Christmas Project

For my brother-in-law.

He and his wife have a stack of VHS tapes that they've wanted to get archived to DVD for quite some time now. I loaned them one of my "spare" VCR's so they could sort through their tapes after the VCR they had died, and I couldn't fix it.

They went through ALL of the tapes they had, and found the ones with their kids growing up, and brought them over before I went out on the last launch.

Since I have professional ("Studio Quality" as of 2005) video capture equipment, and a couple of studio-type editing decks with S-VHS outputs, I got started on the project Thursday afternoon.

I hadn't fired up the PC that runs my audio and video capturing software since last January when I digitized a whole stack of LP's I have, so I spent most of Friday just updating all the software. The PC is running Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit, and after I hooked everything up and powered up the PC, Windows informed me I did NOT have a "Genuine" copy.

WTF???

Then I realized I had no network connection, having plugged the cable into an "Uplink" port on the router.

OOPS!

Once I got an Internet connection, it called home to the mothership, and the "NOT GENUINE WINDOW$" warning was replaced by a "Validation Period Has Expired. Would You Like To Validate This Copy Of Windows?", which is a whole lot better than "contact us to buy a new serial number"!

Turns out the PC hadn't been online in so long, and was missing so many OS updates, that Micro$oft didn't know what to do with it.

SO.....after spending most of yesterday updating the OS and most of my utilities, I had things running smoothly again.

Then I realized I *really* need two monitors to do video capture and editing with, so off to Best Buy. I lucked out on the monitor, and was able to get a 27" LG that they had just put on the shelf for $100 off! It had been a return from somebody who bought it, didn't have the right hardware to use it with, and dragged it back to the store for an exchange.

It "only" does 1920 x 1080 (they made the pixels bigger), but it's beautiful, and has an LED backlight, so it's very light, thin, and puts out practically no heat.

And while I was there I picked up a newer video card, an ATI Radeon HD7700.

I usually get NVidia-based cards, but ATI/AMD has a very slight edge in displaying video, as opposed to NVidia, who rocks the gaming world, and has FAR better Linux support.

So I've now captured about half the tapes, and have a rough idea how I'm going to organize them on the DVD's I'll author using all the Adobe software I have.

I might even get creative, and add some period-correct music for the opening titles, as each tape has the date on it.

I won't be done by Christmas, but I should have a nice stack of DVD's for them for the new year.

And yes, they both realize that just because it's on a DVD doesn't mean it will be "DVD Quality", although I'll clean up the color balance and fix as much as I can.

I've done video capture and conversion for people before, and some of them simply didn't understand that you're strictly limited by the quality of the source material. Somehow they thought that putting their old tapes on a DVD would magically make them "DVD Quality".

The old adage of "Garbage IN => Garbage OUT" definitely applies!

Back to work......

New Shoes for the Jeep

I knew I needed tires, as the Goodyear Wrangler SR-A 245/65R17's that it came with were just about down to the tread wear indicators.

Then last Sunday, during the Great Battery Expedition, I was rounding a familiar turn in the rain, and the front end washed out and started to slide.

Yes, my Jeep has full-time AWD, but when the tires are turning, and applying power, and worn, they'll skid in the rain.

So, since I'd been researching tires for a few weeks, I decide on what brand and size to buy.

The OEM tires were 9.8" in section width, 65 in aspect ratio, and 29.5" tall. The rolling radius gave them 702 revolutions per mile.

I wanted a wider tire, with close to the same revs/mile, so I started looking at the tire manufacturer's websites to get the specs I needed.

A 275/60R17 would give me a tire about 10.8" wide, with close to the same revs/mile (697, a few less), and I settled on Bridgestone Dueller H/L Alenza tires.

The local tire place didn't have them, but they were in the warehouse, and they had them the next day bynoon.

I went in at 1pm, and was out by 1:45 with 4 new tires, mounted, spun balanced, with free rotation and balancing for the life of the tire.

I also spent an extra $23 per tire for a "certificate" that will replace the tire, for free, if it gets damaged in the shoulder or sidewall where it can't be repaired.

So far they seem to be pretty good tires. The ride is better, and they're a bit quieter than the Goodyears.
And they look great on the Jeep! Just enough extra width to make it look a bit more "serious", and with the 60 aspect ratio they're just as tall, filling up the wheel well nicely.

I do NOT cotton to those running around in SUV's with the 22" rims and the super low profile "rubber band" tires! The first curb they clobber will chew up the rim, and probably wipe out the sidewall.

