WELL..........
We were going to take the dogs for a walk tonight, but as my wife was walking out with Pebbles, the little dog, and I was standing on the front porch with Swisher, the big dog, just as I was about to lock the door, another Pit came running up from across the street, and pandemonium ensued.
I was holding Swisher back, actually getting him to sit, and wondering where in the heck this other dog came from. The other dog was wagging his tail, and looked like he wanted to play, but Swisher was having none of it, sitting there trembling, and looking like a Saturn V at T minus 5 seconds.
Then the other dog came up, ON the porch, and close to me, and Swisher let him have it.
He grabbed him by the ear, and held on, and the other dog immediately started yelping and trying to get away. Yelling "DROP IT", "LET GO", and "NO" had zero effect, and at this point the other dog was acting like it was his worst day ever, and trying to leave, but by this time Swisher had him by the scruff of the neck, and was just holding him, still sitting there trembling, but growling loudly.
Our next door neighbors (good people), being Pit owners, heard the commotion and came out, just about the time I started yelling "GET SOME WATER!", and the neighbor promptly turned his garden hose on full blast.
By this time the other dog's owner showed up, grabbed the hose, and blasted both of the dogs (and me) with it, prompting Swisher to instantly let go, and the other dog streaked across the street to his home at something approaching Mach 6.
I swear I could see the shock waves off his nose and tail......
We got the dogs back inside (the little one was about dragging my wife off her feet so she could "help" our big dog) without further incident, and a few seconds later the neighbor with the "loose dog" came over apologizing profusely.
He was on his way to a night school class, and the dog blasted out through the door when he was leaving. He says the dog is OK, but shaken up pretty badly, and asked if ours was OK. Swisher is fine, and acting like he should be rewarded for protecting me, but I'm trying to act like nothing happened. I can't yell at him for doing something that 100,000 years of living with people has bred in to him, and I sure can't praise him for "defending" me.
SO....my wife now has Combat Fatigue, or something similar, and never having been in a violent situation like this, was retching and coughing for about 20 minutes. She's fine now, but going through a major adrenaline rush/crash response, so I've got her resting, and drinking some liquids.
The dogs are acting like "something" happened, but are otherwise behaving normally.
What to do? Well, even if it were legal to carry here in Kaliforniastan, I would NOT have drawn and fired, as my life was not in danger, and things would have had to have gotten extremely bad before I'd even have considered it.
I'm now looking for some pepper spray that I can carry, but not sure what strength I should get. I have NO problems with using it on my own dog if that's what it takes to break up a fight, so I'm hoping to find something strong enough to do the job, but not so potent that an after-hours trip to the vet would be required.
I have a little pocket air horn that's painfully loud, but I don't think that would have any effect on two large dogs in a situation like this.
Both dogs involved had collars, shots, and tags, so rabies isn't an issue.
And my own pulse is finally returning to normal.............
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Hump Day...Been Busy at Work
Been really busy at work rebuilding the CCTV system. Although Honywell was the prime contractor (they did our fire and other alarm systems) I think they subbed this out to Larry The Cable Guy!
We kept having problems with noise in the system, dead jacks on the patch panels, and overall degradation of the picture the last few years. I first looked at it last year, made some adjustments, and the picture improved enough that we just let it slide. A few weeks ago I finally convinced TPTB to just let me go nuts on it.
The building where all the cameras are located is where I started. This CCTV system is only used during spacecraft fueling and payload encapsulation activities, so it's a fairly small system, with 8 cameras. Each camera feeds a Video Distribution Amplifier with three outputs. One output goes to an RF modulator where we put the video on a "Cable TV" channel, and the other two go to a patch panel. The output of each modulator then goes to a channel-specific bandpass filter, through a splitter (more on this later), and then to a 12-way combiner. The output of the combiner then went to a 30dB amplifier/line driver, with a 20dB pad on the input, and into 850 feet of RG-11 cable to get over to the building where it gets patched to the end users. The bad thing about the system design is that it passes through the building where my office and all the end users are, continues on to the main office building where the patch panel is, and then comes back to my building where it finally gets distributed to the end users!
An extra 600 feet of cable running between two buildings that the signal goes through, just because somebody wanted the patch panel in the Telco Room!
ANYWAY......The two unused outputs of the Video Distribution Amplifiers weren't being used, and were unterminated, so I put 75 Ohm loads on them. Unterminated inputs and outputs are bad juju on cable systems, as they cause reflections, which causes "ghosting" on the system, just like when your outside TV antenna was aimed wrong in the old days.
After terminating all the unused inputs/outputs, I went and adjusted all the modulators for the same output level so I'd have a baseline for future reference. I also found that there was NO reason to use a splitter on the output of the bandpass filter, as one of the splits was ONLY used locally, at the patch panel, as a monitor point. So, I removed the splitters and replaced them with a "tap" (actually a Directional Coupler) which "taps" off a small amount of the signal, rather than dividing it into two equal signals. They system was also designed with an inordinate amount of "flexibility", allowing you to patch anything to anywhere, something which had never been used, and never will be used. This involved running all the signals through a large enclosure with dozens of splitters, all sucking out their share of the signal, and all going to the patch panel unterminated.
I basically took an axe to it!
When I was done with that, I took a look at the amp with the pad on the input.
With a 20db pad (attenuator) on the input, the amp was producing roughly 10dB gain to drive the cable, almost not worth it, as the amp adds noise, and overdriving it even just slightly, resulted in the noise floor coming up significantly, and spurs popping up all over the place.
After axing out all the unnecessary splitters, replacing the output splitters with taps, terminating the 4 four unused ports on the 12 way combiner, replacing most of the cables and connectors with high quality parts, removing the line driver amp, and readjusting the modulators, I had a MUCH cleaner signal, and had 18dB more signal into the cable!
Almost all of the connectors were poorly crimped on, some falling apart as I removed them, and the cable was "Consumer Quality" RG-59. RG-59 cable is OK in your house (well....."kinda sorta" OK), but I won't use it on a "Production" system. The center conductor is copper-plated steel, and in the presence of moisture, the steel starts to rust, the copper plating blisters off, and the conductivity goes sharply down. I replaced it with Belden RG-6QS, rated (and swept) to 3GHz. The Belden cable has a solid-copper center conductor, two layers of braid, and two "foil" shields. It's really excellent cable for this type of use, and I mated it with Thomas & Betts "Snap-N-Seal" F-Type connectors, which have internal o-rings to weather proof them.
Now I'm working on the next part of the system, which is the patch bay located in the main office building. It was originally located there as they wanted to be able to send the video to certain offices and conference rooms during certain operations, something which has never been done.
And I'm finding the same things; cheap connectors and cable that fall apart, unneeded splitters sucking out signal, another unneeded amplifier, and four unneeded bandpass filters.
I removed all the equipment we don't use, all of the cables and splitters, and started putting the rack back together today. We still haven't decided if we're going to move the rack over to the building where all the end users are located, but I think we should, as it would eliminate 600 feet of cable run, and leave us with five cables between the buildings that we can use to run the signal back to the two places where it's needed, the server room, and one office that would be used as an "Incident Command Center" in case we had an accident during spacecraft fueling operations.
At least I'm being left on my own to do the job, as nobody there understands things like this, usually good for job security!
We kept having problems with noise in the system, dead jacks on the patch panels, and overall degradation of the picture the last few years. I first looked at it last year, made some adjustments, and the picture improved enough that we just let it slide. A few weeks ago I finally convinced TPTB to just let me go nuts on it.
The building where all the cameras are located is where I started. This CCTV system is only used during spacecraft fueling and payload encapsulation activities, so it's a fairly small system, with 8 cameras. Each camera feeds a Video Distribution Amplifier with three outputs. One output goes to an RF modulator where we put the video on a "Cable TV" channel, and the other two go to a patch panel. The output of each modulator then goes to a channel-specific bandpass filter, through a splitter (more on this later), and then to a 12-way combiner. The output of the combiner then went to a 30dB amplifier/line driver, with a 20dB pad on the input, and into 850 feet of RG-11 cable to get over to the building where it gets patched to the end users. The bad thing about the system design is that it passes through the building where my office and all the end users are, continues on to the main office building where the patch panel is, and then comes back to my building where it finally gets distributed to the end users!
An extra 600 feet of cable running between two buildings that the signal goes through, just because somebody wanted the patch panel in the Telco Room!
ANYWAY......The two unused outputs of the Video Distribution Amplifiers weren't being used, and were unterminated, so I put 75 Ohm loads on them. Unterminated inputs and outputs are bad juju on cable systems, as they cause reflections, which causes "ghosting" on the system, just like when your outside TV antenna was aimed wrong in the old days.
After terminating all the unused inputs/outputs, I went and adjusted all the modulators for the same output level so I'd have a baseline for future reference. I also found that there was NO reason to use a splitter on the output of the bandpass filter, as one of the splits was ONLY used locally, at the patch panel, as a monitor point. So, I removed the splitters and replaced them with a "tap" (actually a Directional Coupler) which "taps" off a small amount of the signal, rather than dividing it into two equal signals. They system was also designed with an inordinate amount of "flexibility", allowing you to patch anything to anywhere, something which had never been used, and never will be used. This involved running all the signals through a large enclosure with dozens of splitters, all sucking out their share of the signal, and all going to the patch panel unterminated.
I basically took an axe to it!
When I was done with that, I took a look at the amp with the pad on the input.
With a 20db pad (attenuator) on the input, the amp was producing roughly 10dB gain to drive the cable, almost not worth it, as the amp adds noise, and overdriving it even just slightly, resulted in the noise floor coming up significantly, and spurs popping up all over the place.
