First Flight Scheduled for B-29 "Doc"

I'm one of "Doc's Friends" in that I've given them what support I can comfortably afford.

WELL.....Doc is scheduled to take to the air next Sunday, July 17th!

Here's the press release I just received:

First Flight Scheduled for B-29 Doc

WICHITA, Kan., July 8, 2016 – Doc’s Friends, the group managing the restoration of the B-29 known as Doc, announced today the historic B-29 will make its return to flight Sunday, July 17. The restored Boeing B-29 Superfortress will take off from the non-joint-use runway at McConnell Air Force Base, adjacent to where the restoration team has spent the last 16 years restoring the warbird.

“Hundreds of volunteers have spent thousands of hours working to restore this national treasure,” said Jim Murphy, Doc’s Friends Restoration Program Manager. “After 16 years of hard work, sweat, tears and tireless attention to detail, we are ready fly.”

Doc’s flight crew expects first flight to be an early morning event on July 17 due to anticipated hot weather. First flight is also dependent upon weather conditions in Wichita and plans could change with little or no advanced notice.

Due to security restrictions at the active air force base, as well as security access at Doc’s home at Air Capital Flight Line, runway and ramp access will be limited.

The public, however, will have multiple locations from which they can view Doc’s first flight and landing. Specific details of those public watch areas and first flight timelines will be released soon.

The public is encouraged to subscribe online at http://www.b-29doc.com/signup/ to receive information regarding the public viewing locations as soon as the information is released. The information will be provided to the media for public disclosure via news releases.

On the web: www.b-29doc.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/DocsFriends
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DocsFriends

About Doc’s Friends
Doc’s Friends is a 501c3 non-profit board managing the restoration of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress known as Doc. The group was formed in 2013 and is led by retired Spirit AeroSystems CEO Jeff Turner along with other Wichita business leaders; Charlie Chandler, Jack Pelton, Steve Clark, Lynn Nichols, Brad Gorsuch, Ron Ryan, Tim Buchanan, Jeff Peier, Esq., and Tom Bertels. Doc’s Friends is committed to returning this World War II warbird to the air to honor previous generations, educate current and future generations and connect the world to the rich heritage of aviation.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well. Be nice if Doc and Fifi can get together sometime soon....

AES Closing After 59 Years

Well, this has all the Ham Radio tongues wagging.

Amateur Electronic Supply, headquarted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is going out of business at the end of July.

I bought tons of stuff from them over the years, and they were Good People to deal with.

Sad to see a brick and mortar Ham Radio store close, but profit margins on Ham gear are very low, and Hams are notoriously cheap, so running a major chain of Ham Radio stores is a headache I wouldn't want to have.

I'll miss them, they were truly a fixture in the Ham radio world.....

Here's the story, courtesy of the ARRL website:

Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will close its doors at the end of July after 59 years in business. No reason has been given for the decision to close the business. AES has been a premier player among Amateur Radio equipment retailers for decades, as well as a major presence at Dayton Hamvention® and other events. Various media outlets were informed of the closing in a brief e-mail message on July 6, but word of the closing has not yet appeared on the retailer’s website or Facebook page.
“It’s with great sadness that I have to tell you that Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will cease operations at the end of this month,” AES National Sales Manager Tom Pachner, W9TJP, said in an e-mail. An employee at the Milwaukee headquarters store, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that the message was legitimate. It’s believed that the AES staff was notified before the July 4th holiday weekend. In addition to the Milwaukee store, AES operates outlets in Cleveland (Wickliffe), Las Vegas, and Orlando.
Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin, native Terry Sterman, W9DIA (SK), founded AES in 1957 when he was just 18, after getting into the radio-TV business by working in his father’s TV and electronics parts store. On January 1, 1998, ownership of AES shifted to Amateur Electronic Supply LLC, headed by Phil Majerus, a prominent Wisconsin businessman. Sterman died the following year at the age of 60, after a period of ill health.
For many years, the public face of AES was its Executive Vice President Ray Grenier, K9KHW, who oversaw marketing and advertising for the retailer from 1964 until his retirement in 2013. Grenier nearly singlehandedly produced the famous AES catalog, as well as magazine ads. For about 20 years, he also organized the well-received AES Superfest, a promotional effort begun in 1995 that grew into a hamfest. In April, the AES Superfest hosted the 2016 ARRL Wisconsin Section Convention.
Many radio amateurs reacted to the news on various online forums, expressing surprise, sadness, and dismay, and saying they would miss AES. A few reminisced about having bought their first radios from AES.

A Song For the FUSA

I'm not really a betting person, but I'd be willing to bet there's going to be massiver voter fraud in November.

And I mean breathtaking.

It'll be so bad, and so blatant, that Richard J. Daley would blush.....

