Smoke and mirrors, and "Industrial Scale" voter fraud.
And I'm aghast at the breathtaking stupidity and apathy of the "American" people.
This is treason, and people need to hang for it.....
Hat Tip to Rev Paul who calmed me down enough to figure out how to embed the video.....
In anticipation of "festivities" happening regardless of who wins, I went out today to run some errands. Got a two-month supply of my meds, some cash, "extra" coffee and cigarettes, and filled up both cars and all my gas cans.
"Other" preparations of a defensive nature were finished a few weeks ago, and we're fine on that front.
While I was pumping gas, I noticed the guy across the pump island had on a "USAF Veteran" hat, and as I had on my USS Iowa BB-61 hat, we naturally struck up a conversation. He's a local guy, and had served his career working at Cheyenne Mountain doing ELINT stuff. Betwixt and between inside jokes about that sort of thing, he asked me if I was "stocking up" on gas before the coming storm. I told him I was "Channeling My Inner Boy Scout", and he cracked up. We agreed we should be OK up here, but that the Denver/Aurora area would go up in flames of Peaceful Protest if Trump won, or flames of "Joyous Celebration" if the commies won.
I said I'd only seen a few gatherings with signs, all of them in support of "Conservative" issues and candidates. Given the number of Slow Joe and Da Ho signs I see up, I was quite surprised to see them out.
He said there were some "BLM-Type" people at the courthouse engaging in "Voter Intimidation", and that he almost got into it with them. They (Three very large, very dark-complected men) were standing in front of the ballot drop box, and demanded to know who he voted for before they'd allow him to put his ballots in the box. He said he told them loudly, and in no uncertain terms, that it was none of their business, and to please move. He said they started to come towards him, at which time two security guys and two Sheriff's Deputies came out and defused it, telling the "Peaceful Protesters" to disperse to some distance from the drop box.
I was kinda flabbergasted when he told me that. This isn't L.A. or Chicago, or some other Big City. We're a city of about 170,000 people, and a good sixty-plus miles from the nearest one. We're part of the "Front Range Urban Corridor" , with ~5,000,000 people in it, but to see Big City Shit like that (pardon my French...) here really snapped me back to reality. The Bad Dudes really are everywhere these days, not just in their rat-hole cities anymore.
Time to get moving on our CCW permits.....
And from my son, who's a manager at a Major Chain Grocery in Lost Angeleez, we have.....Empty Shelves!
They have ZERO paper towels, and the toilet paper you see is all they have left. He said some other items were short, forget which ones, and they have they store windows boarded up solid, with armed guards in the store after closing.
Be vigilant!
We started moving in here!
We closed on the 31st, and started moving in boxes of stuff on the first while waiting for the "Pods" our furniture, housewares, clothes, and other stuff were packed into were delivered.
It's been a great three years, watching our grandson grow from a 10 week early preemie to the healthy young kid he is today, and watching the seasons go by.
Learned a LOT about the weather, too, and how to dress for it.
And got the house all into shape from what it was when we bought it. New roof, new windows, a very large tree removal, and a new Southern fence, along with $500 worth of light bulbs, new washer and drier, towels, bedding, and a host of other items needed to fill up this big place.
I learned how to make and tend a decent fire in the fireplace, decent meaning it won't burn down the house or go out in 20 minutes, and got a crash-course education in the maintenance and operation of snowblowing equipment.
We've made some friends in the neighborhood, watched it change significantly, and found some nice places to go for live entertainment.
No, I don't have a Battleship to go play on, but we're no longer in Lost Angeleez, and that means a lot.
Not really. These units should pretty much complete my Heathkit acquisitions. These guys will need some work, but as the expen$ive electrolytic capacitors are on hand, any additional outlay should be quite small. I inventoried my on-hand tubes, and have to cross it against the tube compliment of each radio. The only tubes I know I need are the last-gasp-of-vacuum-tubes "Compactrons". They were made in very large quantities for color TV sets, and are still readily available.