After axing out all the unnecessary splitters, replacing the output splitters with taps, terminating the 4 four unused ports on the 12 way combiner, replacing most of the cables and connectors with high quality parts, removing the line driver amp, and readjusting the modulators, I had a MUCH cleaner signal, and had 18dB more signal into the cable!
Almost all of the connectors were poorly crimped on, some falling apart as I removed them, and the cable was "Consumer Quality" RG-59. RG-59 cable is OK in your house (well....."kinda sorta" OK), but I won't use it on a "Production" system. The center conductor is copper-plated steel, and in the presence of moisture, the steel starts to rust, the copper plating blisters off, and the conductivity goes sharply down. I replaced it with Belden RG-6QS, rated (and swept) to 3GHz. The Belden cable has a solid-copper center conductor, two layers of braid, and two "foil" shields. It's really excellent cable for this type of use, and I mated it with Thomas & Betts "Snap-N-Seal" F-Type connectors, which have internal o-rings to weather proof them.
Now I'm working on the next part of the system, which is the patch bay located in the main office building. It was originally located there as they wanted to be able to send the video to certain offices and conference rooms during certain operations, something which has never been done.
And I'm finding the same things; cheap connectors and cable that fall apart, unneeded splitters sucking out signal, another unneeded amplifier, and four unneeded bandpass filters.
I removed all the equipment we don't use, all of the cables and splitters, and started putting the rack back together today. We still haven't decided if we're going to move the rack over to the building where all the end users are located, but I think we should, as it would eliminate 600 feet of cable run, and leave us with five cables between the buildings that we can use to run the signal back to the two places where it's needed, the server room, and one office that would be used as an "Incident Command Center" in case we had an accident during spacecraft fueling operations.
At least I'm being left on my own to do the job, as nobody there understands things like this, usually good for job security!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Minor Party In Progress Here........
My wife has her two best friends over tonight for dinner, a movie, and a little wine.
One had a birthday last week, one has a birthday today, and she also became a grandmother last week.
I'd head out to the garage and smoke a cigar, but I'm not finished cleaning and organizing the garage, and I quit smoking!
So I'm hiding out in Radio Central getting our new NAS up on the network, and doing back-ups on all the household PC's.
I'll send up a red flare for help if things get too out of hand here......
One had a birthday last week, one has a birthday today, and she also became a grandmother last week.
I'd head out to the garage and smoke a cigar, but I'm not finished cleaning and organizing the garage, and I quit smoking!
So I'm hiding out in Radio Central getting our new NAS up on the network, and doing back-ups on all the household PC's.
I'll send up a red flare for help if things get too out of hand here......
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Friday Already??
DUH..........
Been busy playing with the dogs, finishing up some extra patch cables for the JOTA event on the Iowa, and getting ready to test all my stuff over the weekend.
AND......I'm learning how to field strip, clean, and lubricate (GREASE! NO OIL!) my M1 Garand.
I was a bit intimidated by it at first, but with the half-dozen or so books and manuals I have, I finally took a deep breath, and started doing it, learning all the names of the parts, and how they fit together.
It kind of reminds me of when I first bought my Kimber 45ACP a few years ago. I hadn't taken a 1911 apart in so long that I was scared to do it (BOING! there goes the recoil spring...AGAIN!), but I had several 1911 books, took a deep breath, and started getting familiar with it again.
Now that I'm somewhat familiar with the internal parts, AND have some ammo for it, I'm going to plan a trip up to the rifle range with my son so we can see if I can shoot the thing.
Should be fun.....
Hope y'all have a great weekend!
Been busy playing with the dogs, finishing up some extra patch cables for the JOTA event on the Iowa, and getting ready to test all my stuff over the weekend.
AND......I'm learning how to field strip, clean, and lubricate (GREASE! NO OIL!) my M1 Garand.
I was a bit intimidated by it at first, but with the half-dozen or so books and manuals I have, I finally took a deep breath, and started doing it, learning all the names of the parts, and how they fit together.
It kind of reminds me of when I first bought my Kimber 45ACP a few years ago. I hadn't taken a 1911 apart in so long that I was scared to do it (BOING! there goes the recoil spring...AGAIN!), but I had several 1911 books, took a deep breath, and started getting familiar with it again.
Now that I'm somewhat familiar with the internal parts, AND have some ammo for it, I'm going to plan a trip up to the rifle range with my son so we can see if I can shoot the thing.
Should be fun.....
Hope y'all have a great weekend!
Monday, October 7, 2013
Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner Finished
Well, I didn't get to do much work on it this weekend.
Saturday morning my radio club had the "First Saturday of the Month" breakfast, and then I spent some time talking to other club members about various projects we're all working on.
Got back from "breakfast" about 1030, and had some "Honey Dews" in the job jar that had to be done.
Late Saturday afternoon we went out for an early dinner at a little Mexican restaurant, and then we went to a movie.
I wanted to go see "Rush", and she wanted to go see "Gravity".
Hmmmm....she lets me play radio, work on the garage to clean it up for another BIG upcoming project, never complains if I don't do the vacuuming on the appointed day or forget to empty/load the dishwasher, etc, etc, etc.
We went to see "Gravity".
DON'T waste your money on this movie!
It's so full of technical mistakes (the producer/director calls them "artistic liberties") that I found it rather uncomfortable to watch, being somewhat familiar with orbital mechanics and other "Rocket Science" stuff.
Plus, it has George Clooney (or is that George LOONEY?) in it, and I do not like paying to see this left-wing moonbat on screen!
But she enjoyed it, and she does so much for me that I really can't complain about going to certain movies with her.
Sunday started off fine, then her brother called to remind me I'd promised to fix his son's Onkyo home theater receiver that somehow managed to get a 1/4" headphone plug snapped off in the jack, disabling all the speakers, and most of the THX/Dolby/Surround Sound features.
Sigh......
That only took about 45 minutes to repair, but then we sat around yakking about all kinds of other stuff for another couple of hours, so most of Sunday was used up.
SO.....I was primed to finish this thing when I got home from work tonight, and finish it I did.
It was 95% or better completed, and all I had to do was find all my connectors and stuff to power it up, do some basic checks, and calibrate the VSWR bridge that's built into it.
And here she is, sitting underneath the Elecraft K2/100 radio I'll be using it with.
tuner.JPG)
One thing I'd forgotten was that this particular Astron SS-30M power supply was really noisy on HF frequencies, as shown by the little green bargraph just to the left of the frequency display.
Normally, like when running on batteries or a "linear" power supply, AND with the antenna connected to a dummy load, the meter would indicate ZERO bars/segments being lit, and not an "S9 +20" noise level!
I've got another one of these supplies in my Field Day kit, so I'll drag it out tomorrow and see how it compares, but I do remember one of these supplies being NOISY.
If the other supply is quiet, I'll pop the covers off both of them and check that this one has all the same components in it, and I'll try to silence this one.
Otherwise I'll just use the other supply when I operate the JOTA station on the 19th, and try and figure out what to do with this one.
Saturday morning my radio club had the "First Saturday of the Month" breakfast, and then I spent some time talking to other club members about various projects we're all working on.
Got back from "breakfast" about 1030, and had some "Honey Dews" in the job jar that had to be done.
Late Saturday afternoon we went out for an early dinner at a little Mexican restaurant, and then we went to a movie.
I wanted to go see "Rush", and she wanted to go see "Gravity".
Hmmmm....she lets me play radio, work on the garage to clean it up for another BIG upcoming project, never complains if I don't do the vacuuming on the appointed day or forget to empty/load the dishwasher, etc, etc, etc.
We went to see "Gravity".
DON'T waste your money on this movie!
It's so full of technical mistakes (the producer/director calls them "artistic liberties") that I found it rather uncomfortable to watch, being somewhat familiar with orbital mechanics and other "Rocket Science" stuff.
Plus, it has George Clooney (or is that George LOONEY?) in it, and I do not like paying to see this left-wing moonbat on screen!
But she enjoyed it, and she does so much for me that I really can't complain about going to certain movies with her.
Sunday started off fine, then her brother called to remind me I'd promised to fix his son's Onkyo home theater receiver that somehow managed to get a 1/4" headphone plug snapped off in the jack, disabling all the speakers, and most of the THX/Dolby/Surround Sound features.
Sigh......
That only took about 45 minutes to repair, but then we sat around yakking about all kinds of other stuff for another couple of hours, so most of Sunday was used up.
SO.....I was primed to finish this thing when I got home from work tonight, and finish it I did.
It was 95% or better completed, and all I had to do was find all my connectors and stuff to power it up, do some basic checks, and calibrate the VSWR bridge that's built into it.
And here she is, sitting underneath the Elecraft K2/100 radio I'll be using it with.
tuner.JPG)
One thing I'd forgotten was that this particular Astron SS-30M power supply was really noisy on HF frequencies, as shown by the little green bargraph just to the left of the frequency display.
Normally, like when running on batteries or a "linear" power supply, AND with the antenna connected to a dummy load, the meter would indicate ZERO bars/segments being lit, and not an "S9 +20" noise level!
I've got another one of these supplies in my Field Day kit, so I'll drag it out tomorrow and see how it compares, but I do remember one of these supplies being NOISY.
If the other supply is quiet, I'll pop the covers off both of them and check that this one has all the same components in it, and I'll try to silence this one.
Otherwise I'll just use the other supply when I operate the JOTA station on the 19th, and try and figure out what to do with this one.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner Update
Well, after spending some time winding the toroids (Somewhere here I have a "Tirade on Toroids" since it's not one of my favorite things to do), I installed all the relays (the black cubes) that select the components needed to match the antenna to 50 Ohms , and then mounted the toroids, and soldered them down.
