The Floor Has Finally Stopped Moving....

Yep it's true. After you've been out at sea for a few days your inner-ear adjusts to the constant motion it's subjected to, and you compensate for it as you walk. It's a strange feeling at first to be walking down a passageway, only to be walking UP the passageway a few seconds later as the ship rolls a bit.
You know you have your Sea Legs when you can walk down the stairs ("ladders" on a ship) from the mess hall with your left hand on a rail, a full cup of coffee in your right hand, and not spill a drop.
It took most of the morning, but now I can walk a straight line through the house without wandering as I do it!

AND...Sunday on way back in, somewhere in the vicinity of Guadalupe Island, we started hearing jets. I saw some F-18 Hornets around, and wondered what they'd be doing that far out. About an hour later I went up on deck, and was greeted by an Nimitz-class carrier, and an Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer!

I'll post some pix after I get them downloaded from my camera.

Back Home...To A DEAD Battery!

RATS! I forgot to unplug my Kenwood TM-D700 in the Jeep before I left. The radio draws almost nothing when it's off, but the Garmin "Hockey Puck" GPS receiver I have connected to it draws about 65mA, more than enough to drain a battery after 22 days away!
We first tried using one of those jumper boxes with a big GelCell battery in it, but IT was dead, so one of the logistics guys brought over a 400 Amp battery charger/booster, and a Honda Eu2000i generator.

We fired up the generator, connected everything, let it sit for a few minutes, and my Hemi rumbled to life.

It's connected to my trickle charger now, and I hope I didn't damage the battery. Ignition/Starting batteries are NOT meant to have a small, constant load connected to them, and the plates can get sulphated if you do that to them.

Hopefully the trickle charge will clean things up.

And my dogs went absolutely bonkers when I got home. I thoguh they were going to crash through the gate when I pulled in the driveway and got out of the Jeep!

Final Position Report.....

.....Before we drop our satcom link.

We're at 31* 15' N, and 120* 10' W.

We *easily* could have been home today, or even yesterday if they would have spent a few more $$ on fuel.

Oh, well.......

Revised ETA...Home MONDAY at 0800

Well, after realizing they'd have to roust everybody from home, and muster them at Home Port for our arrival Sunday night, The Management decided to slow us down to 14 knots.
This means we'll be at the pier at 0800 Monday morning. What's frustrating to us all, is that if they would have cruised the distance at ONE additional knot, we'd be home already!
And our satcom system will be going down at 1600 since we'll be within 200 miles of CONUS, and our license requires us to be dark within 200 miles.
Glad I brought a good selection of DVD's with me.
I've already watched "Seven Days In May", "THEM!", "Le Mans" with Steve McQueen, "TRON Legacy", and several others.
Maybe I'll watch "Iron Man 2" and/or "Blade Runner" later today. Several people want me to screen "The Enemy Below" in our lounge area, so that will probably be tonight's after dinner entertainment.
At least Saturday was "colored clothes" day for the ship's laundry, so all my laundry is done and packed, and I'm 90% done with packing the rest of my gear up.
Talk to you all later!

Home Sunday at 2100

Well, we'll be out at the Pilot Station waiting for the Harbor Pilot to come aboard.
That means we won't be tied up and 'released' until about 2230 or so.
And they're NOT paying us for Saturday and Sunday.....


GOD, I hope something breaks, because I will NOT fix it!

The Silencer

Courtesy of our friends over on Sipsey Street......

Hurricane Hilary

No, not Mrs. Clinton.

Looks like we'll be going through the tail-end of this towards the end of the week.

Headed Home

We pulled out about 2240 PDT.
No ETA on arrival yet. Should know tomorrow.....

Successful Launch, Headed back on Sunday

Well, we put another one on-target.
After safeing and stowing the rest of my systems on the platform, we'll head back to Long Beach late Sunday afternoon. It takes about 7 days to get back, and then I'm taking a couple of days off.
Gonna head to Angeles Shooting Range with my son for some rifle time!

L-2 hours.....

Time to do the final alignment on our fixed antennas.
Gonna get *real* busy here soon.

L-4 hours and counting.....

Rough day yesterday, but we're on schedule for a 2018 UTC launch.
You can watch it here:
http://www.sea-launch.com/current_index_webcast.html

L-2 Days and counting.....