So, I rearranged the operating desk a bit, added an old Ikea riser shelf that I rattle canned a dark brown to kinda-sorta match the desk, and propped the "visiting" rigs in place.
I've wanted to do this since last summer, but finally got a circular tuit. These guys will go down to the workshop in the next few days to begin their journey back to operational status, but I wanted to see how they looked up there.
Future "Guest Rigs" will include my Hallicrafters SX-117/HT-44 pair:
And my Drake R-4B and T-4XB:
I also have a Kenwood TS-950SDX, but it's safely tucked away, so here's a "file photo" courtesy of rigpix:
It started last night around 2300, just little, tiny flakes coming down, and by 0100 when I went lights-out, we had a couple of inches. Not snowing extremely heavy, but just a constant snowfall.
The "snow gauge" shows about 8", with another 4"~8" during the day, and a forecast of an additional 3"~7" overnight. Gonna be a real mess on Monday morning!
And it's piled up and around my "Cease Fire" smoker's ashtray/bucket.....
And the streets are covered.....
One of the neighbor kids came offering to shovel the snow for $5, and he did such a bang-up job I gave him $10. The temps are going back up on Tuesday, so after this melts, I *WILL* be going to get a snowblower.
There was significantly more snow at the higher elevations, over 10" last I heard, and that should help dampen the fires.
It's 1700 now, and 11*, on it's way down to TWO degrees tonight. Gonna be a good night to crank up the fireplace.
We had a light dusting of snow last night. It was the kind that doesn't come down in flakes, but rather itty-bitty snowballs. The reports from the fire areas indicate they received a couple of inches, which will definitely help.
There's a front coming through tomorrow night, and it's packing some moisture. Last night we had a forecast 50%~80% chance of rain and snow, with possibly an inch of accumulation.
This afternoon the NWS upped the ante quite a bit, calling for an 80%~90% chance of precipitation, but now predicting three to seven inches of accumulation on Sunday.....
Oh, boy.....and I don't have my new snowblower yet! Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda strikes again.
But the USPS delivered all the new electrolytic capacitors for the Heathkit receiver and transmitter, so I'll be able to hang out in the basement and get started on the recommissioning of those two radios.
The set on the left are for the transmitter, and the ones on the right are for the receiver, which I'll do first. When I rebuilt my SB-310 "Shortwave" version of this receiver I think I had about ten hours in it, including replacing the rectifiers in the power supply (3 diodes) and doing a complete alignment on it. This one might take a bit longer as I have some cleaning to do on it, and you never know what you might find when you pull it out of the case and look at the bottom of the chassis.
The four big "Can Capacitors" are new manufacture, made here in the USA in Cedar Rapids, IA, and have higher rated voltages and slightly increased capacitance due to their construction from more modern materials. The smaller capacitors in the bags are also new manufacture, and readily available. The only reason I bought the complete "kits" from the people who make and sell the big cans was just to make it a one-stop transaction.
I'll do a tube inventory of my tube stock and the transmitter, and see what other tubes I need to order besides the 0A2 Voltage Regulator Tube, which I'm 99% sure I don't have. Some of the tubes are common to the receiver, and are used in my Drake and Hallicrafters radios, so I should be well-stocked on those. The 6BZ6 was even used in the radios I worked on while on the Iowa.
I'll rearrange the station desk here in the sunroom so I can use the riser I have to hold another set of radios. It'll be my "Operational Boat Anchor" station, and I'll be able to rotate between the Heathkit, Drake, and Hallicrafters rigs I have.
I agree with Well Seasoned Fool on this.....it's really getting tiresome.
We have two relatively new fires; The CalWood fire South of us by Longmont. and the East Troublesome fire, directly West of there.
The ash fall from this current dump was about the worst it's been. The ash was in bigger pieces, chunky instead of flaky, and a good 1/4" deep on the windshield down by the wipers.