All the resistance checks on the board passed with flying colors, and this board is now ready to move on to the "Final Assembly" stage, where the few remaining mechanical parts and connectors will be added.
I also finished the Front Panel board, which mainly has the indicator LED's, and some Octal Drivers for powering the LED's.
So, on to one of my favorite sections of the Assembly Manual, "Final Assembly"!
Now I get to mess around with mounting the SO-239 RF connectors, and assembling all the bits and pieces that make up the enclosure.
Hope you're all having a good weekend. We're under Santa Ana conditions here, with wind gusts in excess of 20MPH, even here in The LBC.
All the resistance checks on the board passed with flying colors, and this board is now ready to move on to the "Final Assembly" stage, where the few remaining mechanical parts and connectors will be added.
I also finished the Front Panel board, which mainly has the indicator LED's, and some Octal Drivers for powering the LED's.
So, on to one of my favorite sections of the Assembly Manual, "Final Assembly"!
Now I get to mess around with mounting the SO-239 RF connectors, and assembling all the bits and pieces that make up the enclosure.
Hope you're all having a good weekend. We're under Santa Ana conditions here, with wind gusts in excess of 20MPH, even here in The LBC.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
How To Tell If Your Dog Is Involved In A Sex Scandal
Woof-Woof!
(Dog-speak for "Enough Said!")
More on the Elecraft Project tomorrow.....
.
.
(Dog-speak for "Enough Said!")
More on the Elecraft Project tomorrow.....
.
.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Construction Of Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner
Yesterday afternoon on my way home from work, I stopped at my mail service, and picked up my Elecraft KAT100 kit. I rushed home like a kid at Christmas, opened the box, did the parts inventory, cleaned the bench, set up my PanaVise, and clamped the main Printed Circuit Board into it.
If you're a homebrewer, or have worked in Electronics Assembly, you're no doubt familiar with the PanaVise line of products.
If you're not, you should be.
PanaVise makes many different products, but the ones I use the most are for holding printed circuit boards while you assemble and solder them.
The rig seen holding the board is the "Model 300 Standard Base", mounted to the "Model 312 Tray Base Mount", and holding the "Model 315 Circuit Board Holder".
I also have the "Model 303 Standard Head" , the "Model 376 Self-Centering, Extra Wide Opening Head", and a few other items they make, like the soft-jaws for the "Standard Head".
These tools are not cheap, but as I joked about the test gear I recently bought, their cost will be "amortized" out over the many, many, many times I use them. It's such a JOY to be able to make proper solder connections without having the board flop all over the bench, and to be able to flip/pivot the board from front-to-back to insert the components, that these things pay for themselves just in diminished aggravation the FIRST time you use them!
Plus they mounting base I have the vise base attached to has handy little compartments to put small parts in.
So, not that we have the board mounted, let's get started, shall we?
The first parts to be soldered into the board are the capacitors, so I sorted them out, and put them in the tray compartments.
Then I looked in the assembly manual, for what value capacitor corresponds to the component designator silk-screened on the board, and inserted the capacitor, bending the leads on the backside of the board to hold it in place before soldering it, "C47" in this case.
Some are checked off because I'd already started inserting them before I decided to take pictures to show my friends here how the kit goes together.
So I find the correct location on the board and insert the capacitor.
One thing important to do is to verify that you've inserted the correct part before soldering it down, a variation of the "Measure TWICE, Cut ONCE" rule.
Yes, these are fairly small parts, and I NEED my magnifying lamp to read the part value!
As you insert the parts, bend the leads out to hold them in place before you solder them.
This is what they look like under magnification, before soldering.
The parts are then soldered in, using my Weller WESD Temperature Controlled Soldering Station.
Then the leads are clipped, and I move on to the next group of parts to be inserted and soldered.
This kit I'm assembling is made by Elecraft, who make high-quality, high-performance radio kits. The parts are all high-quality, and in particular their circuit boards are among the best I've ever seen.
Everything about the boards is flawless, from the plated-through holes, to the solder plating and solder mask and the silk-screen and the fact they're spotless when you get them just screams "QUALITY"!
I've seen "Commercial Quality" equipment that didn't have boards this nice. Whoever their board house is certainly has their act together.
I'll continue this tomorrow or the next night, but right now it's 2230 hours, and I have to hit the rack.
Good night, all!
If you're a homebrewer, or have worked in Electronics Assembly, you're no doubt familiar with the PanaVise line of products.
If you're not, you should be.
PanaVise makes many different products, but the ones I use the most are for holding printed circuit boards while you assemble and solder them.
The rig seen holding the board is the "Model 300 Standard Base", mounted to the "Model 312 Tray Base Mount", and holding the "Model 315 Circuit Board Holder".
I also have the "Model 303 Standard Head" , the "Model 376 Self-Centering, Extra Wide Opening Head", and a few other items they make, like the soft-jaws for the "Standard Head".
These tools are not cheap, but as I joked about the test gear I recently bought, their cost will be "amortized" out over the many, many, many times I use them. It's such a JOY to be able to make proper solder connections without having the board flop all over the bench, and to be able to flip/pivot the board from front-to-back to insert the components, that these things pay for themselves just in diminished aggravation the FIRST time you use them!
Plus they mounting base I have the vise base attached to has handy little compartments to put small parts in.
So, not that we have the board mounted, let's get started, shall we?
The first parts to be soldered into the board are the capacitors, so I sorted them out, and put them in the tray compartments.
Then I looked in the assembly manual, for what value capacitor corresponds to the component designator silk-screened on the board, and inserted the capacitor, bending the leads on the backside of the board to hold it in place before soldering it, "C47" in this case.
Some are checked off because I'd already started inserting them before I decided to take pictures to show my friends here how the kit goes together.
So I find the correct location on the board and insert the capacitor.
One thing important to do is to verify that you've inserted the correct part before soldering it down, a variation of the "Measure TWICE, Cut ONCE" rule.
Yes, these are fairly small parts, and I NEED my magnifying lamp to read the part value!
As you insert the parts, bend the leads out to hold them in place before you solder them.
This is what they look like under magnification, before soldering.
The parts are then soldered in, using my Weller WESD Temperature Controlled Soldering Station.
Then the leads are clipped, and I move on to the next group of parts to be inserted and soldered.
This kit I'm assembling is made by Elecraft, who make high-quality, high-performance radio kits. The parts are all high-quality, and in particular their circuit boards are among the best I've ever seen.
Everything about the boards is flawless, from the plated-through holes, to the solder plating and solder mask and the silk-screen and the fact they're spotless when you get them just screams "QUALITY"!
I've seen "Commercial Quality" equipment that didn't have boards this nice. Whoever their board house is certainly has their act together.
I'll continue this tomorrow or the next night, but right now it's 2230 hours, and I have to hit the rack.
Good night, all!
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Heathkit IG-18 Audio Generator Mods Finished
And it works!
Is the distortion lower than before? Does it better the Heathkit specs?
I don't know because I don't have a Distortion Analyzer of THD Meter, but it adjusted "per the instructions" and appears to work fine.
Here's the new Power Supply capacitors:
And the capacitors I replaced on the Wave Generator board:
And the Meter Buffer circuit board mounted to the meter studs:
One other thing I did was to replace the neon lamp "Power On" indicator with an LED. Neon lamps can oscillate and generate wideband noise under certain conditions, so out it went.
I used the existing wiring which I rerouted a bit, and the existing terminal strip. The strip had a 2700 Ohm, 1/2 Watt resistor mounted to it, which I replaced with 4 8200 Ohm 1/2 Watt resistors in parallel. I needed this value to drop the +40 VDC power supply voltage to a lower value for the LED, which should have 1.5 Volts across it, and draw 20mA, according to the specs for the LED I'm using. This would have required a 1 watt resistor as I'm dropping quite a bit of voltage, and I didn't have any 1 Watt resistors in the value I needed. So, parallel 4 half-Watt ones, and you get TWO Watts, which gives me some headroom on the power dissipation.
I wasn't about to add a regulator to power a single LED, so I'll just accept the "wasted" power in the resistors.
Unfortunately I'm going to have to put the FT-726 radio alignment on the back burner for a week or so (again! Will I ever finish this thing?), as I have an Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner kit arriving tomorrow.
I'll be operating NI6BB on the Iowa for the BSA JOTA event in late October, and the member who normally supplies the radio and tuner we use will not be available, so I'll take my Elecraft K2/100 down to the Iowa to use. This radio is my portable/emergency HF radio, and since I normally use it with my Buddipole and manually adjust the antenna using an antenna analyzer, I didn't really need a separate tuner.
The "Discage" antenna we primarily use on the Iowa is broadband, BUT it doesn't have a "1:1 VSWR" in the Amateur Radio bands (it's more like 3:1) resulting in most radios cutting back their power output. The tuner (really an impedance matching device) will allow the radio to operate into a 50 Ohm load, and deliver full power without subjecting it to the voltage stress a high VSWR would cause.
And I'd like to get the tuner kit built at a leisurely pace, rather than spending several nights burning the midnight oil, getting overly tired and making mistakes, and test it before I need it.
Hope y'all had a good weekend!
Is the distortion lower than before? Does it better the Heathkit specs?
I don't know because I don't have a Distortion Analyzer of THD Meter, but it adjusted "per the instructions" and appears to work fine.
