2nd Amendment Poll ***Please Read and Forward***

I don't often ask people to forward things, but I think this is important.
USA Today is running a poll on whether the 2nd Amendment affirms an INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms.
So please go vote, and pass it on.
Thank you!

Does the 2nd Amendment affirm and INDIVIDUAL right to keep and bear arms?

"Hatcher's Notebook"....BUY IT!

Carteach0 has a review over on his blog about this book. After reading the review, and his recommendation, I ordered the book from Amazon. It got here a week or so ago, and I've been reading it in my "spare" time.
It's just fascinating.
Besides giving the history of machine guns, and semi-automatic rifles, it also has a lot of practical information, including the first explanation of "headspace", with drawings, that I actually understood.
And a lot of other interesting things, too, like "Experiments with Barrel Obstructions", "Gun Corrosion and Ammunition Developments", and more charts, tables, illustrations, and photographs than you can shake a stick or three at.
Truly and amazing work, and a definite "Must Have" if you're at all interested in the technical aspects of guns, ammo, and shooting.
I give it a "Five".

Project Day

Well, since it's raining, and supposed to keep up all day and tomorrow, I finally got started on the project I'm helping my radio buddy with.
I would have started last night, but I gave a presentation to my radio club on "The History of Coaxial Cables and Connectors". It was supposed to be about just connectors, but the more I got into it as I was writing it, the more I realized it was important to go into the details of the cable itself, and how it related to the various connectors used.
It was a rousing success, even though I didn't think it was up to my 'usual standards' of a presentation.
But then it was for my radio club, and not my job!
So far I've unsoldered the headers from an Arduino board and an LCD board, and cut a piece of perfboard to use for the "interface" to the Outside World.
Now I have to get out my Dremel and cut a slot in the plastic enclosure to pass the ribbon cable from the display to the Arduino, and drill a few holes for the "Select" push button, the contrast adjust pot, and the camera shutter release cable.
Then I'll just solder the parts together, snap the box together, program it, test it, and then hook it to my Nikon D200 to see if it works "As Advertised".
Pictures to follow.....

"First Responder" Class

GROAN.....I thought it was going to be my First Aid/CPR class, but it's not.
Since we store and use lots of Horrible, Nasty, Toxic stuff here, it's a HAZMAT First Responder class.

We have to be trained at the "FRO" level, so we're going over all the books and stuff about how to deal with spills and all the other things that go along with spilling Hazardous Material.

Believe me, if anybody spills any NTO or UDMH here, I'm heading UPWIND, and fast.

My head hurts.......

Busy, Busy!

Haven't posted much because I've been so flippin' BUSY lately.
Got really started on getting my TS-950SDX ready to sell, and since that will leave me without any 'Knob Twistin" radios, I decided to set my Hallicrafters Boat Anchor station up to "keep the bench warm".
The Hallicrafters station consists of an SX-117 receiver, an HT-44 transmitter, a PS-150 Power Supply/Speaker, and an Electro-Voice 664 "Buchanan Hammer" microphone.
I really have to get them on the work bench and go through them, but I brought them up slooooow on a variac, and they work OK for now, but with with gear made back in the mid 1960's, there's always things that could use a tweak or two.
Besides, the 950 is "in the hospital" right now, and I only have one "bed"!

And I started helping one of my friends bring an Arduino project from "kinda-sorta" works to "that's the way it SHOULD work", and that's taking me some time to get up to speed on. I've done some things with Basic Stamps, and PIC's, but the Arduino is new to me.

Today I spent all freakin' day at work doing on-line training, and tomorrow I'll spend all day doing my First Responder class.
Nest week I retake my Red Cross First Aid and CPR training again, and get my new cards. It's nice to have for those Really Bad Days At The Range, and I hope to God I never need it for that!

Hope and Change

The "Change" the morons who elected the Poser-in-Chief "Hoped" for sure didn't turn like they (or the rest of us) expected!

Vehicle Maintenance

My front brakes were starting to squeak/squeal the other day, so I stopped at AutoZone and got some new pads. Then, since the only "floor jack" I have is one of those itty-bitty ones, I swung by Harbor Freight to get a bigger one. I looked at all the reviews for their aluminum "racing" jacks, and settled on the middle one, that goes for about $140.
WELL....got around to raising up my Jeep today, and low and behold, there's over HALF the pad left on each front caliper!
Not too shabby for 40k miles. I blew all the dust out, and put the wheels back on. I also replaced the hydraulic hood prop that had given up the ghost. The hydraulic props are nice, but they only last a few years before the pressure slowly bleeds out of them, and then they don't hold the hood open.
And I do NOT like getting clunked on the head by the hood, as it sinks sloooowly in the West!
Next project for the day is to clean up the electronics workbench, as one of my friends is bringing over a project he needs help with.
He's been working on an Arduino controlled intervalometer for his astrophotography hobby, and although he's a whiz at coding stuff, he "Can't solder for shit" according to himself!
Always glad to help a fellow Ham, but geez....knowing how to solder is a Rite of Passage for being an Amateur Radio Operator.
Or at least it should be......

