There's Somethin' Going Around....

And I've got it.

Kinda felt "off" the last couple of days, and last night was miserable.

Had this cough that would start right about the time I was falling asleep, so I didn't get much uninterrupted sleep last night.

Didn't climb out of the rack until about 1500 today.

On a brighter side, the Radio Room is about 75% cleaned up, and the garage is getting close to 20% finished.

I have two huge Tupperware tubs of stuff to donate to the Iowa, one of which came from the Radio Room.

Mostly more computer stuff, as the Radio Room also does double-duty here as the Server Room for my media server, and it's also the networking center where all the cables to/from the Verizon FiOS Optical Network Terminal pass through. So, I had several spare 10/100/1000 network switches that I'm not using, FOUR KVM switches to donate, half a dozen brand new 160/250/320 GB hard disks, half a dozen EIDE and SATA CD/DVD burners, and other assorted bits and pieces, all new-in-box.

And I have at least one more (probably two) Tubs 'O Stuff still out in the garage.

I was able to get one set of the plastic shelves emptied, and now one of my big rolling toolboxes is back against the wall, freeing up about three feet of "horizontal" space by the workbench that runs along the entire back wall of the garage.

And I'll have a big box of stuff like coax jumper cables, slightly used VHF/UHF antennas, and misc radio stuff/junque/goodies to take to the White Elephant Sale my radio club has every May to raise money for Field Day.

Off to have some soup and crackers, watch the Reunion, and Final Episode of "Mythbusters", and then hit the hay early.....

"Ex-Military - - Approach With Extreme Caution"

Just heard it on the scanner.

Didn't look over to see what agency sent it out, but it was a dispatcher's voice that I recognized.

The reason I didn't look at the display, or notice the rest of the call, was that the advisory took me a few milliseconds to process, and then I stopped cold.

I've heard a lot of weird stuff on the scanner, but that's a completely new one!

Next time I hear that dispatcher's voice again, I'll update this post with the agency......


LAPD, North Hollywood Area, Division 15

Rain Day - No Garage Work This Weekend

Since I need to pull a lot of things out of the garage to get to other stuff that needs sorting/classifying/junking/selling/etc, and it just started raining, I'll be working inside today in the Radio Room, a.k.a. the middle bedroom.

Yeah, like most hams I tend to be a junk collector. Some of it isn't really junk, except in my wife's eyes, but all hams proudly own what's called a "Junk Box" where we keep spare parts for the gear we own, and new/used parts used to build things.

WELL.....the entire Radio Room has turned into to one of the larger Junk Boxes in Southern California, and needs the same treatment the garage is getting.

There's books scattered all over that need to go back in the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves I installed when I moved in here, there's empty boxes from The Great Jeep Radio Replacement Project, there's a whole "eBay Pile" that's waiting to be photographed and listed, some items that really need to be tossed, some boxes of smaller Supra parts, several interior pieces from the Supra (the glove box door, and the two lower dash panels that have the (yet to be installed!) front speakers in them), and I'm sure a whole bunch of other "stuff" to be taken care of.

All-in-all, a nice "Rainy Weekend" project that needs to be done.

The "Blown Scanner" problem was solved by buying a new Uniden BCD536HP model, along with the correct Butel software to easily program it.

The BCD996XT will be returned to Uniden for repair, and then go into the "Radio Reserve" collection.

"Surplus" PC Parts Disposal

Had a nice chat Wednesday with my "Boss" on the Iowa.

He's willing to take a LOT of the collection of PC parts and spares off my hands as a donation to the Iowa.

We'll get a tax write-off on it, which is probably better than the $.02-on-the-dollar I'd get selling it on eBay, and what the ship can't use, they'll take care of selling off through the network of conatcts they have, and the ship gets the money.

Sounds like a "WIN-WIN" to me.......

Battleship Iowa On The Air NOW With Original Radio Gear! UPDATED

We're up and running on 18.146 right now......