The Cameron Peak fire is the Northernmost one, with the blue line indicating how much is contained. It's around 207,000 acres after the massive 70,000 acre run it did last week. Estimates for lost structures is around 190, and expected to go higher.
The "small" fire South of us is the CalWood fire at about 7,000 acres. This is the one that was blowing smoke across I-25 yesterday.
And the big fire West of that is the East Troublesome fire, currently at well over 125,000 170,000 acres, becoming the second largest fire in Colorado history.
This is pretty much what the CalWood fire looked like coming back from DIA yesterday. Image courtesy of Wildfiretoday.com
Sweet Little Wife was almost crying when she saw it as we drove past.
We're praying for our firefighters, and praying for rain.......
Had to run SLW down to the airport this afternoon, and got to see the two new fires South of us. There's one by Longmont, the Calwood fire, and two more further down by Boldaria, the East Troublesome fire, and the Left Hand Canyon fires. They're further back in the mountains, but are still pumping smoke.
The worst I saw was down by CO-66 on the North edge of Longmont. I could see the smoke drifting across the highway at times, and it was a little unsettling. Coming back from the airport let me see the fires from a different direction, and it looked like mushroom cloud. You could see the wind vortexes swirling the smoke up maybe 10,000' feet high, and it immediately reminded me of the diagrams in my flight manuals from long ago.
The closer fire, the Cameron Peak one, is now over 206,000 acres with 52% containment. The Northeastern lobe of the fire, which affects where the in-laws live is pretty much contained, so the evacuations orders have been lifted, and they can move back in to the homestead. The Southern front of the fires continues to burn, and is rapidly approaching US 34, one of the main roads in and out of Estes Park. US 34 has been washed out and rebuilt several times in the last 15 years or so, and now there's a fire bearing down on it.
The weather forecast is predicting a 30% chance of "Wintry Mix" Thursday night, but there's an 80% forecast of rain and snow for Saturday night. The chances of precipitation improve at higher elevations, so maybe this coming storm can dump enough moisture on it to give the firefighters a break.
USPS delivered these two guys yesterday:
These are Heathkit "SB Series" radios. The one on the left is an SB-301 receiver, and the one on the right is the matching SB-401 transmitter.
Inside the receiver:
Inside the transmitter:
These are dusty inside, but it's evident they've been stored in the proverbial "Cool, DRY Place", as they show ZERO signs of corrosion on any of the plated hardware, which is astounding for 55 year old Heathkit equipment. The plating they used on some of the hardware had a distinct tendency to get a funky, chalky whitish powder coating if they were stored in a damp environment, and some of the steel hardware was very prone to rust. There's also no signs of any overheating, burnt parts, smoke/pet residue, strange odors, or anything else funky about them.
The microphone looks like it just came out of the box!
The transmitter has the optional "Crystal Pack", which means it can operate independently of the receiver, or you can flip a switch and have the frequency controlled by the receiver, giving you full transceive operation.
The receiver has the optional 400Hz CW filter, and I have an AM filter down in the basement I've had for decades.
These were both built by the same gentleman, and the soldering looks beautiful. Wire and lead dress is also very good. And the manuals were included, along with the original owner's notes.
I wasn't looking for these, they just kind of found me. I check the eBay listings daily to try and keep abreast of what certain items, mostly radio equipment, are worth. While I was going through the Heathkit listings, I found the receiver. I checked the other items the seller had, and found the transmitter. It was obvious from the listing pictures these were in extremely nice cosmetic condition for their age, and they didn't look modified in any way, And I didn't notice any darkening of the circuit boards around certain parts on them in the transmitter, indicating it had never been rode hard and put up wet. In short, these appeared to be a matched pair from the same builder in remarkably good condition for their age. All the interconnecting cables and both of the funky "two pin" power cords were included, another bonus.