Saved One From The Landfill Today

A PC, that is.
Somebody gave me a c. 2000 HP Pavilion the other day, knowing full well that I wouldn't rest until it was running again.
It's a 667 MHz Intel Celeron (NOT my favorite CPU) with 256 MB of memory, a 40 gig hard-disk, and built-in everything. I'd worked on bunches of this identical machine before, and frankly, they were throw-aways six months after they were bought back then.
Besides the fact it only had one free PCI slot, it only has a 100 Watt power supply, for Pete's sake!
Aint no bad boy video card ever goin' in there!
I farted around for a few hours formatting the drive, and reinstalling Windows98. WELL......turns out there's some pretty severe limitations on what will run on Win98. The very latest version of Internet Exploiter is 6.something with Service Pack 1, the latest version of Java is 5.1, the latest version of Firefox is 2.0, and so on, and so on.
I finally threw in the towel and decided to put Linux on it, and be done with it. I tried several of the 'lightweight' distributions, but they all ran really sloooow. Even Win98 ran like greased lightning compared to some of them.
I decided to try "Puppy Linux", as I'd heard good things about it, and although it took me longer than it normally would to get a PC running Linux, now that it's finished, it runs very well.
This PC, along with a new keyboard, mouse, and refurbed monitor, will go to the minister that married my wife and I, and she'll turn it over to somebody in her church that can't afford a "new" PC.
And there's one less hunk of electronics off the street, and put back to good use.

Bye Bye Facebook!

Just nuked my account.
I really don't care to use it, I'm tired of getting "Friend Requests" from people I don't know, and I just don't see a need for it in my life.

In case you're curious about how to *really* kill your account, go here and follow the instructions.

You KNOW The World Is Upside Down....

.....When 911 "Truthers" accuse the 0bama "Birthers" of being conspiracy nuts.

Or so go the reader comments over at The Daily Bell.

My God.....what are they putting in the water over there?

Stupid Nissan Dipstick Tricks.....

The PLASTIC handle of the dipstick in my wife's 2005 Nissan Sentra has been broken for about a year or so now. Now why anybody in their right might, let alone a REAL "Engineer", would design this part with a 100%, NON-reinforced plastic handle is beyond me. The kind of plastic they use has been breaking more or less continuously since around 1998, and you'd have to be a real ding-dong to not change it.
It's been more of an annoyance than anything because I've had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull it out and check the oil, but in that category of "This'll work until I buy a replacement part", so we both kinda let it slide. I finally bought a new dipstick the other day, and figured while it was still light out, I'd pop the hood and install the new one.
NOT.....
It appears that the last time she had the oil changed, the moron who works there didn't realize the plastic handle of the stick was broken off, thought the dipstick was already out of the engine, and tried to jam another dipstick on top of it to 'check the oil'.
The previously reachable (broken) stick is now about 4~6" down inside the dipstick tube, and is barely visible, let alone grabbable.
Every little tool I have that might be able to reach down the tube and snag the stick just doesn't work.
I tried putting some Super Glue on the end of a chopstick, but the plastic is just too oily for the glue to hold.
One 'solution' I saw posted in a Nissan forum was to pressurize the crankcase with compressed air, which supposedly blows the stick out of the tube. I'll try that tomorrow, but I think this one's been stuffed down the tube too far to come back out with just a few p.s.i. of air, so I'm resigned to having to (carefully!) twist the dipstick tube out of the block, remove the dipstick, and then tap the tube back in.
That involves removing the heat shield over the exhaust manifold, a job best done after the car has sat over night.
I've read where they make an all-metal replacement dipstick, so that's next on the search list!

"Operation #EFAD" Is Live TODAY

Get Matt's book here at Amazon.

It's FREE, and you do NOT need a Kindle to read it.

Best ISS Video Yet!

Amazing time-lapse video from the International Space Station.
Enjoy!

Surplus Sodium Disposal

YOW!
Shamelessly borrowed from Blunt Object.

Word Verification Is Now OFF

I agree with OldNFO...the new "double captcha" is a royal pain-in-the-butt!
SO...I turned it off, but enabled moderation.
I get so few readers that I doubt if I'll much of a job!

Solar Cycle 24 Predictions

NOT good for those of us who enjoy long-distance HF contacts.
BUT....these guys have been wrong before, and predicting the 11 year sunspot cycle is still more of a "Black Art" than an exact science.

USS Midway Pictures

OK, finally got around to uploading the pictures to PhotoBucket.
Most of them should be self-explanatory to people who've spent time on ships. I only managed to get one picture of the helm on the PriFli/Chart Room/Bridge I was on because there were just too many people in too small of a space to move around with my camera.

USS Midway

I'll try and get the pix posted later tonight. We just got back from the Midway, a trolley tour of most of San Diego, and dinner at a nice little place in Little Italy.
The Midway was worth every penny of the admission, and the sore feet from FIVE hours of stomping around on her. Had some great chats with some of the docents who were working there. Most of them are vets, and a couple actually served on the Midway while she was in active service. One of the highlights for me was talking to an SBD Dauntless rear gunner who was there in front of the museum's Dauntless. Just an amazing guy, and sharp as a tack at 88 years old!
Besides the pictures I took of the large statue named "Unconditional Surrender" (the sailor kissing the nurse from the WWII photo), we also went to the Bob Hope memorial. Standing there among the statues of various military people "listening" to the statue of Bob Hope do his routines over the P.A. system really got to me. When you see the pictures of all the statues, I think you'll see what I mean.

