"Off Limts" Area Tour of Battleship Iowa

People keep asking me "Can I go see...." on various places on the ship, and I have to tell them no.

SO....here's a "Behind The Scenes" tour of up to the O-10 level, the engine and fire (boiler) rooms, the Main Battery Control Room, and the Combat Engagement Center.

The CEC is about 75% restored now, and will be open soon, along with getting the Com Center on the tour route, possibly this year.

Enjoy!

R.I.P. Col Avery Kay, "Father of the A-10 Warthog"

God bless you, sir, for your service, and the wonderful work you did in designing and developing this fine aircraft.

Full story here at CNN.

Finally Getting Better.....

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm on the backside of whatever it was I had. My fever is gone, I'm not coughing all night long, and the aches and pains have pretty much subsided,

I haven't been this sick since 2009 when I moved in here, so whatever it was really clobbered me.

I'm talking "stay in bed for 7 days" sick. Since last Saturday, I wasn't out of bed for more than a couple of hours at a time, and that was mostly to go to the bathroom, get something to drink, or do a quick email check.

And I was finally able to eat some soup last night, and not have it exit me within 45 minutes.

On the "plus" side of the ledger, I haven't had a cigarette since last Sunday, and haven't had any cravings for one, either.

I guess when you're sick enough to need 18 hours of sleep a day, your body isn't thinking of getting a nicotine fix!

Helluva way to finally stop smoking, but I guess I'll take it.......

On-Line Index of Shortwave Radio Broadcasters

Stumbled across this, and thought some of you might find it interesting.

I doubt if you'll hear "The Chair Is Against The Wall", but you might hear some interesting news and/or music!

B-29 "DOC" First Engine Start and Test

I'm one of "Doc's Friend's", and I donate to Doc, along with donating to help keep "Fifi" flying for the CAF.

Just got this in an email, and somehow I missed the live event.

I'm still feeling pretty wiped out, but this brought a smile to me.

Believe me, if I wasn't helping on the Iowa, I'd be volunteering right alongside these guys!



Watch it in full screen 1080 for maximum effect.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Feeling *slightly* better. Not coughing as much, but still feel like a truck hit me....

From a friend:

Blech.....Still Sick

Go read the other people.

Especially go read the "Hope and Change" cartoon for the day

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.......