A bit more prep and another boy toy....

Thanks for the replies to the e-mails.  I have this website set up so that each time I do an update, it'll automatically send out an e-mail of the update to each of you.  To view the whole blog (including a few previous posts), just visit my blog site at http://www.stephenjeffers.blogspot.com/  Feel free to distribute this addy to whomever you think may be interested.

Thanks especially to the Jones' for their winching tips and to Mum for sending me her very first e-mail from HER new laptop that "my darling husband bought for me".  Good one Dad.

I made an unexpected improvement to the Beast today.  I was at the comms place getting a couple of new VKS737 channels programmed into our HF radio (the radio to God as Keyla refers to it).  The fella (quite easily) talked me into joining a new service called HFoZ.  Talk about twisting a rubber arm.  It involved GPS's, remote communications, HF radio, Mapping software and the Internet.  Talk about a mish mash of really cool boy things.  We hooked up a GPS to the HF radio so that it can report our position every now and then to a website (more on that soon).  It allows people to look at our last reported position.  It also plots the position on a map that you can zoom in on.  It looks really cool.  It also allows us to send short SMS style messages to the website that you can read and (hopefully) enjoy.

To view our position and updates at any time, go to the HFoZ website at http://www.hfoz.com.au/ and click the "Members Login" button.  In the Client Login box enter our selcall number, 2735, and our password jefferss2 - (note the extra "s2" at the end of "jeffers" - it caught me out once)  I'd make apologies for the password, but it's pre-assigned and I had no control over it.  Feel free to log in any time to see where we are.
Once you have logged in you can view our string of reported positions (latest on top I think) by hitting the GPS Log link.  There you can select the points you'd like to plot and display them on a map by hitting the appropriate button. When I tried it I had to stuff around with "cookies" and things in internet explorer to get it to work - but you may be lucky.  The map is the 1:250k Auslig Maps and you can zoom in or out as much as you want.

Also when you have logged in you can view the SMS messages that we will be sending from time to time by hitting the SMS - Pagecalls link.

At the moment there is one GPS position in there as well as one SMS message - both generated from the relative safety of our driveway at home....

We also have the ability to send SMS messages as e-mail - but I haven't figured that one out fully yet...  But if you see future blogs that are VERY short - you'll know that I've conquered it.

Feel free to log in any time to see what we're up to.  This is a bit of an experiment as well (along with this blog).  While sitting here in my dining room in Perth I have every intention of putting regular updates up on the HFoZ site, when we're out and about I can't guarantee how often I'll manage to do the updates and report marvellous things etc...

I've had some queries about the camper trailer (for people who know this stuff you can skip this).  It's a Kimberley Kamper Limited Edition (which is where the name "Ellie" comes from).  Ours is a few years old now - we purchased it in 2005 I think.  Over the years we've added bits of fruit to it, so that now we've got it "just right".  It's basically a fold-out tent with a built in queen sized bed sitting on a rugged trailer with a kitchen and pantry built in as well.  As today (friday) was the only sunny day here in Perth for quite a while now (and for quite a while to come - I can hear the rain falling outside as I type), I opened it up for an inspection and (by keeping out of Keyla's way) packing it with the clothes and bedding stuff for the trip.

Here's a few pics of Ellie in our driveway. First pic is in "travelling trim".

The second pic is partly opened.

The third and fourth pics are fully opened but without the awnings and stuff put up (we rarely use them).

The last 2 pics are interior views of the bed (with the plastic mat on it).

Tomorrow (Sat) is supposed to be a rainy day in Perth (it has started already) - so I'm not going to be doing much in terms of setting stuff up - although it's largely done now.  Nope. Tomorrow entails heading back to my second home at Anaconda. I foolishly, (wink wink), left my voucher at home when I went there a few days ago.  Oh no.  That means I have to go again because it expires this weekend.  A wise friend once said to me that Bunnings would be stuffed if Anaconda had a sausage sizzle every weekend.

With all the really cool HF things I have going at the moment, I have to decide the best way to contact us in case of emergency.  At the moment I could use VKS737 or Radtel.  I'll have a think about that and get back to you on that in due course with all the details.

Until next time...

Stephen...