Return of Some Warmth

 Been busy hustling around with projects, SLW, and TLG. It got up to 46* today, so I took Pebbles the Wonder Dog out for a stroll. She hasn't been out of the backyard in several  weeks (hey, she's got a quarter acre to roam!), and was most anxious to re-sniff every inch of the path we take.

The tree carving project is completed, but that part of the yard is a mud pit, so I'll have to wait until things either dry out or freeze solid again so I can get out there and take some decent pix.

Spent all day playing with TLG, except for his nap time, and we had a ball doing Guy Stuff, like taking most of his Green Army Men, and cordoning off "The Blob" so we could get it back in it's container. The part of The Blob was played by today's guest star, Color Changing Green Slime. After dinner we played "Captain Hook and The Pirates", a free-form game made up as you go along.

"Arrrrrrgh, Matey! Heave To Whilst We Board Your Scurvy Vessel" was heard more than once, along with "Shiver Me Timbers", and "Walk The Plank Ye Scurvy Dog".

Great fun for all.

I even managed to get ten items listed on eBay. Several of them were posted as "Buy-It-Now" with what I thought were fair prices, and they sold within hours.

Think I'll get some Dogecoin with the eBay sales proceeds....

To The Moon!

Holy Moly, it's COLD!

 3.8* @ 2130 here, forecast to drop to -6*, and there's some flakes coming down.

It's not as cold as some places are reporting, but it's the coldest it's been this season, and we've got 2~4" of snow on the way.

Finally got the new 3-wire AC input socket installed on the SB-401 transmitter. It might look like it's not-quite-straight in the chassis, but it's not tightened down yet.

 Over the last week, I've built and installed three new media storage racks, and sorted out four U-Haul boxes of CD's and DVD's, and got them pretty much organized.

The lighter colored rack to the left is SLW's collection, properly arraigned alphabetically, and the two black ones on either side of the doorway are all of mine, arranged by genre.

This area was previously stacked with boxes and packing material, and now all the boxes have been flattened for easier storage, and the packing materials stored separately. I still have a ton of stuff to get rid of, and the boxes will get recycled to ship things in.

The area under the model car workbench was also stacked with boxes, and those have been taken care of, too. The bench will get cleaned up as the weather warms, and I can run the little cars outside again.

Plans for the weekend include hunkering down, having a fire, and watching a movie. TLG won't be here until Tuesday, as his Mommy and Daddy have a 3-day weekend together. BTW......the DIL is expecting again, with an August 20 due date. Fingers-crossed and prayers sent that she has an easier time, and goes full-term.

Friday Already?

 Geez, I should get out more often!

Had some "Bumps and Lumps and Down In the Dumps" the last week, so rather than work more on the transmitter (I did get the new AC socket installed), I decided to work on cleaning up the "Storage Room" in the basement. Found some things I haven't seen since we moved here, and started sorting stuff out.

I now have another huge box of clothing to donate to our local ARC Thrift Store, several boxes of electronic "stuff" have been reduced to one box, and I have a whole bunch of somewhat rare, obscure T-Shirts to sort through from my rocket chucking days. I'm only going to keep the ones with the best graphics, and that means those with just the name of the satellite or mission name on them will be hitting ePay for disposal. I have more than enough plain, white T-Shirts with obscure logos where a pocket should be, and I don't need more. If they don't sell, they'll go to the Thrift Store.

And I dug out all the APC UPS units I have, and will probably put them on the "Come And Get It!" email list the local Ham Radio Club has. I kept the two with the newest batteries plugged in since we moved here, but they all should have new batteries installed. 

I gave away a Systron-Donner 1702 Signal Generator and a Tektronix 492 Spectrum Analyzer I posted on the list last week, and that opened up some floor space, and now with the UPS units moved out, I freed up some more. 

Now there's plenty of room for Pebbles' dog bed in the shop, and I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

SB-401 Transmitter Rebuild Progress - Part 6 -

 In which I joyously announce all the switch contacts are cleaned!

 I have no idea why I took that picture, when the switch to the right of it shows a whole row of cleaned contacts to impress you with. Oh, well...

And all the rotary controls have been cleaned and lubricated, and more glaring examples of Poor Workmanship have been corrected.

And I started on the next item on the punch list, updating the AC Input connector. I removed the original connector, and penciled-in the cut-lines for the new one.

After I get the new connector installed, I'll start moving on to the Power Supplies in the radio. All new manufacture filter caps will be installed, followed by new rectifier diodes with higher ratings. The original diodes were rated 750 Volts PIV and 750mA Forward Current, while the replacements are rated at 1000 Volts PIV, and 3 Amps forward current. A bit overkill on the current ratings, but I have good supply of 1N5408 diodes from the little place back in Torrance I used to get items like that from.

And it's forecast to be sunny and in the low 60's tomorrow. Probably ought to get Sweet Little Wife's snow tires on. I think we're gonna have a slushy/snowy rest-of-the-winter.