Hillary Gets a Pass.....

I'm shocked, I tell you...just shocked.

OK, folks...it's official now. The Rule of Law is now DEAD and BURIED in the Former United States of America.

The FBI said they couldn't find "intent" to violate the laws regarding the handling of classified information.

Well, Bubba...if you or I did the same thing, just the act of setting up our own private server, which is itself a CLEAR violation of the law, would have been plenty of "intent" to violate the law and gotten our sorry asses sent to a Federal-Pound-You-In-The-Ass prison.

Stick a fork in the USA, man.....it's DONE.....

Happy Independanve Day!

I'll be headed out to the Iowa in a few minutes to finish installing the LP-PAN panadaptor I got for NI6BB.

The audio cables that transport the "I" and "Q" signals from the box to the M-Audio sound card were a bit too short, and too stiff, and the BNC cable that transports the IF signal from the TS-850 to the box had BNC connectors on both ends, while the radio uses an RCA connector for the IF out.

SO, after I got home from the ship yesterday, I made some new cables that should work much better.

Don't eat too much today, and remember what the holiday is all about.

Like I have to remind my readers about what it means.....

Poor Puppy!

Poor Little Miss Pebbles decided she does NOT like fireworks this year.

She was fine last year, but now every time something goes BOOM, she runs to the door or a window to see what it was.

She's not scared, more annoyed and protective.

Be a "TWO Benadryl" day tomorrow.....

Battleship Iowa Interior Panoramic Views

In case you haven't been to the site that hosts these, or haven't been lately, there are a LOT of areas that have now been photographed, and added to the site.

One of the recent improvements to the museum area on the second deck has been the installation of some 60" (I think) monitors that have interactive views of all these.

There's a mouse, or track ball, or other pointing device, and the public can select the area of the ship that they want to see, and "explore" it in a Virtual Reality kind of way.

These are almost all areas that are Off Limits to the public, and I haven't even been to most of them.

The fact is, at my age I don't think climbing up to the "O-12 Level" is much fun, and going all the way down into the bowels of the ship isn't much fun, either, so I'm grateful that the photographer has been allowed access to the ares, and done such a knock-out job in documenting them.

I haven't been down to the museum area in a while, so not having seen the new exhibits, I'm fuzzy on the details, but knowing the quality of work that our crew does, I'm sure it's quite impressive.

Enjoy!

Panoramic Views of the Interior of the Battleship Iowa

WTF...No More Silver Plated BNC Male Connectors for RG-8X???

DUH....

Just looked at all my usual suppliers, and these seem to be NLA.

There are plenty available for RG-58/58 foam, but none for "Cable Group X", which also includes LMR-240.

I could use RG-58 for this little project, but in my humble experience, RG-8X stands up better to rough handling.

It's just to make some 3~5 foot jumpers for 3~30MHz, so the loss of the cable is irrelevant, but as I noted, 8X stands up to rough handling better than 58 does.

sigh.....looks like I'll have to use 58, which means a trip out to the garage to see if I can dig up the roll of RG-58 I bought years ago.

I knew I should have stocked up on these the last time I ordered them.

Good quality connectors and adapters to an "RF Guy" are like ammo to a gunney....it's hard to have "too much/too many"!

108 Years Ago Today

The Tunguska Event occurred.

And scientists' still aren't sure what caused it.

I tend to think it was a comet or air-burst meteor rather than a spaceship from elsewhere, but, since nobody knows for sure, who's to say.....

"Independence Day: Resurgence"

Took the wife out to dinner and a movie tonight.

We hit Panera Bread for dinner, and then went to see the new "Independence Day" movie.

They got most of the original cast back, except for Wil Smith, who wanted a cool $25 million, so they wrote him out of the script.

It's a fun summer action movie, a bit corny in places, but fun enough if you don't mind the price.

I got the Senior ticket for $9, but it cost $12 for my wife. Dinner was $26, and two boxes of Junior Mints and an ICEE for her brought the evening's total to a bit over $60.

Makes me feel like a Real Old Fart when I say I remember taking a girl to dinner and a movie for $11!

Field Day AAR

Well, it turns out I didn't set up my satellite station at the Field Day site after all.

My son's knee was really bothering him, so I told him to stay home, and I went down Friday afternoon to help the others get set up.

Hung around for a while, and since they had everything going well, I said hello to some of the guys I only see once a year, and then came back home.

Worked on the Supra for a while, took a 'mini-nap', and then jumped in the shower.

Saturday evening was the "Crew Appreciation Dinner" down on the Iowa, so I went down there, had a bite to eat and hung around a while talking to my friends, and watched the awards ceremony.

Hot and muggy here today so I'll get to work on the Supra a bit later after it cools a bit and the breeze kicks up....