On schedule!
Tomorrow I head over to the LP and set up our equipment to link the Command and Telemetry from the spacecraft back to the "Mother Ship".
Gonna be a brutal day. I'm the only one left (or rehired) who can do it, and I'll be over there all by my lonesome for about 10 hours.
I don't have too much stuff to take over with me, and I'll take a bunch of water and some snacks, along with my Droid to pass the time.
At least the helideck is a walk *down* from where the Comm Shack is!

Picture is the latest weather here.

We Have Arrived.....

We're about 1' N and 2' E of where we need to be.
That means the ship will transition to Dynamic Positioning in the next 30~40 minutes, and we'll hold here until daylight, when helo ops will begin.
The LP should be ballasted down 70' by late morning/early afternoon, and then we can start using the link bridge between the ships.

Reno Airshow Eyewitness Report

One of the guys I used to work with was at the airshow when the accident happened.

Here's the email he sent us today:

Take a look at the last second of the attached video I took during the F18 demo. This shows how close we were to where the plane hit, impact was directly in front of us. Picture attached is what I think is us hitting the deck, circled. Link is to a video of the plane going down from the other side of the field. The pilot made an adjustment a split second before he hit us. You can see the correction in the video, I don’t even think he was more than 100 feet above us when he did it. Nothing in our minds thought we were getting out of that. I truly have no idea how we survived. Had the pilot, and I believe he did, not made that last quarter second correction we would have took a propeller on the chin and a lot more people would have died. We were also lucky to have hit the ground as fast as we did, people behind us got hurt by flying debris. We were hit with debris and covered in fuel but somehow there was not a fireball. Why that didn't happen I will never know. Had there been, that also could have been a game ender. Really hard to get my head wrapped around how we lived. Really makes you appreciate who, and what, you have in your life.

Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaWB_7RGTQ4

Current Position.....

We're at 5.5* N, 147.5* W, and Motoring along at about 10kts.

Looks like the launch will get pushed back to the 24th, but no "official" word yet.

Nighty-night, all!

Where's Waldo, Part Deux

We're now at 6.5* N, 146.5* W, and chugging along at 9.4 kts.

Or as one of my friends called it, "Groundhog Day, Part 3".

We were supposed to get to the launch site on Wednesday about 1700, but the platform had a turbocharger failure on one of their big Diesels that runs the generators (it has a Diesel-Electric propulsion system), and they were dead-in-the-water for about 4 hours while they fixed it.

I'd post more pictures, but everything has to be approved by Security and the Export people, so I'll see if I can get some approvals for simple things like the helo.

In the meantime, here's the latest Enhanced IR picture from the weather guys.

The little green square is where we are.

Where's Waldo??

No, not my middle name.
Right now we're at 10* 47' N, 142* 47' W, right smack dab in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and man, is it raining!
We're chugging along at around 12 kts, thanks to "Fair Winds and Following Seas".

Bad Crash at Reno Air Races

Just talked to my wife on the phone, and she said there was a crash at the Reno Air Races.
Our satcom system is acting up tonight, so all I can get posted is this link to Google.

Helo Flight!

Well, today I had my first flight in a Huey. It was a Twin Huey, in excellent condition, and we flew with both doors open so we wouldn't have any windows impeding our photography.
Now I haven't flown in an aircraft with the door(s) off in about 30 years, so it was quite an experience. The other photographer is an old pro at this, and has flown in the back seat of various chase planes for numerous aircraft tests, and done more than his share of hanging out of helos snapping pictures.
As long as I kept my eye glued to the viewfinder, and kept the job-at-hand firmly in mind, I was OK.
The first time I dropped the viewfinder down so I could orient myself with the ships, I about lost my lunch.
I was two feet from the open door (SOLIDLY hooked up in my harness!), and we were in about a 30* bank to get a better angle for the other photog, at about 500' ASL.
Caught me totally off-guard, and I popped the camera back up to my eye again.
And we get to do it again next week when the launch vehicle is erect on the pad.
I think I'll skip lunch that day.............

Life At Sea.......

