaulund SP-600 JX-17 (military) that had been completely re-capped by the OM up in Pomfret Center CT years back (Antique Restoration).  Most were in boxes and overwrapped but I have not moved anything or inspected anything since the waters engulfed everything.

  One caveat is that the silt left behind on and in theis gear is not something you want to handle with bare hands.  I moved a couple of items with my bare hands for the FEMA inspector and my hands burned and itched for two days. 

  So - discuss among yourselves if you want to decide who gets what or who will be a responsible party to at least give these rigs some attention before deternining their fate.   I go back with Tom (Pipe), Bob UJS and Rich for some years and despite only having limited 2M simplex QSO's from my fav spot over in Westerlo with the loop stack, I know we have a great group of hams here.

  Gotta scoot - that's the latest from the Mountaintop.

  Jay
  N1UJT

  Jay Fink
  Vice President & General Manager
  WRIP-FM 97.9 & 97.5
  www.rip979.com
  jay at rip979.com
  518-734-4747 (ph)
  518-734-9147 (fx)

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