Here's the new Power Supply capacitors:
And the capacitors I replaced on the Wave Generator board:
And the Meter Buffer circuit board mounted to the meter studs:
One other thing I did was to replace the neon lamp "Power On" indicator with an LED. Neon lamps can oscillate and generate wideband noise under certain conditions, so out it went.
I used the existing wiring which I rerouted a bit, and the existing terminal strip. The strip had a 2700 Ohm, 1/2 Watt resistor mounted to it, which I replaced with 4 8200 Ohm 1/2 Watt resistors in parallel. I needed this value to drop the +40 VDC power supply voltage to a lower value for the LED, which should have 1.5 Volts across it, and draw 20mA, according to the specs for the LED I'm using. This would have required a 1 watt resistor as I'm dropping quite a bit of voltage, and I didn't have any 1 Watt resistors in the value I needed. So, parallel 4 half-Watt ones, and you get TWO Watts, which gives me some headroom on the power dissipation.
I wasn't about to add a regulator to power a single LED, so I'll just accept the "wasted" power in the resistors.
Unfortunately I'm going to have to put the FT-726 radio alignment on the back burner for a week or so (again! Will I ever finish this thing?), as I have an Elecraft KAT100 Automatic Antenna Tuner kit arriving tomorrow.
I'll be operating NI6BB on the Iowa for the BSA JOTA event in late October, and the member who normally supplies the radio and tuner we use will not be available, so I'll take my Elecraft K2/100 down to the Iowa to use. This radio is my portable/emergency HF radio, and since I normally use it with my Buddipole and manually adjust the antenna using an antenna analyzer, I didn't really need a separate tuner.
The "Discage" antenna we primarily use on the Iowa is broadband, BUT it doesn't have a "1:1 VSWR" in the Amateur Radio bands (it's more like 3:1) resulting in most radios cutting back their power output. The tuner (really an impedance matching device) will allow the radio to operate into a 50 Ohm load, and deliver full power without subjecting it to the voltage stress a high VSWR would cause.
And I'd like to get the tuner kit built at a leisurely pace, rather than spending several nights burning the midnight oil, getting overly tired and making mistakes, and test it before I need it.
Hope y'all had a good weekend!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Why Do My Projects Always Expand?
Whoo boy....I'll bet all of my friends out here know what I'm talking about!
About 8 months ago my radio club had a members-only auction to get rid of equipment we no longer use in the club station. I came home with an ICom R-71A shortwave receiver, and a Yaesu FT-726 VHF/UHF multimode transceiver.
The ICom works OK, so it went on the shelf, but the reason I got the Yaesu for $25 is that it allegedly had a problem with the UHF module, it's not suited very well for repeater (FM) use because it doesn't have a CTCSS "Tone Board", it has no "Comm Port" on it so you can't run it with a PC and it wasn't usable for satellite use, as it lacked the satellite module.
It's basically an FM/SSB, 10-Watt output radio that covers 2 Meters (144~148 MHz) and UHF (430~440MHz), and while it would be a very good radio for "rover" or home use with some external amplifiers, NOBODY wanted it, so I won it with the opening bid of $25.
I got it home, and it sat for awhile whilst I went through my "Medical Adventures". I finally started working on it a month or so ago.
I pulled the covers and knobs off to scrub them, and lo and behold, what's this?
It has the satellite module installed!
Some basic testing shows that it puts out 10 Watts on both bands, and the satellite unit works as per the manual, BUT, it's 8 kHz off in frequency on transmit on both bands.
What makes this radio unique, along with it's newer big brother the FT-736, is that the radio itself, without any of the modules, is a "10 MHz, I.F.", and the individual modules act as "transverters" to upconvert the 10 MHz to whatever, and then downconvert the whatever back to 10MHz.
So, since the frequency is off the same amount on two different bands, it points to a problem in the basic radio chassis, exclusive of the band modules.
ANYWAY.....I figured I should do a full alignment on it to ensure it works properly before I sell it, and that's when the fun started......
I got started doing the alignment, and then got to the step where I needed my RF Probe. Hmmm...where'd I put it? Can't find it, order a new one. While waiting for the new one to arrive, I use my frequency counter and DMM to adjust the things that I can, which goes fine.
New RF probe arrives, and I finish up the initial alignment steps. The SSB and CW portions of the basic radio are now operating per spec. Time to do the FM section....UH-OH....I need a Deviation Meter to adjust the FM deviation. Huh...never have owned one of those. Probably time to buy one, as I'm sure I'll need it after I retire and really start doing radio stuff!
OUCH.....SIX HUNDRED BUCKS?! Oh, well....off to eBay where I find an old Lampkin Engineering one made in the 1950's for $30, FREE shipping!
It arrives in great shape for being as old as I am, and works *perfectly*. Super...time to set the FM deviation!
Uh-oh.....I need a calibrated source of 300Hz and 2800Hz. I have a two-tone generator for aligning HF SSB radios, but it operates at two different, fixed frequencies, and my service manual is very specific on why you must use 300 and 2800Hz.
Hmm....well, I have that ancient HP signal generator I'm slowly rebuilding as a memorial to my friend, but I'm waiting on some esoteric parts for it. I also have a newer HP solid-state signal generator, BUT that dirty old thing was the piece of equipment I was working on the night before I got the MRSA infection in my finger. Think before I handle that one again I'll put some gloves on, and scrub it down with bleach, and then hydrogen peroxide!
Off to eBay again, where I score a MINT Heathkit IG-18 audio generator for $70, FREE shipping!
While waiting for the generator to get here I start searching for a manual for it. Since my Google-Fu is strong, I find that with a few simple modifications, you decrease the Total Harmonic Distortion by a factor of TEN or more, and also make the frequency accuracy better by the same amount!
Wow....! These things are already pretty good, and for about $30 in parts I can make them an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE better?!?
GO FOR IT!
The generator gets here on time, and all the parts I either have, or picked up on the way home from work on Friday. I take the covers and knobs off the generator (why do I feel Deja Vu coming on?), scrub them and dry them, and start testing the generator to make sure it works before I modify it.
Note to others: ALWAYS test the equipment before you modify it to make sure it works, or you can wind up chasing you tail thinking you screwed up the mods!
The generator tests out fine after I clean the switches and controls with some DeoxIT (amazing stuff!) to clear up some erratic operation.
Then BANG!!
My six-month old LED magnifying lamp goes casters up with a bang and cloud of smoke. I really liked this thing as the color temp of the LED's made it really nice to work with, the big 5" 3-diopter GLASS lens was clear with no distortion, it was light weight and easy to move around on the extension arm, and it didn't throw off enough heat to warm the shack in the winter time.
And I'm getting old enough to really need a nice illuminated magnifying lamp for close-in work.
Oh, well......hop in the car and drive to the closest office supply store, which happens to be an Office Max that I go to regularly. I shop what they have, and pick one with a circular fluorescent tube in it, mostly because the only LED lamps they have are either too small, or have crummy PLASTIC "lenses" in them for "magnifying" what your working on.
It's not as bright as the LED lamp, and even though it shouts that it's "FULL SPECTRUM!!" on the box, I still prefer the color temp of the LED light. I took the cover off the LED light, and sure enough, the 59-cent switching "power supply" they used has vaporized. I'm going to count the number of LED's in it, see how they're connected, and come up with some kind of external supply to run it with, I like it that much.
Get home, unpack the new lamp, set it up, and start using it to inspect the soldering job on the generator. It is, after all, a HeathKIT, and some builders were less competent than others.
Touch up about 1/3 of the solder connections, set my Tektronix 2465B on the bench for the first time (don't worry, it works fine!) so I can adjust the generator, and HEY....it's 11 PM already?
Sigh........
So, here I sit waiting for the soldering iron to warm up, small pile of parts at the ready, fingers crossed, and wood knocked, and hopefully I can have the generator modified and operating tonight.
About 8 months ago my radio club had a members-only auction to get rid of equipment we no longer use in the club station. I came home with an ICom R-71A shortwave receiver, and a Yaesu FT-726 VHF/UHF multimode transceiver.
The ICom works OK, so it went on the shelf, but the reason I got the Yaesu for $25 is that it allegedly had a problem with the UHF module, it's not suited very well for repeater (FM) use because it doesn't have a CTCSS "Tone Board", it has no "Comm Port" on it so you can't run it with a PC and it wasn't usable for satellite use, as it lacked the satellite module.
It's basically an FM/SSB, 10-Watt output radio that covers 2 Meters (144~148 MHz) and UHF (430~440MHz), and while it would be a very good radio for "rover" or home use with some external amplifiers, NOBODY wanted it, so I won it with the opening bid of $25.
I got it home, and it sat for awhile whilst I went through my "Medical Adventures". I finally started working on it a month or so ago.
I pulled the covers and knobs off to scrub them, and lo and behold, what's this?
It has the satellite module installed!
Some basic testing shows that it puts out 10 Watts on both bands, and the satellite unit works as per the manual, BUT, it's 8 kHz off in frequency on transmit on both bands.
What makes this radio unique, along with it's newer big brother the FT-736, is that the radio itself, without any of the modules, is a "10 MHz, I.F.", and the individual modules act as "transverters" to upconvert the 10 MHz to whatever, and then downconvert the whatever back to 10MHz.
So, since the frequency is off the same amount on two different bands, it points to a problem in the basic radio chassis, exclusive of the band modules.
ANYWAY.....I figured I should do a full alignment on it to ensure it works properly before I sell it, and that's when the fun started......
I got started doing the alignment, and then got to the step where I needed my RF Probe. Hmmm...where'd I put it? Can't find it, order a new one. While waiting for the new one to arrive, I use my frequency counter and DMM to adjust the things that I can, which goes fine.