San Diego Air and Space Museum

My wife and I decided to take a long weekend, and head down to San Diego to see some things. This morning we went to the Air and Space Museum, and then headed over to see the USS Midway.
Well....the museum went well, but by the time we got out of there, traffic had gotten to the point that there was NO parking to be had in the lot for the Midway, OR in any of the neighboring lots.
Jam city!
So we headed over to Old Town San Diego, and things were even worse!
Tomorrow we'll go back to the Midway, early in the day, and see some of the other sights in the surrounding area.

In the meantime, enjoy my (poor) pictures from the Air and Space Museum.

"Trigger The Vote" with GUNNY

Just got this in an email from the NRA, and it's pretty good.

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

Marlin 60 Owners Do NOT Overtighten Your Scope Rings!

Man, do I feel STOOPID or what!
I wanted to go to the range today to practice with my Marlin 60. The first time I took it out, the open sights were WAAAAY off! Consistently up and to the left. I'd since ordered a set of "Tip Off" scope rings to fit the dovetail grooves in the receiver, and put them on this morning so I could use the little Simmons 2.5x20 scope I had laying around.
I slipped the rings onto the receiver, and tightened them down.
TOO well it turns out.
I heard a small "SNAP", and noticed the rearmost ring seemed loose, and then I noticed I had broken off a piece of the dovetail!
DUH!
I guess I'm just too used to guns being made of steel, and I'd forgotten the receiver on the Marlin 60 is Aluminum.
CAST Aluminum.
Castings aren't nearly as strong as forgings, or machined billet pieces, and this, coupled with the design of the receiver top, made it, uh..., not very strong, and when I cranked down on the screws that secure the mounts in place, it failed.
If you look at the pictures, you'll noticed the grooved top of the receiver. This means there's hardly any metal on the "back" side of the dovetail for support, so the metal just cracked and pulled away when I tightened the rings down.
Do I consider this a design defect? Yes.
Do I consider this a "Stupid Owner" error? Also yes.
I was able to move the rear ring forward enough that I was able to get the scope mounted for today's range session, but I'm really bummed I did this to my poor little Marlin 60.
Yes, I knew the receiver was Aluminum alloy, and probably should have known it was also a casting, given the price of this rifle.
I mixed up some JB Weld when I got home, and used it to attach the broken off piece, so at least I don't have a raw Aluminum scar staring me in the face every time I pick up the rifle.
And the range session? Terrible. First, the place was packed, and I had to wait. That part I don't mind because I'm glad to see them doing a good business. But a lot of the people there weren't very disciplined, there was brass all over the floor, and the guys in the next lane were doing rapid fire with what sounded like a 44 Magnum, and I just couldn't concentrate.
And even with the small scope, I still couldn't hit diddly squat with this thing. I just didn't have the patience today to try and zero the scope, so after 50 or 60 rounds I just packed it up and came home.
Bad day........

Friday Already??

Wow...the week just flew by.
Been rather busy at work this week, which always makes the time fly by.
The last launch we did had an "anomaly" in the tracking system I run. Analysis of the recorded data from our logs shows that we had multiple failures in the system(s), resulting in some data loss on the primary telemetry downlink receiving system, AND the VEDA data "decommutators", but our fixed antennas and back up recorders filled in the holes, so while things didn't work as they should have, we captured all the data.
SO, after a week of teleconferences and webex presentations, we started actual work to determine which part of the system started the cascading failures. I'm betting it's our Primary Tracking Receiver, which had been acting up the entire week prior to the launch. We had to power cycle it several times to wake it up, and it seems to have lost about 20dB ( ! ) of receive sensitivity.
Considering this stuff was hardly state-of-the-art when the system was built back in the late 1990's, it's amazing we've been able to keep it running as long as we have.
Of course, money is tight, having just come out of Chapter 11, so it looks like I'll have to order a few more rolls of bailing wire, some duct tape, and a couple of dozen packs of chewing gum to get us through the rest of the year.
Oh...and the ship this is all installed on leaves Thursday morning for dry dock, they won't authorize any overtime for us to get the jump on this over this weekend, AND all the test equipment we need to use got sent out for calibration last week. I tried my best to convince TPTB that having *everything* due for calibration at the same time was a BAAAAD idea, but of course I was overruled because they got a price break taking ALL the equipment in at the same time. We're sending a runner over to the Cal Lab Monday morning to pick up the minimum gear we need.
I think what we'll wind up doing is to dump as much data as we can out of the equipment, do some simple RF testing, and then pull ALL the gear off the ship Wednesday afternoon.
Have a good weekend, everybody! I think I'll take my Marlin 60 (in 22LR, of course!) to the range this weekend and get some practice.

Spotting Scope Recommendations?

