The girls went ziplining on Hilo, and I spent the day wandering around looking like a tourist.
The luau the other night was fun, and yes, I ate some poi. It's not too bad if you dump a little salt on it, and if it's the only way you have to get your carbs, then it's the only way to get your carbs!
Part of the entertainment was a brief history of Polynesian cultures as represented by dance, so naturally they started with the hula, and then did other dances from the other islands, ending with the required torch-spinning dancer. Pretty impressive stuff, and very well done.
So, after dinner (pizza from a local place called "Get Sum", and it's really good!) I'm going to try and pack everything back in to my bug duffle so we can lug it to the airport tomorrow morning. I didn't buy a lot of stuff; a tee shirt for my son, two 8 oz bags of "Kona Joe's" 100% Kona coffee, and few other trinkets, so everything should go in the bag, including the stuff the girls bought.
I'll post some pix after we get back to the mainland.......
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Hawaii, So Far
Sorry about the lack of posting, but the wife crammed our schedule so full of things to do, that we've been getting back to the timeshare at around 2200, and I'm just too beat to post!
So, since the only thing we have planned for today is a luau at 1800, I stayed here while The Girls went out running around.
Monday we took a drive up to the Northern end of the island to see the original (1880) King Kamehameha, and had lunch in the "artist's village" of Hawi. If you're ever in Hawi, stop by the "Local Dish", a small eatery. The food was great, the service excellent, and the staff very friendly.
Tuesday we flew over to O'ahu to see Pearl Harbor, visit the Arizona Memorial, and see some radio friends on the USS Missouri.
When we were on final I was watching the marine traffic below, and saw a boomer headed out for her patrol.
The Arizona Memorial is a very somber place, as you'd expect. The young Navy guys who run the motor launches from the museum to and from the memorial exhibited some of the best boat handling I've ever seen. I didn't need the small pack of Kleenex I had in my cargo pocket, but came pretty close to it several times.
After that, we went to Schooner's for dinner, and then our taxi was waiting to take us to the airport, and our flight back to Kona.
Yesterday we went on a tour that took us from our "base" here in Kailua to "Kona Joe's" coffee farm, then down around the Southern tip of the island to the "Black Sand Beach" (actually fractured lava) where we saw 5 sea turtles napping on the beach, and finally to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, where we went through the Thurston Lava Tube, took a walk through the rain forest, and then went to Volcano House for dinner.
After a leisurely dinner, we headed over to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory to wait for the sun to set so we could catch the glow from the current eruption, and visit the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum.
Then it was a two hour drive back to Kailua, and time to hit the hay.
I'd post some pictures, but in my haste to grab the smallest, lightest laptop I have, I forgot to put a card reader in the bag, so I can't get the pix off my wife's camera onto this PC!
She said she has a "cable for the camera", so if she does, I'll grab the pix that way, and update this post.
Been a very interesting vacation so far, but my wife crams a lot of stuff to do into our vacations, so it's been going by in a blur!
So, since the only thing we have planned for today is a luau at 1800, I stayed here while The Girls went out running around.
Monday we took a drive up to the Northern end of the island to see the original (1880) King Kamehameha, and had lunch in the "artist's village" of Hawi. If you're ever in Hawi, stop by the "Local Dish", a small eatery. The food was great, the service excellent, and the staff very friendly.
Tuesday we flew over to O'ahu to see Pearl Harbor, visit the Arizona Memorial, and see some radio friends on the USS Missouri.
When we were on final I was watching the marine traffic below, and saw a boomer headed out for her patrol.
The Arizona Memorial is a very somber place, as you'd expect. The young Navy guys who run the motor launches from the museum to and from the memorial exhibited some of the best boat handling I've ever seen. I didn't need the small pack of Kleenex I had in my cargo pocket, but came pretty close to it several times.
After that, we went to Schooner's for dinner, and then our taxi was waiting to take us to the airport, and our flight back to Kona.