Make that 18.155. Had to move due to QRM....

Should be OTA for the next hour or so.....


UPDATE

I made 10 contacts from coast-to-coast. They all said we had "great audio".

The R-1051's have a front end as wide as a barn door. The specs say "3.2kHz" bandwidth, and I'm guessing that's @ -6dB, but no spec (that I could find in our manual) on the -60dB point, so I don't know the Shape Factor of the filters in it.

Whatever it is, it's NOT good enough for even a moderately "crowded" band.

Signals the we could not hear on our TS-850 came bleeding through on the R-1051 receiver, making it difficult to copy the stations that were calling us.

And we had a huge pile-up after I "spotted" ourselves on the DX clusters.

Next time (next week, I hope) we'll try using the URR-74, as it has selectable bandwidth crystal filters in it.

It's a bit cumbersome finding a frequency that sounds "clear" on the R-1051, and then tuning the transmitter, and then adjusting the antenna coupler down in the transmitter room, but by the time we'd done it a few times,the guys helping me were getting pretty good at it.

We used the "Twin Whips" up on the bridge for the receive antennas, and the "Goal Post" antenna back the #2 stack for transmitting. We were running around 200 Watts output, and found that if we go much lower than that, the transmitter got unstable.

We had very few visitors today, so our "RF Safety Monitor" we posted at the TX antenna didn't have much to report to us.

So, today was a "learning day", and we had fun.

1) The r-1051 receivers are not very selective. We used three different receivers, and they're all the same

2) They desense badly, and take about 2 seconds to recover after you unkey the transmitter. This equipment was never meant to be used like this, operating "simplex", so desense was to be expected. We just didn't know it would take that long to recover

3) The dial accuracy of the receivers and transmitters was very good. We could tune the receiver to one frequency, and tuning the transmitter to the same indicated frequency was "plenty good enough" to use, with only very minor fine-tuning of the receiver required to get on exactly the same frequency as the transmitter. This would be a non-issue if we had the 10 MHz master oscillators that were originally installed, but we don't, so we run the receivers and transmitters using their own internal oscillators

4) The guys in the transmitter room retuned the antenna coupler each time we moved in frequency. I don't know if this is required if we only move 5 or 10 kHz at the low power levels we were running. I'll take one of my antenna analyzers with me next time and see how bad the match changes as we move in frequency. The guy doing the tuning is new at it, he's following the Navy tuning instructions "to the letter", and it winds up taking several minutes to "Peak and Dip" the controls with every frequency change

So thanks everybody for bearing with us! We're still learning about how to actually use the equipment now that we have it functional. We were juggling receiver line-out levels, transmitter line-in levels, antenna tuning, and the lookie-loos who came by to kibbutz while we were up to our rear in alligators!

Next week we should be better at it.

RATS! My Uniden BCD996XT Scanner Died!

Went to turn the scanner on the other day, and it wouldn't power up.

Figured it was the cheep little switching supply that came with it, so I ordered another one.

WELL....still wouldn't power up, so I measured the output of the original power supply, and it was NINETEEN VOLTS!

Ugh....double plus ungood.

So, looks like I have another project to do. I'll have to pull it out of the case and see if I can find anything obviously wrong. Otherwise I'll have to pack it off to Uniden for repair.

The good news is that Uniden charges a flat $80 repair fee for these.

The bad news is the it's their power supply that killed the radio!

Guess I'll have to get my trusty BCD796D off the shelf and return it to service.

Oh....and I DAMN sure won't EVER power up a $500 scanner with a POS $2 switching supply again!

Garage, Part 9,783......

Yeah, it sure seems like that's what chapter I'm on....

I went to Harbor Freight this morning and picked up some moving dollies so I can stack some of the heavier piles of boxes on them. This lets me wheel them around, in and out of the garage, while I get back into the darker recesses that haven't seen light of day in years.

