K7NRA

The NRA will turn 140 on November 17 and with it comes a special opportunity for Amateur radio operators.  Quoting from the YARC page:

The NRA's 140th anniversary is coming soon and with it comes a special opportunity for the many NRA amateur radio operators. 

The Yavapai Amateur  Radio Club (YARC) of Prescott, AZ, will operate a special event  station November 17, 2011, in celebration of the NRA’s 140th birthday.

The special event will operate from the Gunsite Academy’s 2,000-acre campus in Paulden, AZ, north of Prescott.  The special event call sign will be K7NRA. It will conduct operations on the following frequencies from 0800 MST to 1700 MST (1500 to 2400 UTC): 7.250, 14.050,14.250 and 21.335 MHz (+/-).

Mark the date on your calendar, tune up your antennae and heat up the finals! I just upgraded my priviledges and acquired a new radio that I'm itching to use.  The radio only puts out 5W but Paulden is just a hundred miles and one mountain range as the wave flies.
Unfortunately for me that weekdaily inconvenience known as the DayJob(tm) expects my presence exactly those hours.  But maybe I can work something around the edges.

Breakfast of NRA Champions

The lady at the next table said I ought to take a picture of the product of my C-Note toaster to share.  Sorry, I didn't catch your name, but this is for you!

Breakfast of NRA Champions!  Bacon, Egg & NRA Toast!

Alas, I over cooked the egg :-(  But no one to blame but myself.

There was a flurry of bidding at the middling two digits.  I put an end to it bidding the Benjamin. I think the Lady from the adjacent table thought I overbid.  I explained it was a donation to the cause and the number really wasn't important.  I further explained it takes two bidders to get the price up.
We also came home with a coupla other auction buys..  The SandCastle Queen bought some artwork depicting the Boston Tea Party.    The SandCastle Son spotted a Tactical rifle case and placed the winning bid.  He wanted to pay for it out of his savings, but the case will of course end up in the SandCastle Arsenal so that won't happen.  Glad we bought it.

We also brought home an AirRifle for the garage range.  It's a Beeman and supposedly fires a pellet at around 500fps. I may have to set up the Chrono to find out for sure.  In the meantime, we tried it out on the garage range upon arrival at home.  First couple shots left a curl of smoke from the barrel.  Guess there was a bit of residual oil.  Shooting a bit right.  Need to tweak the sights.

We also picked up one win from the bucket drawings.  A print upon which the SCSon quickly placed dibs.

Friends of NRA dinner

just returned home.  We got the toaster.

*smile*

pics to follow.

NRA Annual Meeting Wrap Up

The upside to having the convention local is that you don't have to travel much nor spend the $$$ on a hotel room. The downside is that you don't have a nearby base of operations so you can't just pop back to the room to relax and refresh for an hour. Total travel time to and from the event was right about an hour each direction. This travel delay played into my missing the Friday evening blogger event and yet another chance to meet other bloggers. Spending Friday walking the show floor with friends, plus the hour commute home, I was done... Same goes for the morning events. I'm not a morning person. Add in an hour travel time and that's not a recipe for getting there early. (This is not a scheduling complaint)

I did get to meet Kevin, Kevin, Thirdpower, Mike, Cowboy Blob, Chris & Melody Byrne, GreatSatanInc, and probably a couple others bloggers that slip my mind at the moment.

Probably the most frequent question on the floor was something along the lines of "Ok, When is this ammo squeeze going to blow over?" I asked it a bunch myself and heard it asked several more times. The straightest answer came from the Hornady folks:

"April 2010. That's what we're hearing!"

And went on to elaborate about the 12 new machines they have on the line and the whole factory running 24/7. Still my observations match Mr Completely's. If everyone is cranking out at top speed, why isn't any much of it showing up in the stores?

The prohibition on concealed carry in restaurants that sell alcohol is a real embarrassment to this state. I understand the need for the parking lot bill, but personally this should be a higher priority. It has passed the legislature in recent years but Governor Jane-O (Now your head of Homeland InSecurity) vetoed it. Our new Governor is likely to sign such a bill, but she has a multibillion dollar budget headache courtesy of said Jane-O to solve first. Unfortunately she's been taking her budget solving queues from the Governator next door. Hopefully the CA election results this week will adjust her bearings.

The HSPrecision booth was empty every time I walked by. Props to Atomic Nerds for asking the tough question.

I tried to get into the Carrying Concealed seminar, but arrived to find it was Standing Room Only, and even that was running out fast.

Thanks to Bitter & Sebastian for coordinating the Blog Bash. I am simply going to have to make GBR IV.