Yesterday we went on a tour that took us from our "base" here in Kailua to "Kona Joe's" coffee farm, then down around the Southern tip of the island to the "Black Sand Beach" (actually fractured lava) where we saw 5 sea turtles napping on the beach, and finally to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, where we went through the Thurston Lava Tube, took a walk through the rain forest, and then went to Volcano House for dinner.
After a leisurely dinner, we headed over to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory to wait for the sun to set so we could catch the glow from the current eruption, and visit the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum.
Then it was a two hour drive back to Kailua, and time to hit the hay.
I'd post some pictures, but in my haste to grab the smallest, lightest laptop I have, I forgot to put a card reader in the bag, so I can't get the pix off my wife's camera onto this PC!
She said she has a "cable for the camera", so if she does, I'll grab the pix that way, and update this post.
Been a very interesting vacation so far, but my wife crams a lot of stuff to do into our vacations, so it's been going by in a blur!
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Arrived in Kona OK
Got to LAX two hours early, had only one bag to check (at $25 each way, and no, it wasn't oversize/overweight!), so flew through that, and then went through the usual Thousands Standing Around drills.
Went to the gate, and began the wait......
We saw our aircraft arrive from Houstan and deplane, and then watched them clean it, fuel it, and swap out the crew.
Then they told us that we'd be boarding late because the catering truck had not arrived......D'OH!
The catering truck arrived, but because they did their unpacking and stocking the galley using the First Class seating area, they let us peons in Economy Class board first!
The flight had DirecTV with "100's of Channels!!", BUT only over the CONUS. Once we flew out of the SoCal spot beam(s), it reverted to a 10-movie DVR. I watched the flight map for about 25 minutes or so as we climbed at around 1500'/min to our cruising altitude of 36,500' and 550MPH, and then that stopped working. Since I don't know where the displayed info comes from, I'm clueless as to why it froze the display and popped up a "The Flight Map Application Is Not Available".
So, I started watching the Avengers: Age Of Ultron about 30 minutes in from the start. Had more than enough "flight time" to watch it from that point, and then the complete movie, start to finish.
Not a bad movie, but they're starting to get pretty formulaic.
1) Introduce the characters
2) Set up the plot
3) Bad Guy triumphs at first, and things look bleak
4)Apocalyptic battle, and the Good Guys win
yawn.........
ANYWHO........arrived in Kona at KOA about 30 minutes early, waited for our (well....mine, really) bags, took the shuttle to the rent-a-car place, got the car, got my Garmin RoadMate up and running, and drove to the timeshare my wife's friend "owns", where they informed us the unit wouldn't be ready until 1600 local, but they'd call us if it was ready sooner.
And I'm learning all about "Island Time", as NOBODY is in a hurry to do anything!
I'm kicking back right now, and the wimmens are out doing some grocery shopping. This is a pretty sweet timeshare, and we have a full-sized kitchen with "all the major appliances", our own washer/dryer and vacuum cleaner, and the kitchen even came stoked with a decent supply of coffee, creamer, sugar and sweetener.
I couldn't bring my full-size DSLR and lenses, as it was just too big and too heavy to stuff into my duffle, so I'll either borrow my wife's little camera, or use the GoPro in single-shot mode when we go to the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri on Tuesday.
And I'm beat and dehydrated from a six hour flight. I shudder when I think of the globe trotting Old_NFO does!
Went to the gate, and began the wait......
We saw our aircraft arrive from Houstan and deplane, and then watched them clean it, fuel it, and swap out the crew.
Then they told us that we'd be boarding late because the catering truck had not arrived......D'OH!
The catering truck arrived, but because they did their unpacking and stocking the galley using the First Class seating area, they let us peons in Economy Class board first!