Here's the "hook" in the story.....When I passed my General Class Amateur Radio license in early 1965, still in grade school, my Dad was so proud I thought he was going to bust. We'd talked about upgrading my Novice Class station before IF I passed the General Class 13wpm Morse Code and theory exams. And when I did, he took me up to the Heathkit store, and gave me a budget of $800, a LOT of $$ in 1965, and we bought these two kits, a matching speaker, a Station Console with an SWR meter, Phone Patch, and 10 minute Station Identification timer, and an electronic keyer so my high-speed Morse Code would be easier to send.
The reason getting a General Class Amateur Radio was such a big deal "Back In The Day", is that you didn't have access to the questions and problems you were going to answer and solve, or Test Exams on the Internet, like you do these days. The Questions used by the FCC were Above Top Secret! You never knew exactly what the questions were going to be, other than cut-and-died stuff like frequency bands, power levels, and other regulatory stuff that you just had to memorize. This forced you to really study and know the basics about A.C. and D.C. circuits, radio theory, how circuits operated, what all the components were and how they worked, how transmitters and receivers worked, propagation of radio signals, and many other things. In short, you really had to know electronics in general, and radio in specific. One problem on the exam I received was to analyze a section of a transmitter schematic, and report why it didn't work. I happened to get the "trick" problem to solve, and it drove me bonkers. I looked at the circuit every way I could think of, and couldn't find anything wrong with it. My answer was that it had no problems, and should work. The FCC examiner who graded my paper looked at me, and said "Good Job, young man".
So now I have these two radios, a direct connection to my youth, and the start of my serious pursuit of a career in electronics. I could most likely "Bring Them Up On A Variac" to reform the filter capacitors in the power supplies, but I'll probably just shot-gun them by replacing all the electrolytic capacitors in both units. I should have all the required parts except for the large "Twist Lock" capacitors in the power supplies. Fortunately these are being made new again, and by replacing them, the equipment should be good for another 50 years of service. I know I have at least two complete sets of tubes for the receiver, as it matches the Shortwave version of this receiver that I own, and at least four of the 6146 Final Amplifier tubes for the transmitter (it uses two of them), and should have the rest of the tubes in General Stock. There are three "Compactron" tubes in it I don't think I have, so I'll have to get some of them.
And we got some rain last night! The rain gauge indicated .01", which was enough to wet the streets here. We went to a birthday party today for one of TLG's cousins, and the In-Laws have had to evacuate again. The Cameron peak fire is now over 200,000 acres, but the unexpected cool, wet weather (snow at higher elevations) has slowed the fire some after a 24,000 acre expansion on Thursday and Friday. Lots of talk from people who know the area, the history, the USFS, and all the local agencies involved. Most of the talk concerns how this fire has been managed compared to the others over the years. Terms like "Charlie Foxtrot" were tossed around, mostly directed at the top levels of the state government. Consensus was that the forests out here have been mismanaged the last 25 years, and we're paying the price for it.
As a comment on the political climate "out here" (gotta stop saying that), TWO of the young (8~10 years) boys at the birthday party were dressing up as Navy Seals for Halloween.
And we finally watched John Wick last night. What a roller coaster of a movie! Even SLW enjoyed it.....
Geez....I haven't seen this much air activity since I last went to an airshow.....
Two Sikorsky "Sky Cranes"
Two "Hueys"
Three Jet Ranger/Long Rangers
And two others of the "Medivac" type, that I've seen, but can never remember the name.
An hour or so ago I heard one in "hover mode", which might have been a news crew or the "Multi-Mission" helo they use for IR mapping of the fire.
Since they were all headed away from the Cameron peak fire area, and the NWS forecast is calling for "Blustery" winds, I'm guessing they're shutting down for the night.
The fire has now consumed over 167,000 acres.
Low 90's today, cloudy and breezy, and we'll probably get an afternoon shower because it's that time of year here. Yes, The Fis...
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