And I always take it easy the first few hundred miles on new tires, checking the pressure, and retorquing the rims after a 100 miles or so.

Go Read This. NOW

H/T to Old_NFO.

An excellent response as to WHY we should have armed people in schools.

They don't have to be the teachers, but somebody on-site MUST be armed to prevent further mass killings like the recent one in Snady Hook.
.
.

Jew Without A Gun

Tip of the hat to wirecutter, who got it from his friend Sammy.

I am republishing my three-part series about the LA Riots of 1992 in which Karen and I and the children were trapped for several frightening hours. We were unarmed, helpless save for our wits. The police were conspicuously absent and the bad guys, frequently armed with heavy weapons, owned the streets. It was a defining moment in my life.
I’m reposting this series as a cautionary tale because the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre has sharpened the claws of the statist utopians, whose ultimate aim is to disarm law-abiding American citizens.
Just as Obamacare has nothing to do with health, and cap and trade has nothing to do with so-called global warming, anti-gun laws have nothing to do with saving children’s lives.
It’s just another opportunity for the left to centralize power.

Go here to read the rest.

 It's excellent!

I remember the 1992 LA riots. I was living in Redondo Beach at the time, and we could see the smoke rising in LA quite clearly. Since we were under a sunset-to-sunup curfew, we made sure we went to the store during the day and laid in a decent supply of water and other food.
My roommate, my best buddy from college, had his Remington 1100 that he used to shoot skeet with, and we spent part of the day cleaning it, and swapping out the choke tube for the "Improved Cylinder" one he had.

And we went to Turner's and grabbed several boxes of 00 Buck, and a couple of boxes of slugs........


.
.

Doomsday? We're Still Here!

I got an email from one of my Ham Radio buddies in New Zeland a few hours ago.

He said "We're Still here. What did you expect?".

One of the radio clubs in Arizona ran a special event station with the callsign N0D, for "Now Zero Days".

I tried to contact them, but they had such a pile up I gave up!

Here's their QSL card:

Anyway....assuming we *are* still here on Friday, I get to have the pleasure of getting 4 new tires for my Jeep!

Hope it goes better than the battery escapade did.....
.
.

"Assault Magazines"?? WTF Is Nazi Pelosi Smoking?

Or maybe all the Botox has (finally) destroyed what was left of her pitiful little brain.

She was doing an interview on MSLSD MSNBC and she said "Assault Magazines should be outlawed".

Go read the whole thing over at Freedom Outpost.

Geesh.......

New Little SHTF Radio! The Kaito KA600 Voyager Pro

Kaito makes some decent radios for the money, as does Tecsun. I have a Tecsun PL-660, and I really like it. I think it's a bit more sensitive than my little Grundig G3, but I forgot to take it with me the last time I went out to sea. I *will* take it out on the next launch, though.

So the other day I received an email from KaitoUSA with a special offer to buy one of their new radios at an introductory price, with free shipping.

Even though I have plenty of receivers (just ask my wife!), I figured for $60 and free shipping, what did I have to lose?

The newest addition here is the Kaito KA600 "Voyager Pro", and man, does this thing have features!

It covers the AM radio band, the FM radio band (stereo with the included ear buds), all of the NOAA Weather Radio channels, with a "Severe Weather Alert" function, and it covers the shortwave bands from 2.3MHz to 23.0MHz, all nicely divided up, and available as "Meter Bands" for those that don't speak frequency.

It has both a hand-crank dynamo for charging it's own NiMH battery pack (included), and a solar cell that will run the radio without any batteries at all. AND...it takes 3 "AA" batteries to run the radio with, something that an awful lot of these "Solar/Hand Crank" radios won't.

It has a very bright 3-LED flashlight in one side, and the back of the fold-out solar panel has a reading light.

And it has a standard clock/alarm/calendar function with multiple timers, a snooze button, and a temperature/humidity display.

The neat thing about this one is that it has  USB jack on the back panel that you can use to charge your cellphone using the built-in hand-crank, -OR- you can charge the radio the radio's internal battery by plugging it into your PC.

So far I've just checked out the AM, FM, and NOAA Weather Radio functions, and it seems to do the job very well, even with the telescopic antenna all the way down.

The only downside to this little guy, at least to me, is that it doesn't have a BFO, so you can't listen to Amateur Radio operators, or any other group that uses Single Sideband.

Considering all the other things it does, and the fact that you can get it for $80 on Amazon, I think it's money well spent, and if you've had an "Emergency Radio" on your list, then get this one.

I highly recommend it!
.
.