The flight had DirecTV with "100's of Channels!!", BUT only over the CONUS. Once we flew out of the SoCal spot beam(s), it reverted to a 10-movie DVR. I watched the flight map for about 25 minutes or so as we climbed at around 1500'/min to our cruising altitude of 36,500' and 550MPH, and then that stopped working. Since I don't know where the displayed info comes from, I'm clueless as to why it froze the display and popped up a "The Flight Map Application Is Not Available".
So, I started watching the Avengers: Age Of Ultron about 30 minutes in from the start. Had more than enough "flight time" to watch it from that point, and then the complete movie, start to finish.
Not a bad movie, but they're starting to get pretty formulaic.
1) Introduce the characters
2) Set up the plot
3) Bad Guy triumphs at first, and things look bleak
4)Apocalyptic battle, and the Good Guys win
yawn.........
ANYWHO........arrived in Kona at KOA about 30 minutes early, waited for our (well....mine, really) bags, took the shuttle to the rent-a-car place, got the car, got my Garmin RoadMate up and running, and drove to the timeshare my wife's friend "owns", where they informed us the unit wouldn't be ready until 1600 local, but they'd call us if it was ready sooner.
And I'm learning all about "Island Time", as NOBODY is in a hurry to do anything!
I'm kicking back right now, and the wimmens are out doing some grocery shopping. This is a pretty sweet timeshare, and we have a full-sized kitchen with "all the major appliances", our own washer/dryer and vacuum cleaner, and the kitchen even came stoked with a decent supply of coffee, creamer, sugar and sweetener.
I couldn't bring my full-size DSLR and lenses, as it was just too big and too heavy to stuff into my duffle, so I'll either borrow my wife's little camera, or use the GoPro in single-shot mode when we go to the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri on Tuesday.
And I'm beat and dehydrated from a six hour flight. I shudder when I think of the globe trotting Old_NFO does!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Happy Independence Day!
OK, I found a decent "fireworks" picture, but go outside tonight and enjoy the real thing!
I'm busy packing for our trip to Hawaii. I'll try and do some posts on the road if my wife's tablet will cooperate!
Monday, June 29, 2015
2015 Battleship Iowa Field Day AAR
GROAN.....Well, Field Day is over for another year, and as far as we know, this was the first time the Iowa has ever been on-the-air for Field Day.
Friday was "Set Up Day", and was sunny, hot, and very humid. After 15~20 minutes of working outside we were soaked, and needed to find some shade and have a cold drink.
My buddy Doug came over about 1100, and we loaded the tower and 2 Meter Yagi in the back of his pick-up, and then loaded the two tubs containing most of the gear, and a large soft bag with the rest, in my Jeep.
Camera and laptops went in the front with me, and then my son came by and loaded up the table and chairs and cooler in his Xterra.
SO, off to the ship!
We were able to park close to the front brow, which helped a bit, and we lugged all the gear up the ramp, and one ladder, to the O1 level, portside, just aft of Turret #2, on "The Admiral's Veranda". The starboard side of the ship has the hatch to the Captain's In-Port cabin in this location.
This area is typically used for special events, like the Turret #2 memorial shown above, and is off the tour route, although the tour route runs forward and aft of it, so we had plenty of foot traffic going past wondering what we were doing. Once in a while someboy would stop and say "Oh, that's right, it's Field Day weekend", and we stop work and talk to them.
We got the antenna assembled and stood it up, aligning the base to True North. Two years ago when we set up for JOTA I tried using my compass for this, and found out there's just a bit too much steel in the area for my little compass to work properly! Turns out the Main Channel in the harbor runs due North/South, so I just got the base of the tower as parallel to the channel as I could.
That was about it for Friday. After lugging all the gear up and putting it together (it takes me about two hours to assemble and align everything) we were soaked, thirsty, hungry, and tired, so we headed home.