Well, we're about 1200 miles off the coast and headed to the Launch Site at 20 kts. We're supposed to catch the Launch Platform around midnight, and then we'll slow down to about 9 kts and travel in formation with them the rest of the way.
Tomorrow afternoon I get to go up in the helicopter with the "Official" photographer, who'll be shooting video, while I get some 'beauty shots' of the two ships travelling in formation.
We used to have a Bell 230 helo, but now we have a Bell 212. The 212 is better suited to our needs, as it can carry more people and cargo. It also has two huge sliding doors, so heavy cargo that used to have be transported over hanging on a sling can now be stowed inside the helo.
The weather has been pretty good so far, with smooth seas. That will change when we enter the Intertropical Convergence Zone, where we go through some rain and it's usually overcast this time of year.
I was feeling a bit under-the-weather yesterday, probably from eating too much and a lack of physical activity. Even though I'm running around all day, at this point it's shuttling things between offices, helping people set up their PC's, and checking equipment, so it's pretty light duty. I'll have to start my daily walk around the ship, starting on the first bridge deck at the stern, working my way up to the bow on the fifth bridge deck using all the ladders, (stairs on ships are called "ladders"), and then back down again.
I finally got the big screen TV, DVD player, audio system, Wii, and X-Box in our "Lounge Area" all connected together and operating last night. Had a couple of bad cables that were driving me nuts, but was able to fix them. And connecting my laptop with a Blu-Ray player to the big TV with an HDMI cable makes for some pretty good viewing. I watched Steve McQueen in "Le Mans" last night, and it was very enjoyable.

ALWAYS Remember

Other will write for better than I can about what happened 10 years ago today.

Remember

Prepare

Be Ready

As the little boy said at the end of the first Terminator movie....."There's a storm coming".

HAMCON 2011 in Torrance, CA

One of the benefits of the one-day delay we had in the launch schedule was that I'll be able to go to HAMCON at the Marriott in Torrance. I've been going every year since 1995 as long as it was "local" here in California, and I was kind of bummed about not being able to go.
I won't be able to make the Saturday night banquet as I have to get up early, but at least I'll be able "spread some wealth" Saturday from all the overtime I worked.
I'm going to 'upgrade' the handie-talkie I use for the FM satellites from a Kenwood TH-D7 to the new Kenwood TH-D72.
It's really neat, and has a built-in GPS to use with the APRS network.

I'm still 'working' on the YF to get approval for what will most likely be my "Last, New. BIG HF Radio", a Yaesu FTDX-5000MP.
My big ol' Kenwood TS-950SDX has served me well these years, but it's starting to have some problems, and parts are getting hard to come by for it. The ONLY place I'd trust to work on it is AVVID down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and shipping this beast back will cost about $100, plus the repair charges.

Or maybe I can convince her I *really* need an Elecraft K3!

Getting Ready To Go.....

We spent most of the day securing our systems on the LP and stowing equipment for transit. We had antennas to lock down, feeds to stow, cables to pull back into the Comm Shack, and rented test equipment to get back to the shipping-receiving guys. It's kind of a drag having to work out in the 95* heat we've been having, especially after not leaving work until 2300 the night before.
The LP is leaving Thursday at 0800, and we'll follow Sunday morning around 1000.
They brought in FIVE tankers full of liquid nitrogen, and as the last of those were leaving, SIX tankers of liquid oxygen were waiting to come into the lot. The LN2 is used to chill the RP1, a kerosene-based fuel, so that it's denser and provides a bigger bang, and the LOX is used as the oxidizer.
We stocked our private "Goodie Freezer" today with an assortment of ice cream and frozen foods, and the "dry goods" will get loaded tomorrow. The food on the ship is usually quite good, but there are times when you have to work through meals. The galley is very accommodating if there's a major operation going on, and they'll bring us buffet plates to make sandwiches from, and provide us with mid-rats if we request.
I took about 30 DVDs and my laptop onboard today, and tomorrow I'll drag all my camera gear up to my office cube. I'll haul my sea bag in on Friday, and that eliminates having to drag all that stuff from my car to the ship the morning we leave.
I've been doing this long enough to appreciate the convenience of having all my stuff onboard well prior to departure!
So things are on-schedule, and we're looking forward to heading back to 154*W, 0*N for a launch!

ILV Is Up.....

No Rollout Today.....

Due to lightning within 60nm.
SO.......we spent the rest of the day going over our system, trying to figure out where the "missing" 20dB went from the other day when we tested it, and why the remote spectrum analyzer was acting all wacky.
We checked every connection (SMA and TNC) in the system, ruled out any network errors or timing problems, powered down/powered up, and rebooted everything, to no avail.
Finally, I decided to connect a different spectrum analyzer to the cable coming out of the switch matrix, on the off chance that the rack-mounted spec-a, just back from calibration, had a problem.
The Type-N connector soldered to the semirigid cable came off in my hand as I removed it from the input of the spec-a.
DOH!
Well, at least I found it........