New RF probe arrives, and I finish up the initial alignment steps. The SSB and CW portions of the basic radio are now operating per spec. Time to do the FM section....UH-OH....I need a Deviation Meter to adjust the FM deviation. Huh...never have owned one of those. Probably time to buy one, as I'm sure I'll need it after I retire and really start doing radio stuff!
OUCH.....SIX HUNDRED BUCKS?! Oh, well....off to eBay where I find an old Lampkin Engineering one made in the 1950's for $30, FREE shipping!
It arrives in great shape for being as old as I am, and works *perfectly*. Super...time to set the FM deviation!
Uh-oh.....I need a calibrated source of 300Hz and 2800Hz. I have a two-tone generator for aligning HF SSB radios, but it operates at two different, fixed frequencies, and my service manual is very specific on why you must use 300 and 2800Hz.
Hmm....well, I have that ancient HP signal generator I'm slowly rebuilding as a memorial to my friend, but I'm waiting on some esoteric parts for it. I also have a newer HP solid-state signal generator, BUT that dirty old thing was the piece of equipment I was working on the night before I got the MRSA infection in my finger. Think before I handle that one again I'll put some gloves on, and scrub it down with bleach, and then hydrogen peroxide!
Off to eBay again, where I score a MINT Heathkit IG-18 audio generator for $70, FREE shipping!
While waiting for the generator to get here I start searching for a manual for it. Since my Google-Fu is strong, I find that with a few simple modifications, you decrease the Total Harmonic Distortion by a factor of TEN or more, and also make the frequency accuracy better by the same amount!
Wow....! These things are already pretty good, and for about $30 in parts I can make them an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE better?!?
GO FOR IT!
The generator gets here on time, and all the parts I either have, or picked up on the way home from work on Friday. I take the covers and knobs off the generator (why do I feel Deja Vu coming on?), scrub them and dry them, and start testing the generator to make sure it works before I modify it.
Note to others: ALWAYS test the equipment before you modify it to make sure it works, or you can wind up chasing you tail thinking you screwed up the mods!
The generator tests out fine after I clean the switches and controls with some DeoxIT (amazing stuff!) to clear up some erratic operation.
Then BANG!!
My six-month old LED magnifying lamp goes casters up with a bang and cloud of smoke. I really liked this thing as the color temp of the LED's made it really nice to work with, the big 5" 3-diopter GLASS lens was clear with no distortion, it was light weight and easy to move around on the extension arm, and it didn't throw off enough heat to warm the shack in the winter time.
And I'm getting old enough to really need a nice illuminated magnifying lamp for close-in work.
Oh, well......hop in the car and drive to the closest office supply store, which happens to be an Office Max that I go to regularly. I shop what they have, and pick one with a circular fluorescent tube in it, mostly because the only LED lamps they have are either too small, or have crummy PLASTIC "lenses" in them for "magnifying" what your working on.
It's not as bright as the LED lamp, and even though it shouts that it's "FULL SPECTRUM!!" on the box, I still prefer the color temp of the LED light. I took the cover off the LED light, and sure enough, the 59-cent switching "power supply" they used has vaporized. I'm going to count the number of LED's in it, see how they're connected, and come up with some kind of external supply to run it with, I like it that much.
Get home, unpack the new lamp, set it up, and start using it to inspect the soldering job on the generator. It is, after all, a HeathKIT, and some builders were less competent than others.
Touch up about 1/3 of the solder connections, set my Tektronix 2465B on the bench for the first time (don't worry, it works fine!) so I can adjust the generator, and HEY....it's 11 PM already?
Sigh........
So, here I sit waiting for the soldering iron to warm up, small pile of parts at the ready, fingers crossed, and wood knocked, and hopefully I can have the generator modified and operating tonight.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Alan Parsons Project -Eye In The Sky-
Stumbling around here at home today with a cold, and happened to stumble across this.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, September 23, 2013
Voter ID
From a friend of mine.
Of course, if you bring this up to a libtard, you'll either get a deer-in-the-headlights blank stare, or "OH....THAT'S DIFFERENT!", which I actually had one of them say to me once when I had them nailed down, and *this close* to admitting they were WRONG!
.
.
Of course, if you bring this up to a libtard, you'll either get a deer-in-the-headlights blank stare, or "OH....THAT'S DIFFERENT!", which I actually had one of them say to me once when I had them nailed down, and *this close* to admitting they were WRONG!
.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
First Steps Class Post Class Report
We had a great time!
Several of the people had previous firearms experience, with rifles and shotguns, but had never fired a handgun before.
Several had some very limited handgun experience, and were there to learn more, and improve their understnding.
One family was there, and they brought their 14 year old son because "It was time for him to learn about gun safety".
And we advised by the lead instructor before the students arrived that one person was an anti!
The class ran as it usually does, with intelligent questions being asked, and all of the students understood eye dominance, and all quickly learned the correct stances and grips, and above all, The Four Rules.
Everybody understood sight picture, trigger control, safe gun handling, and all the other things that get taught in the NRA "First Steps" class.
Then it was time to go out to the range, and put the pedal to the metal.
The range time consists of 20 shots at 7 yards, at an 8" x 10" piece of blank paper so the students can get used to handling, loading, and firing the pistols. This gives us a chance to check and correct any improper things they might be doing.
Next is 20 rounds on a "standard" slow fire/rapid fire target, again at 7 yards, and this gives us a chance to help them improve or correct things like an improper sight picture, jerking or slapping the trigger, and to keep checking their stance again.
One thing I've noticed is that while they may do as instructed in the classroom with a rubber gun, for some reason they change when they get out on the range. The most common fault I've seen is that people start to lean back, almost as if they want to hold the gun further away.
This does bad things to your balance, sight picture, and trigger control, so we do our best to correct them on their first shots at the blank paper.
It's up to the student to decide if they like the Isosceles or Weaver stance, and whether they want to keep their elbow "locked" or slightly bent. We also stress keeping the knees slightly bent, as if they go further in their training (most do), it's important to keep a bit "loose" so you can learn shooting on the move, a vital skill in self-defense.
The last target is 10 rounds on the same size target, and we score them on this one.
The big surprise of the class was the young lady (the "anti") we were advised about.
She was pretty quiet during class, asking few questions, but really came to life on the range. As luck would have it, she was in "my" group (We had 10 students an 4 instructors) on the range, and turned out to be an excellent student. She listened carefully, took direction very well, and had a good attitude.
At one point she turned slightly (and safely, keeping the pistol pointed downrange) to me and said "This is FUN! I don't see what the big deal is about guns!".
So I don't know if we "turned" an anti-gun person, or just helped her to subtly make up her own mind.
The two guys who had rifle experience wound up going into a 3 round "shoot off" to determine the overall "winner", and over half the class scored in the 90's on their last target.
So we had another safe class, and brought 9 adults and one 14 year old boy through it with flying colors.
After class one of the other instructors and I spent some time getting our own bad habits worked out, and I put about 100 rounds of 45 ACP downrange.
Always good to go to the range!
Several of the people had previous firearms experience, with rifles and shotguns, but had never fired a handgun before.
Several had some very limited handgun experience, and were there to learn more, and improve their understnding.
One family was there, and they brought their 14 year old son because "It was time for him to learn about gun safety".
And we advised by the lead instructor before the students arrived that one person was an anti!
The class ran as it usually does, with intelligent questions being asked, and all of the students understood eye dominance, and all quickly learned the correct stances and grips, and above all, The Four Rules.
Everybody understood sight picture, trigger control, safe gun handling, and all the other things that get taught in the NRA "First Steps" class.
Then it was time to go out to the range, and put the pedal to the metal.
The range time consists of 20 shots at 7 yards, at an 8" x 10" piece of blank paper so the students can get used to handling, loading, and firing the pistols. This gives us a chance to check and correct any improper things they might be doing.
Next is 20 rounds on a "standard" slow fire/rapid fire target, again at 7 yards, and this gives us a chance to help them improve or correct things like an improper sight picture, jerking or slapping the trigger, and to keep checking their stance again.
One thing I've noticed is that while they may do as instructed in the classroom with a rubber gun, for some reason they change when they get out on the range. The most common fault I've seen is that people start to lean back, almost as if they want to hold the gun further away.
This does bad things to your balance, sight picture, and trigger control, so we do our best to correct them on their first shots at the blank paper.
It's up to the student to decide if they like the Isosceles or Weaver stance, and whether they want to keep their elbow "locked" or slightly bent. We also stress keeping the knees slightly bent, as if they go further in their training (most do), it's important to keep a bit "loose" so you can learn shooting on the move, a vital skill in self-defense.
The last target is 10 rounds on the same size target, and we score them on this one.
The big surprise of the class was the young lady (the "anti") we were advised about.
She was pretty quiet during class, asking few questions, but really came to life on the range. As luck would have it, she was in "my" group (We had 10 students an 4 instructors) on the range, and turned out to be an excellent student. She listened carefully, took direction very well, and had a good attitude.
At one point she turned slightly (and safely, keeping the pistol pointed downrange) to me and said "This is FUN! I don't see what the big deal is about guns!".
So I don't know if we "turned" an anti-gun person, or just helped her to subtly make up her own mind.
The two guys who had rifle experience wound up going into a 3 round "shoot off" to determine the overall "winner", and over half the class scored in the 90's on their last target.
So we had another safe class, and brought 9 adults and one 14 year old boy through it with flying colors.
After class one of the other instructors and I spent some time getting our own bad habits worked out, and I put about 100 rounds of 45 ACP downrange.