I've read dozens of reviews, and looked through a few at the Turner's store here, but I'd like to know what my fellow rifle shooters use.
I bought one from Cabella's, a Vortex Nomad, a 20-to-60 power zoom, with a 60mm objective, but although it's quite nicely made, it just lacks something.
Or maybe I'm not using it correctly.
Now I've got quite a bit of experience with various kinds of optics, from giant binoculars to home-made 10" reflector telescopes, and I've been doing a lot of photography since I was in 8th grade.
The problem I have with the Vortex scope is that since I wear glasses, I can't seem to get close enough to it to see the full image. I'm not sure if this is an "exit pupil size" issue, or an "eye relief distance" issue.
I also kinda-sorta have the same problem with the scope on my Marlin 336, but NOT with the new Nikon Prostaff "Shotgun Hunter" scope I recently installed on my Remington 1100, or with the scope on my son's stepfather's 300 Win Mag rifle with a BIG Tasco scope on it.

Anybody have any recommendations for a good spotting scope for somebody that wears glasses?

New Toy....Comet CAA-500 Antenna Anlyzer

Of the Electronic persuasion. It's a Comet CAA-500 antenna analyzer.
Which means I own four of these devices, all made by different manufacturer's, now.
I have an AEA "VHF/UHF Analyst".
An MFJ "MFJ-259B".
A RigExpert "AA-230".
And the new Comet Analyzer.

I also have access to an Anritsu "SiteMaster" and an Agilent Vector Network Analyzer (I forget which one....) at work.

The Anritsu and Agilent boxen are truly magical, with prices to match, while the others are more in the reach of "Advanced Home Hobbyists" like me.

Why so many of the "same" type of test instrument? Well.....The MFJ units are generally good, if you get one made Tuesday through Thursday. MFJ has a history of extremely poor/nonexistent QC, and I've seen it first hand.
Loose/missing hardware rattling around inside the case, poor/cold/missing solder joints everywhere, calibration that's, uhhhh....hmmmm...."You call this calibrated?", and a host of other ills.
Their stuff (the properly designed products, that is) either works well, or not at all, right out-of-the-box.
Mine works, so I consider myself lucky.
The AEA and RigExpert units work very well, are reasonably priced, and I was given the RigExpert unit in payment for fixing a fellow Hams transmitter.

The Comet I bought today because I had a gift certificate from HRO burning a hole in my pocket!

Between one of my fellow radio club members and myself, we have almost every available "hobbyist" analyzer out there.
Last time I checked, my friend had six or seven different ones. We're both RF Engineers, and enjoy seeing different vendor solution to the same problem, i.e. Measuring complex impedance in a coaxial transmission line/antenna system.

Most of these units are plenty accurate and repeatable enough for home use, and a couple are good enough for commercial use.

I haven't had a chance to try it yet, as I'm getting started this weekend on replacing the side entry door for the garage.

I'm sure I'll use my entire vocabulary doing that project!

0bama's New Defense Policy

Shamelessly borrowed from my buddy Cap'n Bob

*Finally* Got The Back Storm Door Installed

What a pain!
Since the door frame wasn't square, I had to make some shims from thin plywood I had, and then taper the shims top-to-bottom with my Dremel. Finally got the door hung square in the frame, shimmed and screwed in the "Z-Bar" outer frame, and then had to install the latch/handle mechanism. WELL.....somebody misplaced the template that came with the handle, so I spent about 45 minutes measuring everything and making some sketches. Laid out my own teplate, drilled the holes, and mounted the handle. Then I had to do some "custom fitting" to get the striker plate lined up so the latch would engage it properly, and hold the door tight to the frame.
Finished it off with a new "heavy duty" closer cylinder, and adjusted it so the door closes fast, but then slows down about 1" before it closes so it doesn't slam.
Considering the 8 or so hours I spent a couple of weeks ago trying to get the $$##%%!! thing to fit the door frame, I have about 15 hours invested in getting this thing hung and operating properly.
And one of the main reasons I bought it was it got rave reviews on the Lowe's website, with people saying they had it installed in an hour and a half........

Friday Night at the Range

One of my wife's best friends has been asking about taking her to the range, as she's never shot a handgun before. She's shot rifles (lever action!) and shotguns, but never a pistol. So, I gave her my 10-minute safety briefing, made sure she understood The Four Rules, and went over the operation of my wife's revolver, and when I was sure she was confident and safety-minded enough, we went out to the range.
She picked up on shooting pretty fast, but both she and my wife were having some trouble shooting the full-load 357 Magnum rounds I brought with us. I have to admit I'd never fired any of this particular load from Fiocchi in her gun, and I think I'll save the rest of them for my Marlin 1894C!
They were loud and rowdy loads in my wife's gun, BIG BOOM and a lot of muzzle flash, so I went back into the store section of the range and bought a bag of 38 Special reloads.
MUCH better for both of the ladies, and pretty soon I was headed back into the store to buy another bag of 50.
They both had a ball, were very safety-minded, and after we finished, my wife's friend was asking the counter guys about handguns. I let her try my Kimber 45ACP, but besides the fact that she has trouble loading the magazines, she didn't care for the recoil.
So, I introduced another lady to handgun shooting, and she loved it.
I also got to run about 50 rounds through my Marlin 60 autoloader 22LR, and while it cycled all the ammo I fed through it just fine, the sights are WAY off. It consistently shot high and to the left, but held very tight groups at 7, 15, and 20 yards, the limit of the indoor range. I could literally put all 14 rounds in the magazine in a 2" or smaller circle without really trying, but the circle was always high and to the left.
I'll spend some time looking into this on Sunday when I clean the guns we used tonight. I'm a little bummed, because it shows excellent potential with the tight groups, but has me scratching my head as to why it's so consistently off.
Heading out to the TRW Amateur Radio swap meet tomorrow morning to pick up some bits and pieces, and then I'm going to finish getting the $$##!!@@ new storm door hung on the back door of the house.
Have a good weekend!