I got there about 0830 Saturday morning, and set up the table, and snaked the cables over to the gear:
The Security guys went in the Captain's cabin for us, opened a port hole, and ran our extension cord through it so we'd have power, and I ran some calibration tests with antenna controller to make sure everything was working:
By this time (1100 Local, 1800 UTC) Field Day had started, but since there wasn't going to be a satellite pass for an hour or so, I went down to the Comm Center to see how things were going.
Here's my buddy Doug explaining the logging procedure for the 'phone station to one of our BIARA member who came down to operate:
And Tom and "Doug the Younger" getting in to the swing of things at the CW station:
Things seemed great in the Comm Center so my son and I went back up to the Satellite Station, where it had started to sprinkle, sending us into panic mode:
We scrambled around to get a tarp (Thanks, OPS Guys!) and a pop-up cover (Thanks, Sue!), and by the time we marginally "weatherproofed", we'd missed the pass of AO-73.
Oh, well....at least we were ready for the next pass......:
We made some passes, found some problems I'll describe later, enjoyed the cool, cloudy (but damp!) weather, and shut everything down so we could exit the ship about 2045.
Grabbed a burger on the way home, and hit the rack.
Got back on the Ship about 0845 Sunday morning. It was going to be another hot, muggy day.
Meanwhile, back in the Comm Center on Sunday morning, the CW guys are going great guns:
And "Doug the Younger" and his son have taken over for "Doug the Elder" who's out attending to some ship interface business:
One of the "nice" things about operating the satellite station is that you have gaps between the satellites going over where you can talk to the public as they wander past, so we set up a second table with a bunch of hand outs provided by the ARRL:
One of the "bad" things about operating the satellite station is that you don't have a lot of time to correct equipment problems you discover when a satellite is going over. We made ZERO contacts on AO-7 this year due to there being a problem with the "Doppler.sqf" file that SatPC32 (my tracking and control program) uses to make the Doppler correction and tune the transmitter and receiver to the correct frequencies.
Normally, when a satellite comes up over the horizon, SatPC32 will move the antennas to the correct heading, and tune the radio to the middle of the transponder passband. On the FO-29 satellite this works perfectly. The satellite comes up, I tune to an open frequency in the upper half of the band (the lower half is reserved for CW), transmit my callsign, hear my own voice coming back from the satellite with a slight delay, and proceed to make contacts.
With AO-7 though, I've had to manually change the transmit frequency until I hear myself on the downlink. I never bothered to make a note of which way I had to tune (D'OH!), or if it was a consistent error (Double D'OH!) until this year, as I didn't know what was causing the offset.
This year, since the satellite was pretty weak, I spent some time experimenting, and found the problem due to some modifications I had to make last week to add a new satellite.
In manually adding the information for AO-73, I realized that the "Doppler.sqf" file is where the "base" frequencies are stored that the program applies the Doppler correction to, and then sends the commands to the radio to tune to the correct frequencies.
Somehow, the base frequency entries in the "Doppler.sqf" file for the AO-7 transponder were wrong. They were wrong by exactly 4kHz, and low in frequency, matching the numbers I wrote down as I experimented with radio.
BY the time I edited the file, which requires you to close the program and restart it, AO-7 had gone below the horizon on it's last pass I would be able to use for Field Day this year. I'll set the station up here at home and use it on a regular basis once I get a longer mast to get the antennas above the roof.
The other "problem" we had this year was due to the location on the ship we were directed to use. We only had a clear view of the sky on one side of the ship, which resulted in losing satellites once they dropped below a certain elevation to the West of us.
I was going along great on FO-29, and all of a sudden the receiver got very quiet, with not only all the active signals disappearing, but also transponder noise floor dropping to zero.
I stuck my head out of the pop-up, and found a situation almost identical to this:
It's just a bit hard to hear anything through all that steel! That's my son to the right in the photo.
When we set up for the BSA JOTA event, we were on the portside fantail, and had a pretty clear view of the sky. Since there was a major private event back there Saturday night, the area was closed off. The other area we had requested was forward, beyond the area where our visitors are usually allowed, but that area was in use Friday night, so we couldn't set up there Friday afternoon.