Always good to go to the range!
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Sunday NRA "First Steps" Class
And I'll be helping another instructor.
Been quite a while (TOO long!) since I've helped with a class, so I hope I remember everything.
I'll give an post-class report later on Sunday and let you know how things went.....
Been quite a while (TOO long!) since I've helped with a class, so I hope I remember everything.
I'll give an post-class report later on Sunday and let you know how things went.....
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Another "Senior Moment"....
Aw, rats....
I was driving home from the store tonight with a *killer* idea for a post, and.....POOF!....out of my head it went.
And I don't even remember what subject I was going to post about.....
I'm just going to have to start carrying my little voice recorder so I can capture these moments when I have these truly brilliant flashes of inspiration to inform and entertain you with.
In the meantime, as a lot of people have been saying lately.....I got nothin.....
I was driving home from the store tonight with a *killer* idea for a post, and.....POOF!....out of my head it went.
And I don't even remember what subject I was going to post about.....
I'm just going to have to start carrying my little voice recorder so I can capture these moments when I have these truly brilliant flashes of inspiration to inform and entertain you with.
In the meantime, as a lot of people have been saying lately.....I got nothin.....
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Prayers For Our Friends and Relatives In Colorado
My wife talked to her son's girlfriend yesterday, and the flooding around the Fort Collins area was pretty severe.
They were stuck "On the mountain" for 2-1/2 days until the water went down far enough that temporary road repairs could be made.
Fortunately they prepare for things like this, and getting snowed in, so they have plenty of food, water, and fuel. She told me once they could go a month without any problems, and if they knew it would be longer, they'd "Bust Out Our Prepper Supplies!", so we know they can take care of things.
Still, when I saw these pictures of the flooding, my heart went out to all their neighbors who weren't so fortunate to live well above where the flood waters rise.
Full article with pix is here.
They were stuck "On the mountain" for 2-1/2 days until the water went down far enough that temporary road repairs could be made.
Fortunately they prepare for things like this, and getting snowed in, so they have plenty of food, water, and fuel. She told me once they could go a month without any problems, and if they knew it would be longer, they'd "Bust Out Our Prepper Supplies!", so we know they can take care of things.
Still, when I saw these pictures of the flooding, my heart went out to all their neighbors who weren't so fortunate to live well above where the flood waters rise.
Full article with pix is here.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Wayne Green, W2NSD, SK
The Amateur Radio term "SK" means "Silent Key", and is sent as a "Prosign" at the end of CW (Morse Code) transmissions when the station is going off-the-air.
It's also used to describe a Ham who has passed away.....their key is now silent forever.
Well, I just heard that Wayne Green, W2NSD (Never Say Die), noted publisher of "73" magazine, among many other things, has passed away a few days ago at age 91.
Wayne has a rather short Wikipedia entry, considering all he did, so courtesy of the AMSAT News Service, here's a listing of some of his accomplishments:
* started one of the first personal computer software companies
(Instant Software).
* opened computer software stores - eventually sold a national chain
of 58 stores.
* while in college started a broadcasting station (WRPI) which is now
the largest student activity.
* served on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Board of Overseers
and RPI Council.
* served as the First Executive in Residence at RPI.
* served as a consultant for the RPI Business Incubator - which won
the 1996 prize as the best in the country.
* been a licensed amateur radio operator as W2NSD since 1940.
* pioneered amateur radio repeaters since 1969, starting with WRLAAB
on Mt. Monadnock NH.
* established amater radio in Jordan in 1970 and wrote their rules and
regulations.
* supplied and installed the first repeater in Jordan, J-Y73, in 1973.
* helped radio amateurs pioneer FM, radio Teletype, single sideband,
and slow scan TV.
* bounced amateur radio signals off the Moon from the big dish at the
Arecibo Observatory, PR.
* been editing and publishing amateur radio magazines for 47 years.
* a state-of-the-art digital recording studio.
* four record labels and produced over 150 CDs.
* helped re-popularize ragtime music and personally knows all of the
top ragtime performers.
* started 25 successful publications in the radio, computer and music
fields.
* published over 100 books.
* wrote one of the first books on digital communications.
* been on an African hunting safari.
* visited the ruins of Ba'albek in Lebanon, the Queen of Sheba's water
catchments in Aden.
* visited the Pyramids, the Sphynx. the ruins in Athens, the Taj Mahal
and Katmandu.
* visited the head-hunter longhouses in Sarawak.
* helped organize and lead trade groups of around 250 people to yearly
electronic shows in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
* given keynote addresses to radio, educational, computer, and music
conferences.
* helped invent a new kind of loud speaker - borrowed $1,000 on my car
to start a manufacturing company and within two and a half years it
became the largest speaker manufacturer in the country with seven
factories.
* performed in The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance in high school
* served as president of radio clubs in high school and college.
* served in Navy 1942-1946 in WWII - electronic technician on USS Drum
SS-228 (which is on display at Mobile, Alabama) for five war patrols.
* been a radio engineer and announcer in North Carolina, Florida and
Virginia.
* been chief cameraman at WPIX-TV (11) in NYC.
* produced and directed network TV shows in Dallas and Cleveland.
* a reputation as a gourmet cook.
* served as president of Porsche Club of America.
* raced my Porsche on the Nurburgring and Solitude race tracks in
Germany.
* both driven and navigated in many national SCCA car rallies.
* served as a founder and first secretary of American Mensa.
* a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurial Science.
* lectured on entrepreneurialism at Yale, Boston University, Case
Western, Babson College, RPL and many other colleges.
* been on the first commercial airline flight between Philadelphia and
New York in 1927.
* flown with father since 1922.
* served on the FCC's National Industry Advisory Committee (NIAC).
* served on the FCC's Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC).
* testified before a Congressional hearing on the music industry.
* had the usual toys: airplane, Porsche, yacht, Jaguar, Mercedes 600
Pullman limosine.
* worked on a Guggenheim grant on a color organ for the Guggenheim
Museum on 5th Avenue.
* graduated Bliss Electrical SchooL Tacoma Padc MD.
* attended Radio Materiel School on Treasure Island, San Francisco and
graduated as ETM2/c.
* served for five war patrols on SS-228 USS Dnun, made ETMI/c.
* taught electronics at Submarine School, New London CT.
* organized and run successful mail order Elm Stamp Company at age 12.
* sung in St. Pauls Church choir as boy soprano.
* sung in Philharmonic Choir of Brooklyn.
* sung in Erasmus High School Choral Club.
* pioneered the 6-meter ham band as the first New York City station on
that band.
* run a 6-meter beacon station for several years in cooperation with
the Radio Amateur Scientific Observations (RASO) program.
* for years had a VHF/UHF station on Mt. Monadnock NH; regularly heard
for over 600 miles.
* been Excutive Secretary of the Music Research Foundation, Madison
Avenue, N.Y.
* worked for GE as a test engineer on Army radio equipment.
* been an engineer at Airborne Instrument Laboratories in Mineola NY
developing radar equip.
* tried marijuana in 1948 to see what it was like.
* tried LSD in 1960 to see what that was like.
* drunk with shipmates on liberty while in the Navy. Have seldom drunk
since.
* tried smoking as a teenager, thought it was stupid. Ignored peer
pressure.
* know the real dope on Amelia Earhart's last trip.
* been convinced that NASA had to have faked all of the moon landings.
* driven from Brooklyn NY to Peterborough NH (250 miles), averaging
100 mph one night - including a gas stop.
* interesting friends such as Barry Goldwater, King Hussein, Steve
Jobs, Bill Gates, and Rod McKuen.
* been convinced that with proper nutrition and avoiding poisons we
can dependably live to over 100.
* ridden Starlit Night, the Ringling Brothers top show horse.
* a professorship of horsemanship and taught riding instructors.
* a Hubbard Dianetic Auditor certificate and has processed over 100
patients, with some remarkable successes.
* swum the three mile length of Coney Island many times.
* investigated crop circles and a UFO hovering over a house in nearby
Francestown, NH.
* drove a snowmobile 50 mph in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at
age 82.
Some of his beliefs were decidedly NON mainstream, and there were times I thought he'd gone completely off his rocker, especially in his later years.
Still, I admired his tenacity, even though I didn't agree with 90% of his writings.
So farewell, Wayne, and may your final journey be enjoyable.
I'm sure he'll be arguing with St. Peter until they let him in.....
******UPDATE******
From the ARRL Bulletin, as posted on the eHam website, with various comments from the Amateur Radio community.
It's also used to describe a Ham who has passed away.....their key is now silent forever.
Well, I just heard that Wayne Green, W2NSD (Never Say Die), noted publisher of "73" magazine, among many other things, has passed away a few days ago at age 91.
Wayne has a rather short Wikipedia entry, considering all he did, so courtesy of the AMSAT News Service, here's a listing of some of his accomplishments:
* started one of the first personal computer software companies
(Instant Software).
* opened computer software stores - eventually sold a national chain
of 58 stores.
* while in college started a broadcasting station (WRPI) which is now
the largest student activity.
* served on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Board of Overseers
and RPI Council.
* served as the First Executive in Residence at RPI.
* served as a consultant for the RPI Business Incubator - which won
the 1996 prize as the best in the country.
* been a licensed amateur radio operator as W2NSD since 1940.
* pioneered amateur radio repeaters since 1969, starting with WRLAAB
on Mt. Monadnock NH.
* established amater radio in Jordan in 1970 and wrote their rules and
regulations.
* supplied and installed the first repeater in Jordan, J-Y73, in 1973.