NRA Annual Meeting - rubbing elbows

The 'Nuge signing books:

NRA News host Cam Edwards:

Wayne LaPierre signed the SCSon's badge holder:


Leaving convention center, we were shocked by the parking rates quoted and happy to be riding the train. Another member chimed in with another price higher than the first. Looked over to see it was Rob Leatham! I grabbed the camera to get a picture. The SCQueen asked why and I explained "This is Rob Leatham. His wife taught you to shoot! (Kippi was one of the Babes with Bullets instructors.) I think the facial expression explains the rest. IIRC, the answer was something along the lines of "Kippi is wonderful. I love her"



We also met David Hardy (Arms and the Law) at the banquet reception. Dave Kopel walked by but seemed to be on a mission.

NRA Annual Meeting - Airgun range

The SandCastle crew headed to the airgun range Saturday AM. For the most part* it was well setup with the option of paper and steel targets. The combination of a targets is perfect. The reaction of the steel targets is more fun than punching holes in paper, but the paper documents the accuracy (or lack there of).

The SCSon spent a ticket on each. The SCQueen and I both tried the Crosman. Well I thought it was a Crosman, but the model we shot does not appear on their website.

An interesting trend was noted while observing the firing line. In the 15 or 20 minutes we were there, two kids walked away wearing the safety glasses provided by the organizers. (No, I didn't see the glasses walk out the door. Rather the missing glasses were noted when the next shooter arrived.) In both cases, the kids came back and returned the glasses within a few minutes. Obviously it was not an intentional act and only noted some time after leaving the range. Now the glasses are not very valuable/desirable items, but I can think of several kids here in the neighborhood that wouldn't make the effort to return the items. At best they'd drop them in the nearest garbage can and keep on going. The kids here were obviously well schooled in doing the right thing and made the effort to return the glasses to the shooting position. Good on ya!

*"for the most part" because I really wanted to try the Gamo, but the RO supervising was more interested in talking to his friend than taking my ticket.

Dick Heller

Dick Heller dropped by the ILA Meet & Greet tonight. He was very modest about his contribution to the case. Then he asked the SCSon to work the next 50 years to protect our gun rights!

(For the benefit of those readers who are scratching their head saying "Dick Who?": Dick Heller took his case against Washington D.C.'s gun ban to the US Supreme Court (and won). It's the most important Second Amendment case to come to the court and affirmed that the 2A is an individual right, not a collective right.)

For more info, see here, and here.

Dress Cool!

Are you coming to Phoenix this week for the NRA Convention?

DRESS COOL!
Forecast as of Sunday evening:
Forecast as of Monday evening looks a little better:
Forecast as of Tuesday evening: Friday and Saturday will be beautiful. Sunday is gonna be warm... might as well come on down to central Phoenix and let someone else pay for the air conditioning. Oh, and one more thing: a Margarita on an outdoor patio with friends will really hit the spot about 9PM. Trust me on this.
(Clipped from intellicast). Click here for current forecast.

Dress code: A hat, preferable one that covers shades the ears and loose fitting, breatheable clothing.

Shade and lots of water! There won't be a cloud in the sky and the air is hot and dry. Dehydration will set in before you realize it. Next thing you know you're feeling light headed and wondering why. (Should you start feeling light headed, get inside someplace cool and start drinking water). Shade and a water bottle will be your best friends this weekend!

Update: This is significantly above the 30 year average of 93-94F (source Weather.com)

NRA Membership premium

SIH has a post about an NRA Bowie knife he received as a premium and concerns about where and how to present it within the house without providing a bad guy a ready to reach weapon...

I was offered the same premium to become a life member. This at a time where I was fully ready and able to become a life member. Quite frankly the display Ki-nif-ee broke the deal. WhyTF would I want with some sucky display knife? Instead I signed up for the 5 year deal because it came with a really nice bag, at a time when I really needed just such a new bag! I didn't need a knife, I needed the bag!

This one has the NRA logo embroidered in black thread on black nylon. The logo is more subdued than I'd prefer, but then I wear a red NRA logo hat into work every day.

I fully expect the life membership will come in the near future, and much of the 5 years I just signed on for will become a moot issue. Just don't "incentivize" me with a worthless, possibly dangerous trinket.

Disappointment

The SCQueen received the invite to the NRA Annual Banquet and Leadership forum. We had heard rumors Rush Limbaugh would be speaking at the banquet but alas is not so.

The envelope included a small yellow slip of paper that explains that Rush has a prior commitment and the banquet speakers will be John Stossel and Oliver North. Both are good people but they are not Rush. The note about "Saturday May 15th" is clearly a typo (This year May 15th is a Friday). But that's in North Carolina while we'll all be out here in Phoenix. Update: I should know better than to skim & assume. That's next year - (Thanks B).

The letter also notes Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be the Honored Guest at the Leadership Forum Friday evening.

PS... The SandCastle Crew is still going to be there!