There were only two usable passes of one satellite, AO-73, Sunday morning, one about 5* above the horizon, and the other that started about 8 minutes before the end of Field Day.
I decided it wasn't worth the effort, as we'd proven on Saturday the 5* passes in that direction were not feasible due to all the cranes and stacked containers on the other side of the channel, and since I'd missed the only other pass of AO-73 on Saturday due to having some high-level visitors, and I'd had trouble using AO-73 the previous week at home, I started an early tear down of the station, and helped the guys in the Comm Center by logging for them.
Sunday was also another hot, sunny, muggy day, so I took my time and didn't rush things.
So, the final tally for the Satellite Station was 12 contacts on FO-29, one on the SO-50 FM satellite, and two terrestrial 2 Meter contacts, one in South Orange County, and one in San Diego County in the Twentynine Palms area.
The 'phone guys did almost 600 contacts, and the CW guys did almost 300. I haven't finished merging the logs and adding up the bonus points yet, so I'm not sure how we did in comparison to the other entries in the 2D class.
I won't be running satellites aboard next year as we decided the cost/effort/benefit ratio just doesn't wash. I typically would go back to the Field Day site at 0430 on Sunday to get ready for the 0500~0730 satellite passes, and always doubled my score from the previous day, but we couldn't get back on the ship until 0800 Sunday morning. Plus, I had the "sky blockage" issue this year, so for 2016 I'll, run the 6 Meter/VHF/UHF station from the same location using some stacked omnidirectional antennas mounted at the rail, and possibly some amplifiers to make myself heard.
So, a big thanks to to the Security and Operations people on the Iowa who helped us make this happen, and guided us in learning the ropes to running a "mini event" like this.
"Semper Gumby", guys and gals, and carry on!
Friday was "Set Up Day", and was sunny, hot, and very humid. After 15~20 minutes of working outside we were soaked, and needed to find some shade and have a cold drink.
My buddy Doug came over about 1100, and we loaded the tower and 2 Meter Yagi in the back of his pick-up, and then loaded the two tubs containing most of the gear, and a large soft bag with the rest, in my Jeep.
Camera and laptops went in the front with me, and then my son came by and loaded up the table and chairs and cooler in his Xterra.
SO, off to the ship!
We were able to park close to the front brow, which helped a bit, and we lugged all the gear up the ramp, and one ladder, to the O1 level, portside, just aft of Turret #2, on "The Admiral's Veranda". The starboard side of the ship has the hatch to the Captain's In-Port cabin in this location.
This area is typically used for special events, like the Turret #2 memorial shown above, and is off the tour route, although the tour route runs forward and aft of it, so we had plenty of foot traffic going past wondering what we were doing. Once in a while someboy would stop and say "Oh, that's right, it's Field Day weekend", and we stop work and talk to them.
We got the antenna assembled and stood it up, aligning the base to True North. Two years ago when we set up for JOTA I tried using my compass for this, and found out there's just a bit too much steel in the area for my little compass to work properly! Turns out the Main Channel in the harbor runs due North/South, so I just got the base of the tower as parallel to the channel as I could.
That was about it for Friday. After lugging all the gear up and putting it together (it takes me about two hours to assemble and align everything) we were soaked, thirsty, hungry, and tired, so we headed home.
I got there about 0830 Saturday morning, and set up the table, and snaked the cables over to the gear:
The Security guys went in the Captain's cabin for us, opened a port hole, and ran our extension cord through it so we'd have power, and I ran some calibration tests with antenna controller to make sure everything was working:
By this time (1100 Local, 1800 UTC) Field Day had started, but since there wasn't going to be a satellite pass for an hour or so, I went down to the Comm Center to see how things were going.
