More Rain.....

We've gotten over 1.3" of rain since midnight, and had about that much yesterday. Had some lightning and thunder around noon, and tornado warnings were posted.
Our backyard looks like a small lake!
I think I might run out to Harbor Freight and see if they have any pumps left. If we get much more, I'm going to have to pump the backyard out into the street!

MAJOR Rain On The Way For SoCal

The NWS has put out the warnings that starting sometime today, a series of major winter storms will come roaring through Southern California. Looks like six solid days of rain coming here. We've pretty much battened down the hatches here, but I should probably build some kind of dam in front of the garage door. I put new weather stripping on it, but if we get several INCHES of rain over the next few days, I'm not sure if it will keep the water out.
I have to drop the mast my weather station is mounted on this morning.....one of the wind cups broke/fell off the anemometer the other day. As a result, it doesn't start spinning until there's quite a breeze blowing, so my wind speeds are all whacked out. The replacement parts arrived last Wednesday, so out comes the ladder and wrenches before it starts raining this afternoon. Probably be one of my "30 Minute" jobs that'll wind up taking me two hours!

**********UPDATE**********

Installing the new wind cups on the anemometer was a "breeze". Dropping the mast wasn't bad at all this time, as I rolled out my little service cart to set it on, and it took maybe 5 minutes to swap out the broken part. I used some husky spring clamps from Harbor Freight to hold the mast in place while I got the bolts started, which was much better than the last time I did, when I realized I needed six hands to hold the mast, get the bolts started, and tighten them enough so the wall brackets would grab it.
Then I put new extra thick weatherstripping on our West-facing garage door, only to see that it STILL had a 1-1/2" gap on one side, and a 3/4" gap on the other. Either the door was never hung properly when it was installed, or things have settled a whole bunch since it was. After a bit of head scratching, it dawned on me that I had a bunch of nearly indestructible thick rubber pads for use with non-penetrating roof mounts. The GF and I laid out the pads to match the gap, and when we closed the door, the new weatherstrip fit snugly all across the width of the door. And she wonders why I keep all this stuff around! Packed some old towels in the gaps between the garage door and the frame, and went up on the garage roof to wrap a big plastic bag around the ventilator turbine.
Programmed my Uniden scanner to the local NWS channels, made sure all our rechargeable batteries are good-to-go, charged all the batteries in my HT's, and filled up my 5-gallon can with gas and some Sta-Bil in case we need to use my Honda EU2000i generator.
We're battened down pretty well for SoCal.

**********UPDATE_2**********

We've received over 1-1/4" of rain since midnight. The backyard looks like a lake, the rubber pads and towels are holding back the rain from going into the garage, and the dogs have to be seriously 'coerced' into going outside. My weather station is running fine, and the house is nice and dry and warm inside. Maybe the dogs know better than I do!

Stolen Elections in 2010?

Well, I certainly wouldn't put it past Teh One. He is, after all, from Chicago, where the Original Mayor Daley's battle cry was "Vote Early and Vote Often!".
I've seen this mentioned elsewhere, but here's a link to WND for a better story.

Online Petition To Repeal California's Ammunition Bill

As you might know, The Governator recently signed a bill requiring all kinds of arcane hoops to jump through when you go to buy ammo out here in the People's Republik of Kalifornia.
Courtesy of my buddy The Wandering Minstrel, I was clued in to an online petition to get the bill repealed.
If you live in Kalifornia, go here and sign the petition.
Please.....

Sick Dog....