ILV Transfer

Well, I only had to work 9 hours today. Yesterday I was there from 8am (a late start for me!) until 9pm, so it was another long day of testing our RF links between the spacecraft customer, and the end point on the Launch Platform.
This morning they transferred the Integrated Launch Vehicle (rocket and payload) from the Assembly and Command Ship to the Launch Platform.
I did some of my 'normal' RF work with the other Engineer I work with, and he went home about noon, as we had all our tasks for the day finished. Then I went over to the LP to help the Engineer we have come down from Seattle do the RF Spectrum Survey we always do.
The Command receivers on satellites are very sensitive, so we look for all the emitters we can find. We use an Agilent spectrum analyzer with an HPIB-to-USB adapter on a laptop running the Agilent "Bench Link" software. This allows us to do a trace capture of what the analyzer displays, and save it as a "CSV" file that we can export to an Excel spreadsheet. We sweep from 200MHz to 40GHz, going in 60* steps around the compass. This gives us 360* coverage so we can "see" any emitters out there. We do this in several ranges because we use several different antennas and low-noise preamps. Each sweep at each frequency segment and compass heading takes anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes, depending on how stringent the requirements are, and that determines how we set the analyzer for things like Resolution Bandwidth and Frequency Span. It's not an unpleasant task, but time consuming, and a bit boring at times. The harbor area is really "dirty" at certain frequency ranges, and we can spot every ship and boat with an out-of-spec radar!
Tomorrow the ILV gets rolled out, stood vertical on the pad, and our testing enters the final phase. If all goes well on Monday, we should be done by 9pm, a 14-hour day. Tuesday will be an "RnR" day, and the LP departs Wednesday morning for the launch site, and we'll leave three days later on Saturday.

Payload Rollout!!

Well, we got the "Encapsulated Payload" (the satellite inside the payload fairing) rolled out and on the assembly ship today, and they're integrating it with the rocket. We'll do a "power test" of the telemetry transmitter tomorrow, and then a live telemetry flow through the entire network Saturday.If all goes well, the Integrated Launch Vehicle will get transferred to the Launch Platform on Sunday, and we'll roll out, tilt it to vertical, and do the final tests on Monday.

Gonna be a loooong weekend!

Too Much OT....Part Deux

Another 14-hour day. I'm not really complaining, seeing as I thank God each day for the great job I have, but it sure is a grind.
Our customer "broke" their own equipment today when we were 99% finished with the test we were running.
This slips our schedule at least 24 hours, depending on how fast they can get their gear working again. If they have to fly in parts from France, it might be a couple of days.
Maybe I'll get to make HAMCON after all!

Acorn Stash Kills Microwave Antenna

Stumbled across this and though it was funny.
We just had to do some kind of 'endangered species' evaluation where I work, as a brown pelican built a nest at the top of one of our collimation towers. They haven't removed the nest and put bird spikes up there yet because there's little pelicans in it!

An Afternoon at the Range

Went to the range today with my son, so he could participate in the "Sunday Pistol Shoot" that one of my instructor friend runs. I know my son is safe, and can shoot quite well, but I feel he could benefit from some formal training. And I always enjoy training, and pick up a few tips.
I wound up helping the other two instructors quite a bit, and helped several of the new shooters in the class change some things they were doing wrong that had the potential to become bad habits.
The class was only 8 students, with my son and myself, and six women. They were all interested in the type of gun my wife has (A S&W TRR8), and one of the ladies there has the same gun. Several of the ladies were quite petite, and had trouble racking the slide on full-size semi-autos, and loading the magazines. We took them all in to the gun store that's part of the range, and taught them how to pick a gun they could safely and comfortable shoot. Some rented revolvers, and a couple rented smaller semi-autos. We stressed that if you're not comfortable with the gun, you won't shoot it properly, and probably won't enjoy going to the range for practice.
One of the ladies had a very nice small-frame revolver with Crimson Trace grips, but was having trouble shooting it. She was trying to use it with the laser turned off, and the gun had no "proper" rear sight. It was sold to her at another gun store, by a counter guy who said "My wife has one of these, little lady, and it'll be *perfect* for you!".
NOT!
So now she's in the market for another revolver until, she said, she's "good enough at the basics" to use her snubbie with the laser grips.
We stressed to them that as new shooters, they should NOT feel the "I'm no good at this" mood that many new shooters have. It's a new activity to them, and like all new activities, it takes time to learn how to do it. We encouraged them at every step, worked closely with them, and by the end of the session the ones who were having problem had markedly improved.
Some of them had very good marksmanship skills, and the rest *will* get those skills with practice.
One other thing impressed me about this group of ladies. They weren't the type who had been mugged or assaulted, and "wanted a gun for protection". These women were interested in learning about all different types of handguns, safety, and how to use them effectively. They weren't they types for who "the gun thing" was a passing fancy, or the type who would take a class or two, and then "know all they needed to know". These women were serious, and WILL continue their training. I could tell by the questions they asked, and how they behaved on the range, that they have the gumption to continue to learn, and will turn into fine, safe shooters. It was very refreshing to see such enthusiasm, and support for our Second Amendment rights.
My son impressed the instructors, who recommended he move on to the more advanced classes, including the Tactical Handgun classes.
So all in all, it was a great day at the range, and I was privileged to help some new shooters hone their skills.