* helped radio amateurs pioneer FM, radio Teletype, single sideband,
and slow scan TV.
* bounced amateur radio signals off the Moon from the big dish at the
Arecibo Observatory, PR.
* been editing and publishing amateur radio magazines for 47 years.
* a state-of-the-art digital recording studio.
* four record labels and produced over 150 CDs.
* helped re-popularize ragtime music and personally knows all of the
top ragtime performers.
* started 25 successful publications in the radio, computer and music
fields.
* published over 100 books.
* wrote one of the first books on digital communications.
* been on an African hunting safari.
* visited the ruins of Ba'albek in Lebanon, the Queen of Sheba's water
catchments in Aden.
* visited the Pyramids, the Sphynx. the ruins in Athens, the Taj Mahal
and Katmandu.
* visited the head-hunter longhouses in Sarawak.
* helped organize and lead trade groups of around 250 people to yearly
electronic shows in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
* given keynote addresses to radio, educational, computer, and music
conferences.
* helped invent a new kind of loud speaker - borrowed $1,000 on my car
to start a manufacturing company and within two and a half years it
became the largest speaker manufacturer in the country with seven
factories.
* performed in The Mikado and Pirates of Penzance in high school
* served as president of radio clubs in high school and college.
* served in Navy 1942-1946 in WWII - electronic technician on USS Drum
SS-228 (which is on display at Mobile, Alabama) for five war patrols.
* been a radio engineer and announcer in North Carolina, Florida and
Virginia.
* been chief cameraman at WPIX-TV (11) in NYC.
* produced and directed network TV shows in Dallas and Cleveland.
* a reputation as a gourmet cook.
* served as president of Porsche Club of America.
* raced my Porsche on the Nurburgring and Solitude race tracks in
Germany.
* both driven and navigated in many national SCCA car rallies.
* served as a founder and first secretary of American Mensa.
* a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurial Science.
* lectured on entrepreneurialism at Yale, Boston University, Case
Western, Babson College, RPL and many other colleges.
* been on the first commercial airline flight between Philadelphia and
New York in 1927.
* flown with father since 1922.
* served on the FCC's National Industry Advisory Committee (NIAC).
* served on the FCC's Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC).
* testified before a Congressional hearing on the music industry.
* had the usual toys: airplane, Porsche, yacht, Jaguar, Mercedes 600
Pullman limosine.
* worked on a Guggenheim grant on a color organ for the Guggenheim
Museum on 5th Avenue.
* graduated Bliss Electrical SchooL Tacoma Padc MD.
* attended Radio Materiel School on Treasure Island, San Francisco and
graduated as ETM2/c.
* served for five war patrols on SS-228 USS Dnun, made ETMI/c.
* taught electronics at Submarine School, New London CT.
* organized and run successful mail order Elm Stamp Company at age 12.
* sung in St. Pauls Church choir as boy soprano.
* sung in Philharmonic Choir of Brooklyn.
* sung in Erasmus High School Choral Club.
* pioneered the 6-meter ham band as the first New York City station on
that band.
* run a 6-meter beacon station for several years in cooperation with
the Radio Amateur Scientific Observations (RASO) program.
* for years had a VHF/UHF station on Mt. Monadnock NH; regularly heard
for over 600 miles.
* been Excutive Secretary of the Music Research Foundation, Madison
Avenue, N.Y.
* worked for GE as a test engineer on Army radio equipment.
* been an engineer at Airborne Instrument Laboratories in Mineola NY
developing radar equip.
* tried marijuana in 1948 to see what it was like.
* tried LSD in 1960 to see what that was like.
* drunk with shipmates on liberty while in the Navy. Have seldom drunk
since.
* tried smoking as a teenager, thought it was stupid. Ignored peer
pressure.
* know the real dope on Amelia Earhart's last trip.
* been convinced that NASA had to have faked all of the moon landings.
* driven from Brooklyn NY to Peterborough NH (250 miles), averaging
100 mph one night - including a gas stop.
* interesting friends such as Barry Goldwater, King Hussein, Steve
Jobs, Bill Gates, and Rod McKuen.
* been convinced that with proper nutrition and avoiding poisons we
can dependably live to over 100.
* ridden Starlit Night, the Ringling Brothers top show horse.
* a professorship of horsemanship and taught riding instructors.
* a Hubbard Dianetic Auditor certificate and has processed over 100
patients, with some remarkable successes.
* swum the three mile length of Coney Island many times.
* investigated crop circles and a UFO hovering over a house in nearby
Francestown, NH.
* drove a snowmobile 50 mph in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at
age 82.
Some of his beliefs were decidedly NON mainstream, and there were times I thought he'd gone completely off his rocker, especially in his later years.
Still, I admired his tenacity, even though I didn't agree with 90% of his writings.
So farewell, Wayne, and may your final journey be enjoyable.
I'm sure he'll be arguing with St. Peter until they let him in.....
******UPDATE******
From the ARRL Bulletin, as posted on the eHam website, with various comments from the Amateur Radio community.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Been Busy, More To Follow
Well, my sweet wife just loves her new little Hyundai. It's red, and she's always wanted a red car. Charcoal interior, with enough air conditioning to make it a meat locker, nice 6 speaker radio/cd player with 100something Watts of power and Sirius/XM.
Rides nice, seems to be pretty peppy, gets astoundingly good mileage (she's averaging THIRTY FOUR MPG in her around town driving), and they gave us a bunch of stuff we didn't pay for (window tint, first aid kit, cargo net, nice floor mats, etc) because it took them a few days longer than they promised to get us the car.
And they delivered it, and spent an hour going over stuff, showing us the features, and explaining things.
I've also been spending a lot of time in the garage cleaning it up and getting it organized. I still haven't gotten to the work bench so I can mount my press and start reloading, but I made a HUGE improvement in how things are organized.
I dug out a bunch of stuff I'm going to sell (Dahlquist DQM-9 monitor speakers, anyone? They're like new, and had the foam surrounds replaced about two years ago), threw a bunch of stuff away, coiled up about 75 pounds of "scrap copper wire" I'll haul to the recycler when I take the cans in, and sorted several "piles" ("radio 1", "radio 2", and "computer") for some eBay sales I'll be running in the next month or so.
And the nice thing is, I can walk in the side door, and get all they way to the big door now, and I can easily get to both of my two big roll-around toolboxes.
About 1/3 of the space in the garage is still occupied by the "collectibles" her first husband was acquiring when he passed away. Action figures, Star Wars and Star Trek stuff, and an odd assortment of other things he thought were collectible. SOME of the items have fairly good values on eBay (yes, the actual sales prices, and not the "listing/wishing" prices!), but a lot of it doesn't.
I swear, we have enough 4" and 6" plastic "action figures", army men, and little plastic tanks and armor to take over the back yard and stage the Battle of Kursk all over again!
We have two cardboard boxes, each about half the size of a refrigerator box, FULL of these things.
I might just sell them "by the scoop" on eBay!
And in working my tail off, hustling around, sweeping things up, trimming the trees (again.....sigh), and chasing the dogs around, I'm starting to get my endurance back, and I'm feeling better. It's been 4-1/2 months now since my "cardiac incident", and I'm finally getting used to what the meds do to me, and feeling better.
And I'm really looking forward to attacking the front-end of the gargae, and getting my press set up!
Rides nice, seems to be pretty peppy, gets astoundingly good mileage (she's averaging THIRTY FOUR MPG in her around town driving), and they gave us a bunch of stuff we didn't pay for (window tint, first aid kit, cargo net, nice floor mats, etc) because it took them a few days longer than they promised to get us the car.
And they delivered it, and spent an hour going over stuff, showing us the features, and explaining things.
I've also been spending a lot of time in the garage cleaning it up and getting it organized. I still haven't gotten to the work bench so I can mount my press and start reloading, but I made a HUGE improvement in how things are organized.
I dug out a bunch of stuff I'm going to sell (Dahlquist DQM-9 monitor speakers, anyone? They're like new, and had the foam surrounds replaced about two years ago), threw a bunch of stuff away, coiled up about 75 pounds of "scrap copper wire" I'll haul to the recycler when I take the cans in, and sorted several "piles" ("radio 1", "radio 2", and "computer") for some eBay sales I'll be running in the next month or so.
And the nice thing is, I can walk in the side door, and get all they way to the big door now, and I can easily get to both of my two big roll-around toolboxes.
About 1/3 of the space in the garage is still occupied by the "collectibles" her first husband was acquiring when he passed away. Action figures, Star Wars and Star Trek stuff, and an odd assortment of other things he thought were collectible. SOME of the items have fairly good values on eBay (yes, the actual sales prices, and not the "listing/wishing" prices!), but a lot of it doesn't.
I swear, we have enough 4" and 6" plastic "action figures", army men, and little plastic tanks and armor to take over the back yard and stage the Battle of Kursk all over again!
We have two cardboard boxes, each about half the size of a refrigerator box, FULL of these things.
I might just sell them "by the scoop" on eBay!
And in working my tail off, hustling around, sweeping things up, trimming the trees (again.....sigh), and chasing the dogs around, I'm starting to get my endurance back, and I'm feeling better. It's been 4-1/2 months now since my "cardiac incident", and I'm finally getting used to what the meds do to me, and feeling better.
And I'm really looking forward to attacking the front-end of the gargae, and getting my press set up!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
We Bought A Car
After going to several dealers where we were either treated rudely, or told "These are HOT right now, so the list price is the best we'll do!", a guy from the Hyundai dealership up in Commerce called.
My wife had put out a "Request for Quotation" to an Internet service, and he was one of the people who received the RFQ.