Today was garbage day, so I started with empty trash bins, and I've already got the recycle bin about 1/3 full of cut up, flattened out cardboard boxes and other stuff. I was surprised how heavy the bins were when I wheeled them out to the curb last night, so I'm guessing I've thrown out several hundred pounds of "stuff" over the last three weeks that I've been cleaning.

I've got a big pile of stuff I'm taking to my radio club's annual "White Elephant" sale, another pile that's getting sold on eBay, and a third pile that's going on weridoslist craigslist.

And there's a fourth pile that will get dragged out to the curb tonight for the junkman that prowls the neighborhood.

But, I'm definitely making progress, albeit at a slower pace than I'd like.

At least the dog can walk into the side door, and out the big door, without getting trapped.

And I should have full access to my big rolling toolboxes tonight, meaning I can put away a ton of tools I have out of them, further cleaning up the mess.

A Perfect Day

Yeah, I know.....not a snowball's chance, but fun to envision.

THE DONALD'S FIRST DAY IN OFFICE
 
1. President Donald Trump and Vice President Marco Rubio are sworn into office..
 
2. In a rare event on inauguration day, Congress convenes for an emergency meeting to repeal the illegal and unconstitutional Socialist health care farce known as Obamacare. 

The new Director of Health and Social Services Dr. Ben Carson announces that an independent group of healthcare management professionals is hired to handle healthcare services for poor and low income people. 

They are also assigned the duty of eliminating Medicare and Medicaid fraud. 

Government's costs for public healthcare are reduced by 90%.
Healthcare insurance premiums for working Americans are reduced by 50%. 

The move saves billions of taxpayer paid dollars. Healthcare service in the U.S improves 100%.
 
3. Newly appointed Department of Homeland Security Chief Ted Cruz announces the immediate deployment of troops to the U.S. Mexico border to control illegal immigration and the immediate deportation of illegals with criminal records or links to terrorist groups. 

New bio-encrypted Social Security IDs are required by every American citizen. Birthright is abolished. All immigration from countries that represent a threat to the safety of American citizens is terminated indefinitely. The move saves American taxpayers billions of dollars. Several prisons are closed.
 
4. Newly appointed Secretary of Business and Economic Development Carly Fiorina eliminates more than half of the Government agencies operating under the Obama administration saving taxpayers billions of dollars. 

Stocks rise 100%.
 
5. Newly appointed Director of Government Finance Rand Paul announces the abolition of the IRS and displays a copy of the new Federal Tax Return form.
It consists of one page. The instructions consist of two pages. 

The Federal Reserve is audited. The move saves American Taxpayers billions of dollars and increases tax revenue.
 
6. Hillary Clinton is in prison, where she belongs. Her cell is directly across from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who are serving time for "Hate Crimes". She bitches at them constantly from behind the bars of her cell in what some call cruel and unusual punishment.
 
7. Bernie Sanders is in the nuthouse, where he belongs. His room is directly across from Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chris Matthews and Al Franken. They meet for tea every day at 10 AM and discuss the success and benefits of Communism and Socialism throughout the world. They also wonder when the "Mothership" is going to pick them up and return them to their home planet.
 
8. Windows 12 is released. It is designed for humans, doesn't try to satisfy the needs of every person on the planet, doesn't require a degree in nuclear physics to operate and looks just like Windows 7 except it is easier to use.
 
9. Barack Obama flees the United States under cover of darkness and returns to his homeland of Kenya before his trial for treason begins. He deplanes on a remote jungle airstrip. It was reported that he was last seen wandering
through the jungle singing "Hakuna Matata" with a chimp named Commie.
 
10. Oscar Meyer announces the introduction of a new cholesterol and fat free pepperoni that tastes just like regular pepperoni.
 
11. Not to be outdone, Kraft Foods announces the introduction of several varieties of cholesterol and fat free cheeses that taste just like regular cheese.
 