Filing Cabinets

I went 'shopping' online at the office supply places, and HOLY SH1T! These things are insanely priced.
A GOOD QUALITY, 2-drawer cabinet is ONE-HUNDRED FIFTY dollars!
Even the cheeseball ones are sixty bucks. I already have one of those, and when the wife had her son move it, it buckled up like cooked pasta.

I told them to empty it before they moved it, but naaaaa.....just couldn't take the time to pull the drawers out.

Where was I??

Out at sea last month, and she wanted to "surprise" me by having the carpets cleaned.

Even on craigslist good ones go for $100.

Looks like I'll just have to bite the bullet (again) and get a decent one.


Just got back from visiting Staples, Office Depot, and OfficeMAX. Staples had some decent ones, but they're marked "Delivery Only". I asked one of the floor people if I could take it myself, and he said no, they have to come from the warehouse.
Scratch Staples.
The other two places had some decent ones, but they were all "Out Of Stock" in this area, and I'd have to have them delivered.
Scratch that....

So, unless I want to buy some more of the $60 POS units, I'm SOL for getting some replacements today.

I'll keep searching craigslist. There's NO WAY I'm coughing up $60 for something so flimsy it can barely hold its shape when loaded, let alone if you try and move it more than a few inches.

New MasterCard for Our British Friends.

Shamelessly swiped from Sipsey Street.

Thanks, Mike!

Blogger Not Updating?

Seems like the list of blogs isn't updating. I see things listed as being posted "1 Hour Ago...." that I _know_ are a day or two old.
Anybody else notice this?

Musings on Life, and the Traveled Road

Well, here I am on the eve of my 60^th birthday. Frankly, I never thought about being this old when I was younger, so I'm not sure what to make of it, other than to be a bit surprised that I'm still here, considering some of the not-too-smart stunts I've pulled.

I'm a person of curiosity and contrasts, humor and sobriety.

I've spun out race cars at 160 MPH, and spun around on ice skates.

I've stalled a Cessna with full flaps, and did belly flops into the swimming hole.

I watched Man take his first steps on the Moon, and my son take his first steps without holding on to the couch.

I've heard my own faint echoes bounce off the Moon, and my son's first words.

I've worked for places that range from Government Laboratories and Major Aerospace Corporations, to small start-ups and Mom-and-Pop places.

I've watched the owners of some of them get rich, while I had to threaten to quit if I didn't get my overtime paid.

I've watched things I built with my own hands rocket in to space, and helped others get their things into space.

I've built model airplanes, and things that shoot down the real ones.

I've seen whole towns destroyed by tornados, and helped design weather radars that warn us when they're coming.

I've traveled all over the world, and always made it home in one piece, glad to be home again.

Above all, I've been blessed with friends that stood by me “No Matter What”, while I've seen others betrayed by their “friends”.

I've watched as America did, and stood, for Great Things, and now I'm watching it destroy itself.

I'm shamed by the legacy my generation will pass on to our children, as we were “Good Men Who Did Nothing”, allowing the cancer eating away at Our Country to spread so far.

I guess I was cursed at an early age, as I sure have lived “In Interesting Times”.

