Additional Proton-M Video

This is the video I first saw.

About 8~10 seconds after impact and fireball, the shockwave hits the cameraman.

Ours didn't get this bent out of shape. We went pretty much straight up, coasted after the engines shut down, and then plopped down into the water.

This sucker went BOOM in a really big way!


.
.

Proton-M Launch Failure

Having been through something similar back in January, I feel for these guys.

Most people don't understand that while we've been launching liquid fueled rockets for over 70 years now, it's still not a 100% reliable process. Even with improved technologies like materials science, metallurgy, instrumentation, and a host of other things, sometimes rockets go BOOM.

Pretty complete coverage over at the "NasaSpaceFlight.com" website.

Boy Scout Merit Badge Class on the Battleship IOWA

Gonna be a busy day today. I'm helping with the Boy Scout "Radio Merit Badge" class today on the Iowa.

BTW.....we can't call the "U.S.S. Iowa" anymore (sob...sob...) as she's no longer an active ship of the U.S. Navy. We have to refer to the garnd old gal as the "Battleship Iowa".

A small technicality, but an important one none the less.

I'll be in the Comm Center helping the Scouts to get over any On-The-Air shyness (a.k.a. "Mic Fright"), and to make sure nobody does anything STOOOPID while transmitting.

In my experience, the Scouts are all fine young lads who take direction very well, but the FCC requires a "Qualified Control Operator" to be in physical control of the radio gear while unlicensed people use it.

If you know any Scouts, the Radio Merit Badge is one of the lesser-known badges, and a good one to have. I forget how many Merit Badges my son has, but his sash is pretty full.

Time to hit the shower, get dresses, gather up all my materials, and head on down to the Iowa.

See you all later.....

45th Anniversary of "Bullitt"

Gee....now I feel reeeeally old.....

Read about it here.

And enjoy the video......


.
.

Field Day AAR

Well, we've had better Field Days, but nobody got hurt, the food was acceptable, the weather was great, and we all had a good time.

On the flip side, due to a solar event a few days previous, propagation was downright stinky on Saturday, making things pretty dull for the guys on HF ("Shortwave").

And try as we could, we just couldn't chase Murphy away this year.

My son forgot we use Friday as a set up day, and didn't take vacation, so I got nothing done at the site on my own station.

Then he upgraded the OS in his iPhone, which nuked his address book, and lost the GPS location of my house.

He got lost, had to call me, and got here 90 minutes late, putting us waaaay off schedule for this year.

Meanwhile, back at the site....

One guy had the lifting cable in his crank-up tower snap when the tower was about 24" up from the bottom, a very good time to have it break. The antenna doesn't drop too far, and nothing was damaged.

The antenna for that station wound up being about 15~18 feet above ground, which really put a dent in how well it worked.

The next station somehow managed to kill his radio, a Kenwood TS-2000 a normally reliable radio. We got him on a spare radio one of the other guys had, at which point he started wondering about his antenna working correctly.

Considering that this particular antenna gets mediocre reviews on eHam, we erected a telescopic mast, and hung a dipole on it.

And I had some really weird "Reverse Desense" problems that I never could overcome, but I think I know what it might be. I swapped out my filters and preamps (the most likely culprits) with no effect, so I just stuck to FO-29 for the weekend.

I "only" made 22 contacts, about half of what I normally do.

And my Azimuth rotor "broke" (I think) on the ride home. It now freewheels when it should be very hard to turn by hand, so I have to look in to what happened there. I transported the mount, rotors, and antennas fully assembled, and I think I shook something a wee bit too hard on the ride back home.

And I forgot my camera, BOTH days!

Only the guys running the CW station got through the whole weekend without a single problem.

Must have been all the garlic they hung around their trailer......

OUCH! I Killed My Optima Deep Cycle Battery

OOOPS!

Well, it's 7 years old, and I got a LOT of use out of it. I'd been charging it every few months to keep it from getting sulfated, and I just realized I hadn't had it out to use, or charge, in about a year.

It *might* come back if I get a different charger that will whack it with high-current pulses, but in my experience, while it might come back, you'll never get anywhere near full capacity out of it.

Lesson learned (actually, lesson remembered): CHARGE the damn thing on a regular basis!

I'll put it in the car, and exchange it for a new one on the way home from setting things up today.

Ready for Field Day

Made a bunch of satellite contacts over on Sunday, confirming things work As Advertised.

I pick up a little 5 x 7 trailer from U-Haul on Thursday, load it up Friday with my son, and head down to the site for setup.

More info on Field Day, and all things Amateur Radio, at the ARRL website.

.
.

Happy Father's Day!

To all my fellow Dads out there!

My Dad passed away in 1992, and I never realized how much I loved him until he was gone. But then I think it's that way with a lot of Father's and sons. We never appreciate all they did for us, and all the things they taught us. It's that old "Two Males Bumping Heads" thing.

I'm blessed I have a better relationship with my son than my Dad did with me. My Dad was pretty "Old School", and we used to disagree on some things that I thought were important. I know now that he just didn't understand why I did some of the things I did, and I didn't understand that he didn't understand.