No, not *me*!
Had to take the older of our two dogs to the vet yesterday. She's 13 1/2, which is really getting up there for an American Staffordshire Terrier, a.k.a., "Pit Bull". She's gone deaf in the last 9 months or so, and her vision isn't quite what it used to be, be she still loves taking her evening walks with me. And despite the bad rap that the media gives Pit Bulls, they're really very good dogs. Very loyal and loving, as long as you rear them like you're supposed to rear *any* dog. It burns me the way some people treat their dogs, but that's a subject for another day. Yesterday morning she started hacking up all kinds of crud (looked like melted ice-cream), and she was very lethargic and wouldn't eat. The girlfriend and I were starting to think maybe it's "time". All our Internet Expert Veterinary friends said she had "kennel cough", but after looking it up myself, I doubted it. Well, the REAL Vet took her temp (I never knew a dog's normal temp was around 101), listened to her with his stethoscope, and gave me the news. He said "Her heart sounds terrible, and her lungs sound terrible." We've known for the last couple of years that she's got an enlarged heart, and has fluid retention problems. He suggested another round of blood tests and chest X-ray, but rather than OK it right there, I said I'd take her back home, and talk to my girlfriend about what we wanted to do. In the meantime, her gave her a shot of diuretic to help her pass out the fluid, and warned me to be sure and have her home within 30 minutes because she was going to be going to the bathroom big time.
Well, this morning she was like a puppy. No wheezing, and very active. Had a nice 45 minute walk tonight, and the term "Miracle Drug" comes to mind. She's still pushing 14 years old, but for now we're happy to have our "old" Domino back. I just don't want to think about the next time we have to take her in........

Chuck DeVore for U.S. Senate

I first saw Chuck at the Tea Party event I went to some months ago. He's quite the straight-shooter, and I endorse him heartily.

If you're here in SoCal, I strongly encourage you to go to his website, and read his stance on the issues.

http://chuckdevore.com/index.asp

He's sure got MY vote!

Thank you!

And let’s make 2010 even better by retiring Barbara Boxer!

Well, you did it. We raised more than $60,000 online this month, our best online fundraising month ever. Over 20,000 people have contributed to our effort to unseat Barbara Boxer with an average contribution size of just over $50.

This is an uncommon effort. Typically, campaigns for federal office are driven by the big donors and special interests. Not so with our campaign. I thank you for your support and for your interest in our race.

The next five months will be formative, as we first seek to secure the Republican nomination on June 8th, then move forward to beat Boxer with our message of liberty, Constitutional governance, jobs, water, and domestic energy. I’ve appeared at 220 events in the past year, driven 21,700 miles, flown 30,100 miles, and met with over 36,000 concerned citizens. I’ve worked hard because I know what is at stake.

I know a lot of our supporters are in a bind financially because they have lost jobs. If a donation is beyond your means right now, please consider referring at least one of your friends to our campaign. Fill in at least one name and email address for us so we can keep in touch with one more potential voter and donor.

Again, thank you for your support. It means much to me and to my family.

All the best for a Happy New Year

Congessional Reform Act of 2010

Shamelessly swiped from my buddy Old NFO:

Congressional Reform Act of 2010


1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

2. No Tenure / No Pension:
A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans..

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people..

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

While I think something like this has a snowball's chance as long as we have the foxes guarding the hen house, it sure would be nice to yank these idiot's chain with!

Happy New Year!

Ok, so I'm early again....
Let's just hope 2010 will be better than 2009, and that the economy picks up, most of the idiotic gun laws get repealed, and WE THE PEOPLE can get some elected "Representatives" into Congress that actually do what their job title implies.

A "Love" Tax?

Hey, I needed a catchy headline......
The GF/Fiance and I went to get our marriage license today. It was actually a not-too-bad experience, a rarity when dealing with The Gubmint, as we were able to fill out all the required information online, hit the "Submit" button, and it was in the system when we got to the courthouse. We wound up getting stuck behind a couple of couples who were clueless about how this procedure works, and they had to get back in line after they went and figured out a few things, or they had to go back out to their car to get their ID ( ! ). Our time at the counter was only about 15 minutes, but it was SEVENTY BUCKS to get our license. The GF wanted to go before the first of the year, as it's going up to ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS for a Marriage License.
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Now I know Los Angeles County, and the entire People's Republik of Kalifornia, are in a major budget shortfall due to the idiots up in Sacramento, but geez...raising the fee for a Marriage License to a hundred bucks?
Oh, well...we've got the license, and All Systems Are GO for the wedding as planned.

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's 18:36 UTC here, so I'm a few hours early, but just wanted to wish all my friends in the blogosphere a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
My fiance was telling me yesterday that they're not allowed to say "Merry Christmas" at the school she works at.
She says it anyway!
Guess I've taught her not to be PC in the three years we've known each other, and that little "PC" things like this are just another sign of the erosion of the principles Our Country was founded on. Free Speech is now only for those who The Elite have sprinkled their magic-fairy-unicorn-dust upon, and it may only be used to push their rotten communist socialst agenda forward. Anything else gets labeled "Hate Speech", especially saying things like "Merry Christmas", which might offend someone of a different faith.
Tough shit!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
And if you're offended, go stuff your head in a barrel of dung.......