My Mentor Has Passed.......

I'm really bummed.
My mentor in Electronics has passed from this mortal coil. I first met him my sophomore year in high-school (1967), when I was just a geeky kid with an Amateur Radio license, *some* knowledge of Electronics, and a lot of curiosity. I was working after school and on Saturdays for the little company he was Chief Engineer at, and when he saw me explaining Ohm's Law to one of the other high-school kids who worked there, he knew I had a better grasp on at least the basics than the other kids who worked there. I started off adjusting (and learning all the intricacies) of electrical relays, and soon he pulled me off the line to build and test solid-state prototypes for him. I continued to work there through high-school, both after school and as my summer job, until I went away to college. After college, while I was working at Fermilab, he called the house one day and wanted to know if I was available for some work at his new factory. Well, his new "factory" was a shop set up in the old veterinary office where I used to take my dog! No frills, but he had several huge orders for some control boxes, and the duds off the assembly line were piling up to the ceiling as he couldn't find anybody to troubleshoot and repair them. The people he had could test them, but if it failed, it went in the "NFG" pile. After working in the evenings and on Saturdays for a few weeks, he made me a far better offer than what Fermilab was paying me, so I went to work full-time for him. In less than two months, I had all the rejected units repaired, and taught his line people how to spot and repair the real obvious production defects, AND how to eliminate the problems on the production line that were causing the horrendous reject rate. Then I taught the brightest of the high-school kids he had working there some basic, commonsense troubleshooting theory and techniques, and his production problems basically vanished. I also drew all his schematics, made formal bills of materiel, interfaced with his parts vendors, and did all the other things you have to do to get a production line running smoothly, and maximize the throughput. He made pretty simple little boxes out of inexpensive parts, and his business took off like a bottle rocket once we had everything ironed out.
Back then, anytime you got a milkshake from a Taylor Freezer machine, or bought a Slush Puppy, your product had been made with the help of his little control boxes that ran the machine.
A year or so after that, he built a brand spanking new factory, and I helped him move all his existing stuff to the new building, and helped install and set up the wave soldering machines, and the conveyor belt process lines. I got a call from a college buddy who was now a head-hunter, and since things were running so well at the new place, I decided to leave for better offer at a medical electronics place.
I always stopped in to see how things were running everytime I went back to Joliet, but since I haven't been 'back home' since about 1991, I kinda lost track of him.
Today I received a Facebook message from one of my friends back in Joliet, and found out he passed away on January 22nd.
I owe this man a lot, as he gave me my start in my career, and always had kind words for my Mom and Dad, and always encouraged me to continue my education.
Rest easy, my friend. You touched an awful lot of people, and helped more than I can count.

Link to article in Joliet Herald News about Pete.

Gavankar, Peter G. Was born January 21, 1938, in Kolhapur, India, a city located in the southwest corner of Maharashtra. He passed away January 22, 2012 after a brief battle with cancer. He arrived in the United States in 1960 with only eight dollars, one suit and a scholarship to study electrical engineering at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. After graduating in 1963, he moved to Joliet, IL where he founded Rockdale Controls, Inc., the company he ran for 42 years. Peter's innovations at Rockdale were numerous, including developing the controls for soft-serve ice cream machines, Mr. Coffee and a "Classified" item for NASA's Gemini project. Peter was artistic, as well as innovative. In 1963, he produced an Indian/Latin fusion album with his childhood friend and Bolllywood composer, R.D. Burman. Peter was proud to be a U.S. Citizen and often called his birth in India a geographical error. On the 50th anniversary of his arrival, he was honored by the U.S. senate by having a flag fly over the U.S. Capitol. Peter achieved the American Dream and called his two daughters, Sonya Gavankar-McKay (Malcolm) and Janina Gavankar, his best inventions. In addition to his daughters, he is survived by his mother, Susheela Gavankar; his wife of 40 years, Mohra Shahane Gavankar; brother, Raja Gavankar (Monica) and sisters, Kirti Rege (Promod); Nilu Gavankar and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. A memorial service will be held Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Caterpillar Room at the Joliet Area Historical Museum, 204 N. Ottawa Street, Joliet, IL 60432. Arrangements were entrusted to Woodlawn Funeral Home. Online obituary at: www.woodlawnfunerals.com Woodlawn Funeral Home 3201 W. Jefferson Street Joliet, IL 60431 815-725-0100

Published in Herald News on January 25, 2012

The REAL State of the Union

Go over to Sultan's place and read it.
I'd be laughing if it wasn't so true......