I told him the prices the other places quoted, and he said he couldn't beat them by much, but he could beat them.
So, after running some errands and getting some dinner, we drove up to Commerce, about 12 miles North of the LBC.
The dealership was in a decidedly 'low rent' area, but was very clean, and the buildings and service area were probably the best kept in the area, always a good sign.
The guy we talked with was able to beat the "best" price we got by almost $300, and told us they would deliver the car here, and spend about 30 minutes with us going over the features, and finishing the paperwork.
One of the things that sealed the deal was that my wife was very comfortable talking to him and the finance people, who treated us as friends, didn't try to force any other options or "dealer installed" equipment on us, and walked us through the paperwork jungle in less than half an hour, which is a record in my book!
SO.....Tuesday or Wednesday they'll drop the car off, and my wife will be cruising around in a brand-new RED Hyundai Eleantra GLS with the "Preferred Package" with 2.9% financing on the balance.
Since the gave us over $8500 for her poor little Nissan Sentra, and we're putting some more down, the monthly payment is well under $200 for 48 months.
I'll post a pic after we get the car.
My wife had put out a "Request for Quotation" to an Internet service, and he was one of the people who received the RFQ.
I told him the prices the other places quoted, and he said he couldn't beat them by much, but he could beat them.
So, after running some errands and getting some dinner, we drove up to Commerce, about 12 miles North of the LBC.
The dealership was in a decidedly 'low rent' area, but was very clean, and the buildings and service area were probably the best kept in the area, always a good sign.
The guy we talked with was able to beat the "best" price we got by almost $300, and told us they would deliver the car here, and spend about 30 minutes with us going over the features, and finishing the paperwork.
One of the things that sealed the deal was that my wife was very comfortable talking to him and the finance people, who treated us as friends, didn't try to force any other options or "dealer installed" equipment on us, and walked us through the paperwork jungle in less than half an hour, which is a record in my book!
SO.....Tuesday or Wednesday they'll drop the car off, and my wife will be cruising around in a brand-new RED Hyundai Eleantra GLS with the "Preferred Package" with 2.9% financing on the balance.
Since the gave us over $8500 for her poor little Nissan Sentra, and we're putting some more down, the monthly payment is well under $200 for 48 months.
I'll post a pic after we get the car.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Damage Estimate: $8300 Car Value:$6000
Looks like we're in the market for a replacement car..
We went and looked at Hyundai Elantras tonight, and the wife thought they were very nice.
We'll also be looking at the Kia Forte, as these two cars are about the same size and in the price class we're comfortable with.
Everything I read today about the current version of the Nissan Sentra convinced me to NOT even look at them.
The closest Nissan model would be the Altima, and it's a minimum of $2000 over the other two.
Same with the Ford Fusion, and I absolutely, positively, will NEVER step foot into a Government Motors dealership.
We went and looked at Hyundai Elantras tonight, and the wife thought they were very nice.
We'll also be looking at the Kia Forte, as these two cars are about the same size and in the price class we're comfortable with.
Everything I read today about the current version of the Nissan Sentra convinced me to NOT even look at them.
The closest Nissan model would be the Altima, and it's a minimum of $2000 over the other two.
Same with the Ford Fusion, and I absolutely, positively, will NEVER step foot into a Government Motors dealership.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Uh-OH....Wife just got in 4 Car Accident *UPDATE*
Hit in the rear in a multi-car accident.
She was the second car in line.
More to follow, but I'm on my way to pick her up......
UPDATE
She seems to be OK...a little sore in her back and shoulders.
There's a set of railroad tracks on the road she takes to work every day. A tanker truck had come to a full stop before crossing the tracks, and she was the second car behind the tanker, with another small car (a Chevy Cobalt) behind her.
A guy in a full size pickup didn't see the line of stopped cars ( ! ) waiting for the tanker to cross the RR tracks, and plowed into the car behind her at about 45~50 MPH. The little Chevy Cobalt then almost went _under_ the rear of my wife's Nissan Sentra, pushing her into a Nissan Maxima.
As expected, the little Cobalt took the brunt of the collision, and the rear of my wife's Sentra absorbed most of the rest.
The front of her car wasn't too badly damaged, but it'll still need a bunch of new parts.
So, she's home now, and on the phone with our insurance company.
Thankfully, we have a good company, with good coverage, including rental car.
She was the second car in line.
More to follow, but I'm on my way to pick her up......
UPDATE
She seems to be OK...a little sore in her back and shoulders.
There's a set of railroad tracks on the road she takes to work every day. A tanker truck had come to a full stop before crossing the tracks, and she was the second car behind the tanker, with another small car (a Chevy Cobalt) behind her.
A guy in a full size pickup didn't see the line of stopped cars ( ! ) waiting for the tanker to cross the RR tracks, and plowed into the car behind her at about 45~50 MPH. The little Chevy Cobalt then almost went _under_ the rear of my wife's Nissan Sentra, pushing her into a Nissan Maxima.
As expected, the little Cobalt took the brunt of the collision, and the rear of my wife's Sentra absorbed most of the rest.
The front of her car wasn't too badly damaged, but it'll still need a bunch of new parts.
So, she's home now, and on the phone with our insurance company.
Thankfully, we have a good company, with good coverage, including rental car.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
QOTD
Taking a break from "Garage Reconstruction 101" and thought I'd share this with my friends here.
It was written sixty years ago, but is more relevant now than ever.....
Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
From "Revolt in 2100" by Robert A. Heinlein, written in 1954
Friday, August 30, 2013
Been Hot and Muggy All Week Here.....
And I haven't felt like doing much besdies some benchwork on a couple of radios I'm getting ready to sell on eBay.
95* and 50% humidity does not make for good yard work days, or even "Clean Out The Garage" days!
95* and 50% humidity does not make for good yard work days, or even "Clean Out The Garage" days!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Yard Work Weekend
Not exactly my favorite thing to do, but it needed to get done.
Bought some sand and topsoil, and filled in all the new "dog holes" that one of the two has been digging.
I also dumped some Cayenne Pepper on the areas hoping that if "The Digger" gets a snoot full, he/she won't do it again.
As of the discovery of any new holes gets a random Paw Check when they come in the house, and with no likely perps found, I hope the pepper works.
Trimmed back our lemon tree, which actually started from some dropped seeds years ago. It's not very big, but grows like a weed.
And like the video somebody had posted a week or so ago, watching a dog play with a lemon is pretty funny. Pebbles loves to play ball, and since the lemons are fairly round, and roll nicely, she has a lot of fun until she chomps down on one.
Did the pooper-scooper routine as it was my week to do it.
Push broomed the driveway inside the gate and the side walks, as these guys go blasting around the back yard at about Mach 2.5, tearing out any weak grass, and scattering it everywhere in their vortex.
I went to water the back yard the other day and found my new $12 garden hose nozzle chewed up beyond belief, so got another one of those.
NOTE TO SELF: Pick up the nozzle off the ground when done using, and don't let it dangle on the hose end where they can get at it!
And did a few more sundry things like blasted all the front driveway and walkway cracks with RoundUp to kill the grass starting to grow out of them. One of these days I suppose I should patch the big cracks in the driveway. The problem with that is that whoever poured our driveway didn't use any metal mesh/rebar in it....it's just a slab of concrete about 2" think, and as it settled, it cracked.
I don't even want to think about the cost of busting it up, hauling it away, and having it done properly. I have better thing to spend $5000 on than a new driveway!
Bought some sand and topsoil, and filled in all the new "dog holes" that one of the two has been digging.
I also dumped some Cayenne Pepper on the areas hoping that if "The Digger" gets a snoot full, he/she won't do it again.
As of the discovery of any new holes gets a random Paw Check when they come in the house, and with no likely perps found, I hope the pepper works.
Trimmed back our lemon tree, which actually started from some dropped seeds years ago. It's not very big, but grows like a weed.
And like the video somebody had posted a week or so ago, watching a dog play with a lemon is pretty funny. Pebbles loves to play ball, and since the lemons are fairly round, and roll nicely, she has a lot of fun until she chomps down on one.
Did the pooper-scooper routine as it was my week to do it.
Push broomed the driveway inside the gate and the side walks, as these guys go blasting around the back yard at about Mach 2.5, tearing out any weak grass, and scattering it everywhere in their vortex.
I went to water the back yard the other day and found my new $12 garden hose nozzle chewed up beyond belief, so got another one of those.
NOTE TO SELF: Pick up the nozzle off the ground when done using, and don't let it dangle on the hose end where they can get at it!
And did a few more sundry things like blasted all the front driveway and walkway cracks with RoundUp to kill the grass starting to grow out of them. One of these days I suppose I should patch the big cracks in the driveway. The problem with that is that whoever poured our driveway didn't use any metal mesh/rebar in it....it's just a slab of concrete about 2" think, and as it settled, it cracked.
I don't even want to think about the cost of busting it up, hauling it away, and having it done properly. I have better thing to spend $5000 on than a new driveway!
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
meh....Got Nuthin' Today
Went to my friend's internment with my wife, and then crawled around on the Battleship Iowa helping to inventory all the radio gear still in the racks.
Drank FOUR bottles of water, and didn't go to the restroom once.
It's HOT down on the third deck where the transmitter room is!
Drank FOUR bottles of water, and didn't go to the restroom once.
It's HOT down on the third deck where the transmitter room is!
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FOURTH time I've written this post. MY Muse has apparently vacated the premises, leaving me too busy doing other things to keep both m... -
With apologies to The Control Voice.... Yup.....got The Busies the last few weeks. Lots of stuff happening this week, including my Nuclea...