One of the best apps that I’ve found for ham radio on the road is the Repeater Book App. I’ve used it for years on both Android and my iPhone. It has all of the content of the Repeater Book website but uses the GPS on your phone to tell you which repeaters are closest to you.
Once you choose a repeater that you would like to use, it has all of the pertinent information to set that repeater up on your radio: frequency, offset, PL tone, wide/narrow band, etc.
I thought all of this was great. However, what really puts it over the top is that it caches its content on my phone. I discovered this while camping at Brooks Memorial State Park, where I had no service, data nor voice. I popped open the app on my iPhone at one point, forgetting that I had no data service, and had a list of repeaters at my location. Then I saw a message that said, it was using cached data.
I find this to be the best feature of the app because the best time to find a repeater is when you don’t have cell service.
I arrived at DC Union Station at 12:40 on Friday. If I had to bet which station would be larger, I would have bet on Chicago. But Washington, DC was much bigger. There were lots of tracks, but the inside of the station screamed spaciousness. The tree was pretty tall but didn’t come close to the ceiling.
I walked out of the station since all I had was a backpack and no checked bags. I took a cab straight to my hotel and realized that I still had a lot of time before Arlington National Cemetary closed. So, I put on my heavy jacket (which it turned out that I didn’t need) and started walking toward the Whitehouse, I planned to go around to the World War II Memorial, then hang a left down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial and across the Arlington Memorial Bridge and into the cemetery.
When I got to Lafayette Square, I realized why Google Maps didn’t take me that way. There was some sort of demonstration happening at the same time some dignitary was leaving the Whitehouse grounds. I had to hang a left and came out on 15th St NW right between the National Museum of African American History and Culture (which I’d see later) and the Washington Monument. From there, I walked down Constitution Ave NW and picked up my intended route.
A couple miles later, I found that there was a rail station at ANC on the blue line which comes out right by my hotel. I went through security, got my bearings and walked out to my dad’s spot. After spending a little time there, I took the subway back to my hotel and got some dinner.
The next morning, I had planned to go to the National Museum of African American History and Culture but learned that, due to its popularity, visitors need tickets to get in. The museum is still free like the other Smithsonian Museums, but the tickets create reservations at different times of the day to keep the museum from getting too crowded. There were no tickets available for Saturday. So, I booked 11:30 on Sunday.
This gave me some free time on Saturday. When I planned this trip, I was concerned about having too big of a carry-on bag for the flight home. Kelley suggested that I mail my laundry back to the house so that I don’t have to carry it on the plane. This break on Saturday gave me enough time to get it done since the FedEx Office store was closed on Christmas Eve. I took a box that the bell desk had that seemed way too big and filled it with all of my laundry. I mailed it home at the slowest speed possible, to keep from getting gouged with Christmas shipping prices.
I had made plans for Saturday afternoon to go watch the Liverpool – Arsenal game at a local Liverpool supporter bar called The Queen Vic. I decided to walk there, which was a mistake because I arrived 4 minutes before game time after a 2.5-mile walk. There was no place to sit and barely any place to stand, which made it great. There were two bars and a back room all of them had the game on the TVs. Everyone had one thing in common, they were cheering for the same team.
Sunday Morning, I went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was really good. I took a lot of pictures, mostly of things that I wanted to learn more about. But this one picture that I really loved was the view of the Lincoln Monument from the top floor of the museum.
I went to lunch at P.J. Clarkes and had a nice lobster roll, then went to the airport.
Flying on Christmas Eve was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was the only person in line for airport security. The gate wasn’t crowded, with lots of empty seats to use. The only hiccup was that the plane was late coming in which delayed our takeoff for a couple of hours, but I was notified via text about that 7 hours before it happened. I landed in Seattle a few minutes after 11 pm, where my daughter picked me up and drove me home.
When I have internet access on the train ( there’s no WiFi, but my 5G has been better than expected), I can do some fun stuff. Lately, I’ve been making avatars from photos of me with the DALL-E functionality in ChatGPT. This is one that I did in the observation car on the train.
This was the input. And this is the output.
The trip from Chicago is different. For one, I have the bedroom instead of a roomette. This gives me a toilet/shower, a sink, and a sitting chair across from a full-length couch. The couch slides out to become a bed with a sleeping pad like the one in the roomette but doesn’t consume the chair (and leaves some space to stand).
The unexpected thing about the different bed was that I had shifted my sleeping position from parallel to the train’s movement (feet first, like luging) to perpendicular (so that stopping and starting of the train caused me to roll). After a few stops, I started sleeping with my knees pulled up so that I didn’t roll as easily, which helped.
The shower was nice. I didn’t use the common shower on the Empire builder, but they were bigger than the shower I have at home, where the shower in the bedroom was not only smaller, but shared a space with the toilet (like a small RV). The water was hot and had a lot of pressure, so, still enjoyable.
The full length mirror on the door that can adjoin bedroom’s D and E. I didn’t open the door, since I didn’t know the guy in the next room.The shower/toilet area. There’s a solid door that closes in front of this, the shower curtain just keeps the water from getting to the door.The sitting chair that remains a chair while the bed is down.Shower supplies. The bottles are pretty stiff, making it difficult to get the contents out.
The food is mostly reheated stuff and instant food. Where the previous train had you wait to be seated and a waiter at your table, the Capitol Limited has you come into the car and order your food at a counter and take it to a table of your own. The exception to this was for dinner, where you told the sleeper car attendant what you want and she’d order it ahead.
I didn’t like having a table of my own. I like talking with my fellow passengers. Breakfast was different. I got a late start and ate around 9 am. The dining car was crowded, prompting a couple to ask if they could sit with me. They travel by train a lot in this region and could tell me a lot about the places that Amtrak goes. They were really nice, and we had a great conversation. One thing that they mentioned was a trip that goes from Chicago to Fairbanks that is a new route for Amtrak. It seemed that it might be a hybrid train/cruise trip.
At this point, I’m chugging along through Maryland. I’m only a couple of hours from Washington, DC.
Daniel Gregson 
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