"Surviving Technology" by Bruce Vaughn, NR5Q

One of the things I like best about reading my "Electric Radio" magazine are the columns by Bruce Vaughn, NR5Q. Bruce grew up in Springdale, Arkansas, a child of The Depression. His stories tell of his childhood, and the friends that got him interested in Amateur Radio, on through his service in the Army Air Corps, and his civilian life after the war when he opened "Bruce's Radio Shop". He covers the Golden Days of radio, the appearance of Television, and all the interesting people and characters he met dealing with the public. And he's also a Master Hombrew Artist. His radios are truly works of art, with performance to match.
I'd always thought it would be really cool if all his columns were printed in a dedicate book, and now it's come to pass.
The book is 224 pages, and is available from "Electric Radio" for the bargain price of $24.95.
I've never met, or corresponded with, Bruce, but from reading his columns, I feel as if I've known him for a long time.
If you enjoy reading about "Olde Tyme Radio", and like seeing the craftsmanship that goes into the sets he builds, get a copy of this book. You'll love it!

Any Cold Remedies?

Been kinda out of it the last few days. My wife had a cold early last week, and it clobbered me Thursday. Stayed home from work Friday, missed my radio club meeting (*I* was supposed to be the speaker), and _barely_ made it up to the SoCal Linux Expo today.
Barely ate any dinner, 'cuz nothing tastes good, or tastes at all.
Major case of the "Blah-Yukkies", which I think is a new disease I just invented.
Guess I'll take some NyQuil, have some chicken soup and crackers, and hit they hay....

Marlin 60 At Home!

And my lovely wife has pronounced it both "cute" and "beautiful".
I probably won't get to shoot it until next weekend, as I have a full plate this weekend.
Friday night I'm giving a presentation on "DSP For Dummies" at my radio club meeting, and Saturday I'm headed to the Southern California Linux Exposition.
Sunday I'm cleaning my handguns, as one of my wife's best friends wants to go shooting at the range next weekend. She grew up shooting rifles, but has never fired a handgun ( ! ).
And yes, I'll give them both a drill on The Four Rules!
I see FedEx has delivered an accessory I ordered for the Marlin, a speed loader for 22LR tube magazine rifles.
I'll do a mini-review on the rifle and the Spee-D-Loader after I've had a chance to try them.

PC and Homeowner Madness Weekend!

Well, I got a new PC built for a friend, and did some major upgrades to the box I use for Audio/Video editing. That one got a new Core 2 Extreme Quad CPU, and an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. I also swapped out the two DVD burners I had in the, as they were both IDE interfaces. The new ones are SATA-III interfaces, and in place of one of the DVD burners, I plugged in a shiny new Blu-Ray burner, along with the specialized software for that. I did a clean install after I formatted the drive, as I've never tried to use an "upgrade" version of Windows. I then upgraded all my Adobe software to CS 5.5, and installed the latest software for my Matrox RT.X2 Professional video capture device.
What makes it "Professional" compared to a "Consumer" video capture device? Well, for one thing, it can record 1080i via a component video input, or 1080p through the IEEE-1394 "Firewire" port. And secondly, it plugs into a PCI Express slot on the motherboard where most consumer-grade video capture device connect to the PC with USB.
I'll have to open one of my archived Adobe Premiere Pro projects and run it through the newly rebuilt system to see how it performs. I'm not sure if the video quality will be any "better", but I'm sure it will do the transcoding to DVD format much faster.
In the meantime, the wife and I went to Lowe's to (finally!) get the two doors I was going to replace over my Christmas break. The new exterior door for the garage is sitting in the garage, but the storm door we bought to replace the screen door that disintegrated is another matter! I not only measured twice (THREE times, actually, and wrote it all down after I had the wife check my measurements) and cut once, and it just will NOT fit the opening.
BUMMER MAJOR!
The height is damn near perfect after a bit of trimming, planing, and sanding, but the width is about 3/4" TOO SMALL. So, I'm going to have to take off the "hinge rails" where it hangs on the left side of the door frame, and shim them out a little less than 3/8", and add the same amount to the right side of the frame before I screw the matching "latch rail" to the door frame.
It's funny, but all the reviews on the Lowe's website raved about how easy it was to hang an adjust this door. The fastest time was 1.5 hours, and the longest was 2.5 hours.
I spent FOUR hours on it, didn't get it installed, and used up most of my "colorful" vocabulary while fighting with it.
Oh, well....at least I know how to correct it, so back to the Home Improvement center tomorrow to try and find some suitable wood strips to make shim strips out of.
Hope you all have a good week!

Blogger Weirdness

Hmm....can't seem to reply to comments posted here.
Restarted Firefox, rebooted PC, blah, blah, blah.....
Wonder if they changed something in the template I'm using, and broke it?

Ahhhh....Life Is Good.....

My darling wife is in the kitchen baking some cookies (why does cookie dough taste so good?), I'm building a new PC for a friend, the dogs are snoozing at the foot of the couch, and The Military Channel is on gently in the background.
Hope you all have a pleasant weekend!

Dead People Voting In New Hampshire

Gee..."Chicago Politics" is expanding!

Full Story over at "Godfather Politics".

1911-2011 100 years of History in Ten Minutes

Interesting....