Fun With My FlexRadio

One of the nice things about having my HF vertical back in operation is that I've *finally* been able to devote some time to getting my FlexRadio Systems Flex-5000A properly set up, and back on-the-air. I hadn't used it in so long that I wound up uninstalling everything on the Windows PC I built to use it, and installing all the latest and greatest stuff from Flex.
I had to upgrade the FireWire driver, and upgrade the firmware in the radio. Never though I'd have to "flash the firmware" in a radio like you upgrade the BIOS in a PC, but then radio has come a long way since I started tinkering in the basement back in the early '60's! While I was at it, I installed the latest version of PowerSDR, which is the software that controls the radio.
The first screenshot was taken earlier today, and shows the operating "console" for my Flex-5000A. All the tuning and volume adjustments are handled by using the mouse, keyboard, or both. The radio has no knobs, although you can use a Griffin "PowerMate" multimedia controller, or a Contour ShuttlePRO to implement the various functions. I have a ShuttlePRO that I use on my audio/video editing PC, so I can just plug it into a USB port on the FlexRadio PC if I "Feel the Need" to turn knobs.
I was listening to 20 Meter (14 MHz) Single Sideband, and the top window in the display shows the frequency I'm tuned to in a Spectrum Analyzer type display, while the window under that shows a "Waterfall" display. The horizontal 'smearing' of the received signals in the waterfall display were caused by my tuning the radio as the waterfall was recording the signals.
The second screenshot was taken later while I was listening to one of the digital transmission modes on 20 Meters, using a program called "MixW2" to decode the signals. MixW is kind of a Swiss Army knife for Hams running digital, as it will decode all of the current modes, display them in a nice window, and log them for you.
My Flex-5000A is a "Software Defined Radio", which basically means the radio just acts as a "Front End" for the RF conversion, and ALL the processing, frequency control, modulation and demodulation is done in software, rather than by hardware in the radio. Since ALL the processing is done in software, the implementation of "Brick Wall" filters is easily done, making adjacent channel interference (a.k.a. "Bleed Over") a thing of the past. While I dearly love my Kenwood TS-950SDX, the last of Kenwood's Big Rigs, and one of the best 'conventional' radios ever made, it can barely hold a candle to the interference-fighting features in my Flex-5000A. Even with the INRAD Roofing Filter kit, and a full complement of INRAD crystal filters in the first and second I.F. stages of my TS-950SDX, there are still times when really strong, close-in signals cause some "discomfort" in the receiver. While I can clean up most of it by using the Slope Tune function in the Kenwood's DSP, and backing down the RF gain some, this can have some other subtle effects if you're trying to copy a really weak signal next to a strong one. With the Flex, I just select either one of the pre-programmed narrower bandwidths, or use the custom function sliders to "make" my own filter, and POOF!, the interference just disappears.
The concept of a Software Defined Radio has been around since the early 1970's, and like a lot of High Tech concepts, was first used by the Military who needed radios that could cover wide frequency ranges, different operating modes, and be easily upgraded. They didn't get popular with experimenters and Amateur Radio operators until the price of high-speed analog-to-digital converters came down. The first radios used a high-end computer sound card to handle the digitization of the I.F. signals and then handled the demodulation/modulation in software. They worked quite well, but were limited by the constraints of the sound card used. The simple built-in sound cards on most PC's don't have the sampling rate and bit-depth required to make a high-performance SDR, and not too many people wanted to buy a $200 sound card to dedicate to "just" their radio.
There are also other SDR's available if you don't want to spend the $$ for a Flex, or if you just want to listen. One of the original, and still one of the best' is the "SoftRock-40" radio, a very simple board-level kit that plugs into a USB port on your PC, and can use either your built-in sound card, or a better one, and runs the (FREE!) PowerSDR software. They're out of the original kits, but Version 5 of the kit should be available soon.
Radio sure has come a long way since I got interested in it!