HF Saturday, Satellite Sunday

The plumber didn't come by today, but he called and promised he'd be by Monday right after work. He had quite a shindig at his place Saturday night, so I kinda-sorta didn't expect him to show up.
Saturday I spent several hours playing radio with my Flex 5000, and today I set the satellite station up to have some fun "On The Birds". I'd been wanting to try my Kenwood TS-790 on the satellites, but it was areal pain to get going. Most Kenwood radio of the vintage require a TTL-to-Serial converter, the IF-232C, but I'd never hooked up the one I had until today. I actually started out using a nifty little cable I bought some time back that integrates the converter into the backshell of the connector. It didn't seem to work, so I got out the official Kenwood interface, which also didn't work at the beginning. Turns out the TS-790 will *only* communicate at 4800 Baud, and requires the CTS line to be held high. I finally got things squared away in SatPC32, my tracking program, and proceeded to make a contact on FO-29. The Doppler correction was really bad, with the radio jumping several kHz at a time, and I had several other cockpit errors to contend with. Since I wanted to use my radios today, and not spend several hours configuring stuff, I put the TS-790 back in the shack, and dragged out my good old Yaesu FT-847, which "Just Works".
It's taken me about 10 years to get this setup to where everything "Just Works", so maybe the next time I'll spend some time seeing if I can get the TS-790 to "Just Work".
Hope you all have a great (or at least passable) week this week.

@@#!@%$^ Plumbing!

Well, I just spent the morning killing off my 'honey dew' list.
All EXCEPT getting the bathroom sink unclogged.
Now, I'm pretty handy when it comes to most things. Electrical, data wiring, framing, drywall, new doors and windows....I can, and have, done that stuff.
Plumbing just frustrates the h3ll out of me, other than putting in the parts for new construction or a remodel.
I'd been tinkering on getting it unclogged for the last several days, and had gotten it to just about drain fully, but then something else happened, or maybe I knocked the clog loose enough to float to another spot, but it won't drain AT ALL now.
OOOPS!
I wound up pulling the trap out this morning to find it completely clean, and then tried to run my mini-snake down the rest of the run, but it gets hung up about 6"~8" inside the wall where the pipe turns. It's a solid-blade type snake, more like an Electrician's fish tape than a snake, so it's not good at turning tight corners.
Oh, well......
The guy across the street is a Real Plumber, and a family friend, so he'll be coming over tomorrow afternoon to fix it for us.
That should give me plenty of time to get his favorite beer iced down!

*I'M* gonna play radio the rest of the day!

Gawd....I'm BEAT!

Groan....
12-hour days are no fun.
Lugging 40 pound test equipment up and down three flights of "stairs" on a ship is no fun.
Sitting inside a 12' radome while I work on stuff is no fun.
At least I have a stable (I hope!) job, which is better than this time last year.
On the plus side.....
Credit card? PAID OFF!
Pardon me while I go to bed early.....8:45 is early for me.

Judge Judy...."This Is What We're Creating"

I couldn't agree with her more!

H/T to Miss Phlegm Fatale.

Shipboard Life

Things I'm remembering about life on a ship......

1) Port is Left, and Starboard is Right

2) The front of the ship is the Bow

3) The back of the ship is the Stern

4) It's not the Floor, it's the Deck

5) It's not a wall, it's a Bulkhead

6) It's not the ceiling, it's the Overhead

7) They're not hallways, they're Passageways

8) ALWAYS pick up your feet when going through a doorway or hatch, or you'll trip on the Frame

9) Self-Closing doors will do so right as you start to go through them

10) NEVER call a Chart a "Map"

11) A ship will Pitch, Roll, Yaw, or Heave just as you're getting ready to take a sip of your coffee

12) Ship's coffee can double as general purpose cleaner and/or paint stripper (Our coffee is actually pretty good!)

13) The "Slop Chest" is not what it sound's like


And a whole lot more!

We The People......

Got this from a friend of mine.
Sure nails things, doesn't it?

Cowboys and Aliens

Just got back from the Art Theater where we saw "Cowboys and Aliens".
I liked it.
My wife liked it.
Good little summer movie, and I recommend it.
No, it's not "Firefly" or "Serenity", but it was fun, and the little place next door has great gelato!

"Castigo Cay" by Matt Bracken

I just finished reading Matt Bracken's latest book, "Castigo Cay".

Matt is the author of the "Enemies" series of books, which are a set of three books dealing with the near future of America. They're excellent thrillers, and I've read them a couple of times, so when I saw he had another book out, I preordered it, and started reading it as soon as I received it.