"System D", The Market Of The Future?

Very interesting article in "Wired" magazine this month about the world-wide, off-the-books, underground economy.
And I don't mean just the knock-off things like CD's and software.
Go here to read it.

New Sights For My Remington 870

Although I'm not sure I like them.....
First, I had to take off my Side-Saddle, and if there's ONE thing they really drilled into us during Tactical Shotgun I & II, it's that you GOTTA keep the thing FED!
Shotguns have a devastating amount of power and speed, but they go through ammo like nobody's business. Even though I wore cargo pants during the drills, and had my pockets stuffed full of shells, there were still times I needed the extra six shells the Side-Saddle provided. And it was a good place to keep slugs so that when we did the "Select-A-Slug" drills, they were right there, separate from the other ammo I had on me.
The rail device I added is a UTG "M87 Shotgun Tactical Mount", and it's made very well. It's notched along the top of the rail, supposedly so you can use your existing front sight, but I think at any distance beyond across-the-room, it would throw your aim point off. I'll try it at the range with the sight removed to see if I'm right.
And it sticks up far enough that I can look under it, and use the flat on top of the receiver, and the front bead sight, just like I'm used to using.
The first sight I put on it was a another UTG product, their SCP-DS3039W Red/Green Dot sight. I'm not sure if this is a "proper" sight for a shotgun, as it seems to have a more restricted field-of-view, but it was a good price, about $50.
The next sight I put on it was an "NcStar D4B 4 Reticle Reflex Sight" that I got on eBay for about $50.
This is more to my liking, as it's more "open", and I think target acquisition would be faster.
The problem as I see it now is that BOTH of these sights stick up really far compared to using the flat on the receiver and the front bead sight, and when I bring the gun to my shoulder and get a good plant on it, I've got to really look up to use them.
I won't know how badly this messes up the way I've been trained to use the gun, and I hope I can relearn sighting it properly, as I think almost anything is better than the "sights" the 870 comes with!
If I don't like / can't adjust to using these, I'll pull them off, drill and tap the top of the receiver, and get some ghost ring sights for it.
And yes, that poor guy *is* rusty! I had no idea it had that much surface rust on it until I looked at the flash pictures.
I'm embarrassed that I let it get that bad. I guess that what happens when I keep it in the bedroom, and the window is open at night.
Guess I'll get to learn about rebluing "Real Soon Now"!

New Toy On Order.....

Well, the last time my son and I went to the rifle range, we met a very interesting guy. He was at the position next to us, and was shooting a beautiful M1 Garand. I asked him where he got it, and it turns out it was one of the CMP "Select Grade" rifles. It was originally made in 1940, but had been completely Arsenal Refurbished, with all select grade parts, new wood, and looked like it just came out-of-the-box.
It was beautiful!
I told him I was interesting in getting into the CMP program, and he gave me a bunch of flyers, explained the entire program to me, and then told me about the Appleseed Project.
Since they go through so much ammo during the two day program, he said they strongly encourage people to use a 22, although you can use a different rifle if you have one.
Since this is basic training, I figured I go with a low-recoil 22 auto-loader, and hopefully "unlearn" any bad habits I may have picked up over the years. I've had a LOT of pistol training over the last 5 years or so, but getting proper rifle training is something I just haven't done....YET!
So, I ordered a little Marlin 60, which should be here in a few days. It'll be delivered to the indoor range I buy all my guns through, so even though I have to wait the 10-day period, I can at least fondle it a bit, and shoot it if I want.

Happy New Year!

Staying home tonight. We stopped going out on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago after we came *this close* to being in THREE traffic accidents (not our fault) on our way home.
One avoided accident is good for a pretty exciting adrenaline rush, but three had me pretty freaked out by the time we got home....

So, hope everybody has a Happy New Year, and only 11 more months to go before we can rid ourselves of The Obamanation and his ilk!

Be safe out there tonight! I'm cleaning my firearmas today, and tomorrow I'll be installing a new screen door and garage side door.