12. A committee is not established to determine what is causing global cooling. Billions of taxpayer dollars are saved.
 
13. Dead people are no longer allowed to vote in Chicago, a huge blow for the Democrat Party in the State of Illinois.
 
And this my friends constitutes THE PERFECT DAY!

A Little 'Travelin' Music', Please.....

One of my favorite TV themes.

Since I'm on Garage Duty for the foreseeable future (well, plus "Iowa Duty"), I put together a bunch of music with an automotive theme that I can play in the garage while getting all grimy and dreaming of the time I'll be working on the car getting all grimy.

There's some backstory to this song. CBS was too cheap to pay continuing royalties to Bobby Troup for "Get Your Kicks On Route 66", so they commissioned Nelson Riddle to write a replacement. Most TV show theme songs are considered almost "throw away" songs, but Route 66 went on to become the first TV theme song to make Billboard magazine's "Top 30", and continues to this day to be a popular song, especially among those of us who are a "certain age".

Ahhhh....the carefree days of Tod and Buz, cruising the USA in their Chevrolet. Simpler, happier times........


Enjoy!

I Sure Am Glad It Was Trash Day Today

Because I started this morning with two empty trash bins, one for "recyclable" stuff, and one for everything else.

The recycle bin is already about half full of cut-up, smashed flat cardboard boxes and misc packing material, and the regular trash bin is about one-quarter full.

I'm taking the advice of one of my friends over on the Celica Supra forum; drag it all out, sort it, and then rearrange it as you put it back in.

So far, I've found another Heathkit receiver (a GR-78) I bought and forgot about, a Commodore 1571 disk drive with cables, two Commodore power supplies, both new-in-box, all the cables I've made over the years to connect various radios I've owned and still own to both an AEA Commodore Packet Radio modem, and my Kantronics KPC-3+, and several more boxes containing all the leftover stuff that you never use, but they include in the box a new PC motherboard comes in.

At least I can now have the big door open, and walk from there to the front of the garage, so it's a big improvement.

My current SWAG is that I'm about 21% to where I need to be.

And I haven't gotten to the workbench area, and the shelving along the walls....

Gonna be a long, slow, slog........

The Never Ending Garage Clean Up Continues.......

Man, I should have done this two years ago when I bought the car. Then you'd be reading my gripes about me actually working on the car vs getting the damn garage cleaned out.

Made a pretty big dent the last couple of days. At this point I'll take a SWAG and say I'm 20% to where I need to be.

I'm glad tomorrow is trash day, as I've completely filled (packed pretty tight, too) the "Recycle" bin with empty, flattened out cardboard boxes, and misc bits and pieces of "stuff" that are allowed in that bin, and the regular bin that gets everything else.

I finally got my two Dahlquist DQM-9 speakers out of there. They'll be going on the back porch for now until I get them listed on weirdoslist craigslist for sale.

If anybody "local" is interested in them, drop me a line and we'll talk. I got them from a very good friend who takes fanatical care of his equipment. He just had new foam edge surrounds (outer edge of the cones) installed by Dahlquist right before I bought them, and the cabinets look like new.

And I consolidated about 10~12 other boxes of small items (mostly computer stuff) into three boxes, meaning there's a lot less wasted space.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with all the PC bits and pieces I have; perhaps just sell them in "lots" on eBay. Stuff like that I won't list on weirdoslist craigslist because of previous bad experiences selling computer stuff there. Every single person who came to look at the stuff I had wanted to offer me me pennies on the dollar for brand-new parts and completely rebuilt and upgraded PC's.

I know what the "retail" value of the stuff is, and offering me $20 for something easily worth $200 is an insult. The $200 price I had on things was well under "retail", and even the flippers that came to look at it knew that, yet insisted on low-balling me to the extreme.

Oh, well....dinner time here, and then back out to the other end of the garage. At least I have free access to my two big rolling tool boxes now, and I can get to the shelving units behind them, and start going through all that stuff..........