It's pretty good, but I like his first three books a lot more. "Castigo Cay" seems to drag a bit, and doesn't really "get going" until the last half of the book.

I think it's well-written, but not in the same vein as his first three books, which held my attention from start to finish.

If you liked "Unintended Consequences", and "Molon Labe!", then you'll love his "Enemies" series.

"Castigo Cay", while different, was a worthwhile read, a perfect "little book" for some light summer reading.

Gallows Humor....

Light posting this weekend as I'm working on my Honeydew list, but I thought you'd all get a kick (in the head?) out of this:

Let me get this straight . . . ...
We're going to be "gifted" with a health care
plan we are forced to purchase and
fined if we don't,
Which purportedly covers at least
ten million more people,
without adding a single new doctor ,
but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents,
written by a committee whose chairman
says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that

didn't read it but
exempted themselves from it,
and signed by a President who smokes,
with funding administered by a treasury chief who
didn't pay his taxes ,
for which we'll be taxed for four years before any
benefits take effect,
by a government which has
already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare,
all to be overseen by a surgeon general
who is obese,
and financed by a country that's broke!!!!!

'What the hell could
possibly go wrong?

Sub Off The Coast

I'm not sure what they were doing out there (backside of Catalina Island), but all day Monday and Tuesday we saw the sub going back and forth, accompanied by some small "patrol" type boats. Tuesday afternoon it looked like one of the small boats made a rendezvous with him, so I'm gonna take a SWAG and say the little guys were U.S. Navy, too.
NOBODY in their right mind would get so close to a sub that they could transfer people unless they were authorized!
I don't know enough about U.S. submarines to tell what class it was, but I know to see one run on the surface for so long is unusual.
Of course out where we were, there aren't too many other ships just hanging around!

For you guys that know far more about this than I do, I added a crop from one of the better pix I took.
Have at it!

Back Home Again

We got in this morning about 10am. Took another hour to get from the Pilot's Station to the pier, and then tied-down.
By this time the Purser (who has our passports) had gone to lunch, so we had to wait for her to show back up.
Then she had to call the Captain to see if it was OK to "release" us!
DUH!
Oh, well, she's new, and it was her first time out, so we all just sighed and cut her some slack.
Wonder how long the floor will continue to move under me now that I'm back on dry land?

Took some interesting pictures, and I'll post some after I finish unpacking.

There was a sub running on the surface the last three days, making rendezvous with some small boats. They never got closer than a few miles, but I thought it was quite interesting to see one running on the surface.

And there was a C-130 circling overhead a lot of the time.

Should have brought my 400mm lens this trip!

See you all sometime next week.....

Headed out for Sea Trials early Saturday morning. Since we don't have the contract for our satellite services provider signed, we'll have no Internet or email access while we're at sea, so I'll be incommunicado for a while.

42 Years Ago

We walked on the Moon.
Now we beg rides from the Russians.

Big Mil Training Op

Catchy title, isn't it?
Over the last couple of days, we've been visited by no less than 12 CH-47 Chinooks. Man, those suckers are LOUD! They'll come in from the ocean, and hover over the lone MARAD ship that's docked at the next pier over from us.
Today, they gave the ship the Full Monte.
At least six came in, and dozens of troops in full battle gear fast-roped down on to the deck. All this time four or five Super Cobras were orbiting the area, backed up by several particularly nasty looking Blackhawks.
While this was going on, two more Chinooks set down in the parking lot next door, and a whole lot of fully armed troops came out and stormed up the stern ramp (it's a RORO Cargo ship) of the ship.
Since the helos were Marine units, I'm guessing they were from Camp Pendleton, which isn't too far down the coast from us. A couple of times a year their LCACs will come into the inner harbor/turning basin, and maneuver around for a while, and they skeedaddle back out and over the horizon.
Pretty interesting, but I don't see any way these guys could sneak up on the bad guys! They shook the building I was working in the last two days when they went overhead, and we could hear them coming a good ten minutes before we could see them.

Any VME Experts Out Here?