Some of my "projects", the race cars in particular, he was vehemently against. He always said that if I wanted to be a "grease monkey", I should join the Army and "Learn to do it right!".

To this day I don't know if that was a slam against the Army, or me......Dad was a SeaBee in WWII, and truly loved the Navy.

He didn't understand that I looked at it like an Engineering Project, to build the best car I could, using my 'different' way of looking at things than most other car builders did.

He finally got a glimmer when he stopped in to visit with the machinist that was doing all my work. He knew the machinist's Dad from the navy, and had sold my guy his Bridgeport mill and Logan lathe.

My machinist showed him the work he was doing for me, all my detailed notes and drawings for the parts I was having fabricated, and told my Dad that my concepts were some of the most innovative he'd ever seen, and Dad should be proud of me for being able to think like that, and having the ability to put it on paper, proper drawings and all.

After that, Dad kinda quit bugging me about the car, and when I started setting records, I heard from friends that he was baffled about why I was doing it, but proud of the good job I was doing.

So, in honor of Dad's everywhere, here's an old post I did sometime back.

Things My Father Taught Me

Any job worth doing is worth doing well, or don't do it at all.

If you don't know, ASK!

If you think you know, but aren't sure, find an expert and ASK!

(My Dad really did believe the “No Such Thing As A Dumb Question” mantra).

LEARN the proper, correct names of your tools, whether a hand tool or a machine tool.

Make a drawing or sketch and materials list before you start.

Have all the required tools and materials on hand before starting.

Do your layout work on the side that won't be seen, and protect the finish side during cutting and machining.

Measure TWICE, cut ONCE!

Remove all jewelry and loose clothing before using machine tools. Roll your sleeves up, and tie back long hair.

Buy the best tools you can afford. The “pain” of paying for quality tools only lasts a little while, while the pain of using cheap tools lasts much longer, and costs much more in damaged projects and scrap.

Always clean your tools and work area when you're done for the day. Store your tools properly.

Promptly clean any liquid spilled on the floor, and keep the floor swept clean of any chips.

If using someone else's tools or work area, leave them/it cleaner than when you started.

Keep your cutting tools sharp. Don't let them bang around in your tool box. Dull tools can damage your work and cause accidents.

Keep your measuring tools clean and in a separate drawer. Precision tools should be treated as such, and not allowed to bang around in a drawer with other tools.

NEVER force a tool to do a job it wasn't designed for!

NEVER “store” the chuck key for your drill press in the chuck!

Always clamp the work to the table, or use a drilling vise to hold it. Thin metal will “bite” when the bit breaks through the other side, and a spinning workpiece can be extremely dangerous.

When possible, 'back up' your workpiece with a wood block or sheet so that you don't drill into the table.

NEVER use your hands to remove the swarf or chips! Besides being very sharp, they can also be very hot. Use a small brush to remove them.

Know the “Speeds and Feeds” for the material you're working with. Aluminum is very different than steel.

Use the proper coolant/lubricant when required.

NEVER grind plastic, aluminum, copper, or “soft” brass on a grinding wheel!

Keep your grinding wheels dressed and true, and stand off to the side when turning on the grinder.

(Always good advice. I've had grinding wheels fly apart a second or two after I turned the grinder on, and wire-wheels shed all their wire!)

Unless you have no choice, or no other tool, use a WRENCH on a bolt or nut, not a pair of pliers.

There are at least four types of 'cross-point' screw heads, and they're NOT all “Phillips heads”.

(In case you're interested, there's Phillips, Fearson, JIS B 1012, Pozidriv, Supadriv, Torq-set, and a couple of others that I forget. The driver tips or bits are NOT interchangeable among them, as they'll either chew up the screw, the bit, or both!)

There's no such thing as a “Flat Head Screwdriver”. There are flat BLADE screwdrivers, but a “Flat Head” is a type of head on a screw, not the tool to turn it.

A Pipe Wrench is NOT a Monkey Wrench.

The teeth on a hacksaw blade point FORWARDS when it's properly installed.

Hacksaws and files cut on the FORWARD stroke ONLY. Lift them off the work on the back stroke.

It's a poor workman who blames his tools.

Rotators and Tracking Interface Calibrated and Verified

Since this is a completely new (NOTE: Used parts involved!) tracking antenna system, I had to verify it would actually track one of the satellites I'll be using for Field Day.

The system consists of a laptop running satellite tracking software, in my case SatPC32, which can dsiplay either a "flat" map:

or a "3D" map of whatever satellite(s) you're tracking:

The tracking program does much more than just display the relative positions of the satellites in relation to a ground observer. It also sends Doppler corrections to the radio, and position commands to the rotator interface.

I'll explain the Doppler Shift corrections first.

We've all experienced Doppler Shift before. I'm sure you've heard of the example where when a train (or car) is coming at you blowing the horn. As the train approaches, and then passes you, you hear distinct shift in the pitch of the tone. As the train is approaching, the sound waves are effectively "squeezed" together, shortening the time between them, and making the pitch (frequency) appear higher.

As the train moves away from you, the sound waves are "stretched" out, making the pitch (frequency) appear to be lower.