Ugh....DEAD Battery and NO MORE AUTOZONE FOR ME!

The wife and I went out to my Jeep last night on our way out to dinner.

I put in the key, turned it on, and BRAAAAAAAAP!

The lovely sound of a solenoid *trying* to engage, and the battery not having enough juice to pul it in, and crank the engine.

I didn't leave any of the lights on, so, rather mystified, we took her car to dinner.

I put my charger on it when we got back home, and it proceeded to max out the charger at 10 Amps. I left it sit for a couple of hours, and when I checked it again, it was still pumping 10 Amps into the battery, so I let it charge all night long.

This morning it had dropped down to around 2 Amps, so I pulled the charger off, and checked the resting voltage.

Uh-oh....11.48 Volts!

It was enough to start the car with (barely!), and after it started I put the voltmeter back on the battery, and it showed 14.6 Volts, indicating the alternator was doing it's best to pump some charge back into the battery.

I let it run for about 30 minutes, and checked the engine off voltage, and it was back to ~11.5 Volts.....NOT a good sign.

Came back in the house, and started battery shopping on line.

Since this car has the 5.7 L Hemi, AND the Class-IV trailer towing package, it came with the heavy-duty cooling system, an oil cooler, a 160 Amp alternator, and the biggest battery I've ever seen outside of a Cat Diesel.

Since I always use a Deep Cycle battery due to the radio gear I carry, and Optima does NOT make a Group 72 size battery I was pretty limited in where I could buy a battery.

I wound up going to (UGH!) AutoZone.

BUT.....since I also needed a better charger, wiper blades for our 4 cars (it's rainy season out here), some washer fluid, and a bunch of other miscellaneous auto stuff, I went down the street to O'Reilly's to buy all the other stuff.

When I took the defunct battery out of the car, I noticed the end of the case by the positive post was HOT, much hotter than the other end of the case, and it was bulged out, so it looks like that cell developed a short, or very high leakage. This is probably a result of my leaving my Kenwood TM-D710 radio and GPS connected while I was gone for 3 weeks last year on a launch, and had a completely dead battery when I got back.

Standard automotive ("SLI", for Starting, Lighting, and Ignition) batteries do NOT take kindly to
1) Having a slow, constant drain on them
and
2) Being discharged and LEFT discharged for any length of time.

They're designed to put out a huge blast of current to start the engine, and then get recharged immediately.

Now here's where it gets interesting. When I took the dead battery back for my $12 core credit, there was an AutoZoner pushing a cart back in the store that he had previously used to help a young lady carry her stuff out to her car. I asked the guy if He could lug the battery inside for me, and he said he was "too busy".

DUH!

So, I lug all 55 pounds of DEAD battery into the store by myself.
I'm in line at the "Parts" counter, where I had picked up the battery earlier, balancing it on a display rack. Then this guy behind the parts counter says "All of you people, the line starts over there", pointing to where the normal checkout line for people that get their own stuff go.

And there's about 25 people in line!

So I start to come forward so I can put the battery on the counter, and the guy goes "Go to the END OF THE LINE!". I say I just want to put the battery on the counter because its heavy, and he says again "Go to the END OF THE LINE!", and he seems to be getting testy.

I say again that I just want to put the battery on the counter because it's really heavy, and he spouts off "I don't care. GO TO THE END OF THE LINE. NOW!".

By this time some of the other people are saying to just "Let the old guy put the battery down, fer Pete's sake", and the guy starts yelling.

"NO! THE END OF THE LINE IS THERE! GO GET IN THE LINE!"

About this time (a good 15 minutes) I decided I'd had enough. I dump the battery down on the floor and state "KEEP the damn core charge. I will NEVER set foot in an AutoZone again!", and start walking out.

A couple of people applauded, and one of them held the door for me.

From now on O'Reilly's gets ALL my auto parts business.
.
.

New "Earth At Night" Pix And Videos from NASA

NASA-NOAA has just published the newest "Earth at Night" pictures and videos from the Suomi NPP satellite.

The website with the video is here.

It's pretty neat to watch the Earth revolve under the satellite, and watch the cities go by!

I had to scale this down to 25% so Blogger would accept it!
.
.

Sandy Hook, CT School Shooting

My wife just called from the school she works at requesting verification of the above.

Yep, some nut case went and killed 27 people, 18 of them being children.

Back Home

And I slept until 0700, got up to move my Jeep for street sweeping day, and promptly went back to bed.

Well....at least I'm all unpacked, the bags are back in the garage, and I'm off until Monday.