Here's my buddy Doug explaining the logging procedure for the 'phone station to one of our BIARA member who came down to operate:
And Tom and "Doug the Younger" getting in to the swing of things at the CW station:
Things seemed great in the Comm Center so my son and I went back up to the Satellite Station, where it had started to sprinkle, sending us into panic mode:
We scrambled around to get a tarp (Thanks, OPS Guys!) and a pop-up cover (Thanks, Sue!), and by the time we marginally "weatherproofed", we'd missed the pass of AO-73.
Oh, well....at least we were ready for the next pass......:
We made some passes, found some problems I'll describe later, enjoyed the cool, cloudy (but damp!) weather, and shut everything down so we could exit the ship about 2045.
Grabbed a burger on the way home, and hit the rack.
Got back on the Ship about 0845 Sunday morning. It was going to be another hot, muggy day.
Meanwhile, back in the Comm Center on Sunday morning, the CW guys are going great guns:
And "Doug the Younger" and his son have taken over for "Doug the Elder" who's out attending to some ship interface business:
One of the "nice" things about operating the satellite station is that you have gaps between the satellites going over where you can talk to the public as they wander past, so we set up a second table with a bunch of hand outs provided by the ARRL:
One of the "bad" things about operating the satellite station is that you don't have a lot of time to correct equipment problems you discover when a satellite is going over. We made ZERO contacts on AO-7 this year due to there being a problem with the "Doppler.sqf" file that SatPC32 (my tracking and control program) uses to make the Doppler correction and tune the transmitter and receiver to the correct frequencies.
Normally, when a satellite comes up over the horizon, SatPC32 will move the antennas to the correct heading, and tune the radio to the middle of the transponder passband. On the FO-29 satellite this works perfectly. The satellite comes up, I tune to an open frequency in the upper half of the band (the lower half is reserved for CW), transmit my callsign, hear my own voice coming back from the satellite with a slight delay, and proceed to make contacts.
With AO-7 though, I've had to manually change the transmit frequency until I hear myself on the downlink. I never bothered to make a note of which way I had to tune (D'OH!), or if it was a consistent error (Double D'OH!) until this year, as I didn't know what was causing the offset.
This year, since the satellite was pretty weak, I spent some time experimenting, and found the problem due to some modifications I had to make last week to add a new satellite.
In manually adding the information for AO-73, I realized that the "Doppler.sqf" file is where the "base" frequencies are stored that the program applies the Doppler correction to, and then sends the commands to the radio to tune to the correct frequencies.
Somehow, the base frequency entries in the "Doppler.sqf" file for the AO-7 transponder were wrong. They were wrong by exactly 4kHz, and low in frequency, matching the numbers I wrote down as I experimented with radio.
BY the time I edited the file, which requires you to close the program and restart it, AO-7 had gone below the horizon on it's last pass I would be able to use for Field Day this year. I'll set the station up here at home and use it on a regular basis once I get a longer mast to get the antennas above the roof.
The other "problem" we had this year was due to the location on the ship we were directed to use. We only had a clear view of the sky on one side of the ship, which resulted in losing satellites once they dropped below a certain elevation to the West of us.
I was going along great on FO-29, and all of a sudden the receiver got very quiet, with not only all the active signals disappearing, but also transponder noise floor dropping to zero.
I stuck my head out of the pop-up, and found a situation almost identical to this:
It's just a bit hard to hear anything through all that steel! That's my son to the right in the photo.
When we set up for the BSA JOTA event, we were on the portside fantail, and had a pretty clear view of the sky. Since there was a major private event back there Saturday night, the area was closed off. The other area we had requested was forward, beyond the area where our visitors are usually allowed, but that area was in use Friday night, so we couldn't set up there Friday afternoon.
There were only two usable passes of one satellite, AO-73, Sunday morning, one about 5* above the horizon, and the other that started about 8 minutes before the end of Field Day.