Well, we're about 70 days from our Return To Flight, and I've been asked to assist with getting another computer system up and running again.
Geez, guys....I'm a RADIO guy, remember?
I just spent a week getting the Antenna Control Unit for our 6' fully steerable dish up and running, but we still have to check out and calibrate the telemetry receivers, and the rest of the RF system we use for the Telemetry and Command links we provide our customer.
The ACU had a myriad of problems, all of which were caused by leaving it out in the dome for two years with the air conditioning turned off. It's about the same things as storing your desktop PC out in your garden shed, and expecting it to come up and run!
I had to pull all the boards and clean the connectors where they plug into the backplane, and clean all the other connectors. I found RUST on a lot of the exposed metal parts, and had to clean that. Then I found the fan on the heatsink attached to the little Pentium 233MMX was was shot, so I brought in a fan from my "stock" here at home. It was thicker than the OEM fan, so I had to drill and tap the heatsink for longer screws. I was attaching it back on the CPU when POP! The fifteen year old plastic gave out.
RATS!
Luckily I found a better unit up at Alltronics in Santa Clara, and had them here in a few days. They're a great place to find obscure parts for projects, and are VERY reasonably priced. I highly recommend them!

ANYWAY.....I was asked to help get our VME computers running again after one of our Technicians replaced the CMOS batteries on the motherboards, rendering them "unbootable". I trust the Tech that did it. He's an extremely talented guy, and in the seven years I've known him, I think he's maybe made one mistake.
His soldering job was impeccable, and we're both scratching our heads on this one.
The manuals that came with the system are useless for hardware repair, as they were written for programmers working with the system, and for any hardware problems you have, their solution is "Return To Vendor".
Great, except the company that originally made these systems, VMIC (VME Microsystems International), was bought by GE/FANUC, who deny ever hearing of these things. Their "Customer Service" is absolutely deplorable, and they hung up on one of our people yesterday.
These are basically 200MHz Pentium P54C, Intel Triton "FX" single-board computers with AMI BIOS and a Cirrus VGA chip in a Eurocard package running Windows NT. The scant information in the manual states that they're "A/T Compatible", and that they are, indeed, standard PC components.
And we're going NUTS trying to get them to boot after a simple CMOS battery change.

Like I said, any VME experts out there?


*****UPDATE*****

Well, it turns out the CPU boards are OK. I tried them in the "test" rack we have, and they ALL powered up just fine.
I had to reset the system clock, and redetect the hard-drives, but they're OK now.
Turns out there's a "gotcha" in the external hardware connected to the racks the VMEs are located in, and *I* didn't know about it, and the other guy had forgotten about it.
That kind of thing happens when you've been shut down for two years, or get tossed into it.
So thanks, everybody, for the suggestions and comments.
Were 62 days away from Return To Flight, and counting. We're going out for Sea Trials at the end of July, and the first launch will be towards the end of September.

2011 Old Fort MacArthur Days Pictures

We didn't get to Old Fort MacArthur Days last year because we forgot, (DOH!), but we set aside the time for it this year. It's always fun to go and see the reenactors, and talk to them. It's rather strange to see a Roman Centurion talking to a Viet Nam USGI, and hearing them talk about their computer problems! I think I learned more about smoothbore vs rifled muskets this year than I knew before, and had an absolute blast talking to the guy that owns the M29 Weasel you'll see in the pictures. He'd always wanted one, and was at a Military Vehicles Collectors meet a few years ago where he saw one for sale. It turns out he couldn't afford the fully restored one, so he bought FOUR that were in various states of disrepair, and built the one good one you see here. The Browning M1919 air-cooled 30cal on it is set up to "fire" propane, and he said it works very well. And he said the neighborhood kids just go nuts when he fires up the Weasel, and brings it out.
The other interesting thing we saw was the guy in the red jacket playing this very strange, hand-cranked stringed instrument. I'd never seen or heard anything quite like it, and it turns out it's a Hurdy Gurdy, also called a "Wheel Fiddle". Look for the guy in the red jacket holding it in his lap.
This year I took some pictures of the displays inside the tunnels that honeycomb the hills under and around Battery Osgood-Farley. Sorry for the dark shadow in the middle of the ones I used with my flash. I forgot to take off the sunshade on the lens, and the built-in flash will cast a shadow if it's on.
If you're ever in the Los Angeles/San Pedro area, drop in at the Fort MacArthur Military Museum. It's a very interesting place, and one of the last remaining examples of a Coastal Defense Installation around.
Unfortunately we missed the "Live Fire" this year of the artillery. We got there a bit later than I wanted to, and were over on the other side of the park when they started. We could hear them firing (boy, could we), and could see the smoke, but weren't able to make our way over there in time.

Enjoy the pictures!