Back From The Range

And egads, was it crowded!
The staff said it's been like this all week, with lots of new shooters. We saw several dozen people bringing in new rifles, obviously new because they were in the cardboard box, and still in the plastic when they took them out of the box.
SO...we waited about an hour for my son's cousin to show up, all the while watching to see if any shooting stations opened up.
Finally, about 2pm, we were able to get a stall at the skeet part of the range. I've never shoot skeet before, but using cousin Bryan's 20 gauge Ithaca pump, I scored 10 for 10.
I was astounded.....
And it was fun. I can see why people enjoy shooting skeet.
Then we finally got a shooting bench around 2:45. We were on the long range this time, and although I'm still a "100 yard" shooter, there were people there who were shooting targets at 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards.
And hitting them.....
Only fired my Marlin 30-30 about 10 times, and I was shooting 2" or better groups at 100 yards, so I'm going to consider the scope zeroed for the 150 gr ammo I shoot. I was a lot more anxious to try the new Nikon scope (yes, I mounted it the right way!) on my slug gun. With the previous learning experience, and all my notes from Old_NFO, I was able to get it zeroed at 50 yards with 5 rounds. Then I moved the target out to 100 yards, and all I had to do was use the correct dot on the BDC, and I was on the money.
I was having so much fun with the slug gun, I shot that most of the day.
And I was getting ~2" groups at 100 yards from the Lead Sled, not bad for me!
Then, my son's cousin (ex-brother-in-law's son) opened his other rifle case, and brought out a 1940 Mosin-Nagant in wonderful condition. This was the first time I actually got to shoot one, and Bryan shot the pants off me with it. He was 9-ring or better at 100 yards with the iron sights, and I was "in the black", but no where as good as him or my son.
Oh, to have 26 year old eyes again!
Plus he's shot it a lot, and I haven't, so I'm sure I could get better by turning ammo into skill.
The high point of the day for me was meeting the guy at the next bench. He was shooting an M1 Garand, and when I asked him about it, he told me it was a CMP "Select" grade rifle. Turns out he's an Appleseed instructor, and he gave me an entire package of information on how to get into the CMP so I can get my very own M1.
AND...they have Appleseed instruction up at the range twice a month.
So, I'm going to borrow a 22 rifle, sign up, take the course, join an affiliated club, and get myself an M1!
All in all we had an excellent time, I learned a lot, and my son and his cousin had a ball.
And my right shoulder will be screaming at me tomorrow for shooting 20 or so rounds from the slug gun out of the lead sled!

Range Day!

Off to Angeles Shooting Ranges this morning with my son and his cousin.
I'll post some more after we get back this afternoon.

FEMA Billing Katrina Victims?!?

I just got this link in an email from one of the (many) mailing lists I subscribe to.
Abso-frickin-lutely disgusting!

From the Charlotte Observer

Busy, Busy!

Well, I got the new scope mounted and "pre-zeroed" on my Remington 1100, and had to take the side-saddle off the 870 to put the mount and 'red-dot' sight on it. Guess I'll get a butt-cuff to hold extra shells, or tinker something up to put the side-saddle back on.
The new doors were delivered today (they wouldn't fit in my Jeep, and I don't like strapping big stuff on the roof!), so tomorrow I'll tackle those.
And I've transferred about 12 record albums to my PC. It's a time-intensive process, as you can only record them as fast as they play. The brand-new LP's I recorded sound great, but a couple of the used ones are going to need some work to clean up the ticks and pops on them. Once I get all of them recorded on my A/V machine, I'll either transfer them to a portable hard disk, or burn them to a data DVD and them clean them up on this PC.
I'm using my Technics SL-1210 turntable, a TCC TC-750 phono preamp, M-Audio Delta 44 sound card, and Audacity to do the recording. I also have Adobe Audition, but it's on the Windoze box I'm using to record, and as my dear wife would like her dining room table back, I don't think I'll be able to leave things set up to do the post-processing using that PC.

Merry CHRISTmas, Everyone!

Just in case I get busy on the Honey Dew list and don't have time to post.
I have a new back screen door to put on.
I have a new side entrance door for the garage to put on.
I have two new light fixtures to install in the kitchen.
I have an interface board to build to put one of my radios on the Internet for remote control.
I have to get the new Nikon scope mounted on my Remington 1100.
I have a mount and "Red Dot" site to install on my Remington 870.
AND....I'm going to record all my vinyl records to my Audio/Video PC so I can burn some CD's of the them.

So....an early MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone who stops by!

Unhappy Muslims....

The conclusion: The Muslims are not happy!!!

· They are not happy in Gaza .
· They are not happy in the West Bank .
· They are not happy in Jerusalem .
· They are not happy in Israel . (There is no equality)
· They are not happy in Egypt .
· They are not happy in Libya
· They are not happy in Algeria .
·They are not happy in Tunis .
· They are not happy in Morocco .
· They are not happy in Yemen .
· They are not happy in Iraq
· They are not happy in Afghanistan .
· They are not happy in Syria .
· They are not happy in Lebanon .
· They are not happy in Sudan .
·They are not happy in Jordan .
· They are not happy in Iran ..

Where are the Muslims happy?

They are happy in England.
They are happy in France.
They are happy in Italy.
They are happy in Germany.
They are happy in Sweden.
They are happy in Holland.
They are happy in Denmark.
They are happy in Belgium.
They are happy in Norway.
They are happy in the U.S.
They are happy in Canada.

They are happy in Romania.
They are happy in Hungary.

They are happy in Australia.
They are happy in New Zealand.

They are happy in any other country in the world that is not under Muslim dictatorial rule.

And whom do they blame?

· Not Islam.
· Not their leadership.
· Not themselves.

But the same countries in which they are happy to live.

In a democracy they can live comfortably,
enjoy the high quality of life which they did not build and work for,
they don't have to be productive and earn a living,
they can be wild,
and break the law,
exploit the social services,

wear Burkhas and make a mockery

of our Police and Courts
and generally bite the hand that feeds them.

My question is why do they always try to bring their failed system with them, why do they want to turn every Western democracy into the country they left ....?

4th Best "President" Evah!

Courtesy of my buddy The Wandering Minstrel.

Christmas Wrapping

One of my favorite Christmas songs.

Kim Jong Who??

You just have to head over to Alvie's Place and check this out.....