I decided it wasn't worth the effort, as we'd proven on Saturday the 5* passes in that direction were not feasible due to all the cranes and stacked containers on the other side of the channel, and since I'd missed the only other pass of AO-73 on Saturday due to having some high-level visitors, and I'd had trouble using AO-73 the previous week at home, I started an early tear down of the station, and helped the guys in the Comm Center by logging for them.
Sunday was also another hot, sunny, muggy day, so I took my time and didn't rush things.
So, the final tally for the Satellite Station was 12 contacts on FO-29, one on the SO-50 FM satellite, and two terrestrial 2 Meter contacts, one in South Orange County, and one in San Diego County in the Twentynine Palms area.
The 'phone guys did almost 600 contacts, and the CW guys did almost 300. I haven't finished merging the logs and adding up the bonus points yet, so I'm not sure how we did in comparison to the other entries in the 2D class.
I won't be running satellites aboard next year as we decided the cost/effort/benefit ratio just doesn't wash. I typically would go back to the Field Day site at 0430 on Sunday to get ready for the 0500~0730 satellite passes, and always doubled my score from the previous day, but we couldn't get back on the ship until 0800 Sunday morning. Plus, I had the "sky blockage" issue this year, so for 2016 I'll, run the 6 Meter/VHF/UHF station from the same location using some stacked omnidirectional antennas mounted at the rail, and possibly some amplifiers to make myself heard.
So, a big thanks to to the Security and Operations people on the Iowa who helped us make this happen, and guided us in learning the ropes to running a "mini event" like this.
"Semper Gumby", guys and gals, and carry on!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Field Day......
I was going to post something, but I'm too beat.
More tomorrow after I get back home....if I'm able to move!
More tomorrow after I get back home....if I'm able to move!
Friday, June 26, 2015
Simulated Firing of Iowa's Turret #1, Gun #2
Several weeks ago the Iowa hosted a very special event for the SEAL-NSW Family Foundation.
One of the things they did was crank up the barrel of the #2 gun in the #1 turret, and insert some type of "Pyrotechnic Device" in the gun.
Well, I ran across this on YouTube......
Enjoy the fireworks!
One of the things they did was crank up the barrel of the #2 gun in the #1 turret, and insert some type of "Pyrotechnic Device" in the gun.
Well, I ran across this on YouTube......
Enjoy the fireworks!
Last Field Day Preps Are Done
The satellite antennas and tower were taken down to the Iowa this afternoon, and were assembled and ready to go or Field Day.
We'll have a table and pop-up, and I'm taking my two folding camping chairs and a large cooler full of ice, sodas, water, and "sports drinks" to keep hydrated with.
We were pretty much cooked by the time we had things done, as there's NO breeze on that side and elevation on the ship, so it might be a bit brutal on Saturday, as we'll be in full sun until about 1600 when the Sun is far enough West to "set" behind the superstructure.
And I'm taking my "real" camera tomorrow so I'll have something better than cellphone pix to submit to the AMSAT Journal and QST!
And of course, you'll see them here first......
We'll have a table and pop-up, and I'm taking my two folding camping chairs and a large cooler full of ice, sodas, water, and "sports drinks" to keep hydrated with.
We were pretty much cooked by the time we had things done, as there's NO breeze on that side and elevation on the ship, so it might be a bit brutal on Saturday, as we'll be in full sun until about 1600 when the Sun is far enough West to "set" behind the superstructure.
And I'm taking my "real" camera tomorrow so I'll have something better than cellphone pix to submit to the AMSAT Journal and QST!
And of course, you'll see them here first......
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Busy, Busy Day
Spent the day running around the ship, and looking at the places the Ops and Security folks agreed to allow me to mount my satellite antennas for Field Day.
We'll be on the portside O1 level, using what's called "The Admiral's Veranda".
I have a completely clear view to the North, East, and South, with the West pretty much blocked by the superstructure and turret #2.
BUT......I plotted all of the satellite passes from 1800UTC Saturday when Field Day starts, till 1800 UTC when it ends, and NONE of the passes will be to the West far enough to be blocked.
And since there's an office area on the other side of the portholes, they'll open a porthole for me to run my extension cord through, saving me the trouble of lugging my generator, drip containment pan, fuel, and fire extinguishers aboard.
Then after I dropped off the Field Day signs to one of the members of the other radio club, and checked my mail, I came home and finished designing a simple step-start/inrush protector for a friend on the Celica Supra forum. He's got a turbocharged Toyota 1UZ 4.0 liter V8 in his Mark-II Supra, and is using a set of Taurus electric fans to pull air through his custom aluminum radiator.
The problem is on high-sped the fans draw 70 Amps on start-up, and clobber his electrical system. So, a series resistor that limits the current to about 20 Amps, and gets shorted out after 2 seconds, shoild do the job.
Thursday is take the whole satellite station apart, and put everything back in the storage boxes, and wait for Friday when we move it all down to the Iowa and at least put the antennas back together and align them.
And I finally got to check out my new headset/boom mic!
I got the "Deluxe" upgrade kit that included gel ear pads with cotton cover "socks", and a nice, big soft, fuzzy head band.
These things look identical to the David Clark H10-30 aviation headsets I have, but have "standard" plugs on them instead of the Aviation-type plugs, and are about half the price.
They sound great, seal out 99% of the background noise, have great transmit audio, and are extremely comfortable.
And I'm hitting the rack!
See you all later........
We'll be on the portside O1 level, using what's called "The Admiral's Veranda".
I have a completely clear view to the North, East, and South, with the West pretty much blocked by the superstructure and turret #2.
BUT......I plotted all of the satellite passes from 1800UTC Saturday when Field Day starts, till 1800 UTC when it ends, and NONE of the passes will be to the West far enough to be blocked.
And since there's an office area on the other side of the portholes, they'll open a porthole for me to run my extension cord through, saving me the trouble of lugging my generator, drip containment pan, fuel, and fire extinguishers aboard.
Then after I dropped off the Field Day signs to one of the members of the other radio club, and checked my mail, I came home and finished designing a simple step-start/inrush protector for a friend on the Celica Supra forum. He's got a turbocharged Toyota 1UZ 4.0 liter V8 in his Mark-II Supra, and is using a set of Taurus electric fans to pull air through his custom aluminum radiator.
The problem is on high-sped the fans draw 70 Amps on start-up, and clobber his electrical system. So, a series resistor that limits the current to about 20 Amps, and gets shorted out after 2 seconds, shoild do the job.
Thursday is take the whole satellite station apart, and put everything back in the storage boxes, and wait for Friday when we move it all down to the Iowa and at least put the antennas back together and align them.
And I finally got to check out my new headset/boom mic!
I got the "Deluxe" upgrade kit that included gel ear pads with cotton cover "socks", and a nice, big soft, fuzzy head band.
These things look identical to the David Clark H10-30 aviation headsets I have, but have "standard" plugs on them instead of the Aviation-type plugs, and are about half the price.
They sound great, seal out 99% of the background noise, have great transmit audio, and are extremely comfortable.
And I'm hitting the rack!
See you all later........
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Yes, I'm Messing With The Layout
I got kind of tired of the orange and brown, so I picked another canned theme, and tweaked it a bit.
If it displays weirdly on your PC, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, and I'll try and make it more compatible to more readers.
I have a 24" wide-screen monitor, but a lot of you may not, so what looks "good" to me might look really bad to you.....
If it displays weirdly on your PC, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, and I'll try and make it more compatible to more readers.
I have a 24" wide-screen monitor, but a lot of you may not, so what looks "good" to me might look really bad to you.....
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Yawn....just more Kabuki Theater, but interesting reading, nonetheless. Read All About It Here.....
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Every so often when I'm checking my PiAware ADSB receiver/display I'll notice an aircraft with a flight path that catches my eye. I...