The ONLY time you'll hear the pitch the same as the train operator does, is when the relative velocity between you is ZERO.

The same thing happens with radio waves. As the satellite approaches, you have to tune the radio higher in frequency to clearly hear (no "voice shifting") the other people using the satellite, and as it departs away from you, you have to tune the radio lower in frequency.

Since we know the velocity of the satellite, and the velocity that we're moving along on the Earth, it's a simple ( you're kidding, right? ) matter to compute how much correction should be applied. The radio is connected to the laptop with a USB-to-Serial converter (the radio only has a serial port; the laptop only has USB ports), and the tracking program reads the radio's frequency, computes the required correction, and sends a command to the radio to tune to the new frequency.

In Ye Olde Daze of satellite operation, we all followed "The One True Rule for Doppler Tuning", and left the lower of the two frequencies alone, and tuned the higher of the two to make the correction.

What? TWO frequencies? Yep, satellite operation (at least on the Linear Transponder satellites) is "Full Duplex", like a telephone, meaning you can listen and talk at the same time. It's a bit weird at first to hear your own voice, delayed a small amount because of the round-trip distance between you and the satellite, but you quickly get used to it.

They way this is done, is to transmit on one of the VHF/UHF bands, and listen on the other, and this is not something your garden variety dual-band radio can do. Currently, there are only two multi-mode (FM, CW, and SSB) radios for sale that can operate on the Linear Transponder satellite, the Kenwood TS-2000 and the Icom IC-9100. There's a wide variety of used radios that work, like my Yaesu FT-847, along with other Yaesu, Kenwood, and Icom radios, but many people are wary of buying used radios.

I'll verify the radio operates correctly tomorrow, but since I've used this radio, this laptop, and this tracking program more than a few times, I'm confident it will work fine,

The other important thing the tracking software can do is send commands to an interface unit to steer the antennas, and that's what I tested tonight.

The control box for the antenna positioners (a.k.a. "rotators" or "rotors") I use has a connector on the back to allow an interface unit to plug in to it, and "translate" commands from the tracking program into antenna movement.

The rotors themselves are pretty simple. They use a small motor and gear train to develop the torque required to move the antenna, and have a potentiometer mechanically linked to the output shaft that develops a voltage proportional to the position of the output shaft.

0* gives 0 Volts, and 360* gives 5 Volts on the Azimuth rotor, and the Elevation rotor gives 0 Volts at 0*, and 5 Volts at 180*.

The purpose of the interface box is to measure and record these voltages, and then move the antennas in response to the data generated by the tracking program.

For this new setup, I'm using an "LVB Tracker" that I bought several years ago, but hadn't used until tonight:

During the calibration procedure, you run the rotors to their zero position, store the digitized voltage value in EEPROM, and then run them to "Full Scale", and do the same. The controller now "knows" what voltage corresponds to what position the antennas are pointing. If the tracking program data says that the satellite is currently at due South (180* Azimuth), and 45* above the horizon, it simply moves the rotors until the voltage from the potentiometers match the stored values for that position, and stops. Every 5 seconds it updates the antenna position if required, and then "sleeps" again.

So, after I calibrated the rotors and interface box, I waited for the next satellite to come over the horizon to see if it all worked.

Sure enough, when AO-7 was at -1 degree, the tracking program made a voice announcement, and the antennas begin to move from their parked position to where the satellite would be popping up. Watching the laptop screen, and the antennas, confirmed that yep, it was tracking the satellite as expected, and one more thing got crossed off the list.

When I get home from work Friday, I'll connect the coax to the antennas, connect the power leads to the preamps, set up the radio and laptop, and try and make a few contacts.

And Sunday will be "Radio Play Day", just to confirm it all works for more than a few minutes!
.
.
.

Field Day Satellite Antenna System Up And Running

And had more than enough daylight to put the tools away, and clean up!

This iteration of my portable setup is WAY easier to put together, align to North, and calibrate.

I was able to tip it over and rest it on a "saw horse", and get the cross-boom with antenna through the Elevation rotor, get the clamps on, and get it tightened down, all by myself.

Doing this with the 9' tower took two people, and they had to know what they were doing.

And with the short cross-boom, both the preamps (red and blue boxes) and the diplexer (little thing between the preamps) get mounted on the far side of the Elevation rotator, allowing a nice cable path from the antenna.

So, after I got the top end assembled, I tipped the tower/antenna up, and walked if over to where it clears all the overhead power/fiber/phone/cableTV wires.

And then I ran the rotators full CW/CCW in Azimuth, and from 0* through 90* to 180* in Elevation.

No cable bind anywhere in the range of travel, which is always a good thing!

For now it's sitting at "North, 0*", and when I get home from work tomorrow I'll connect the coax and DC power up to the two preamps, drag out the radio, power supply, and rotator/laptop interface, and see how it all plays together.

This is a shot I took of the preamp end of the cross-boom. You can see the wood dowel in the grey fiberglass tube, and my somewhat sloppy job of "securing" the diplexer between the two preamps.

So another hour or two of connecting stuff up, and I'll be on the air.

.
.
.

"Silk Pursing" for Field Day 2013

Well, since I'm feeling much better, I reversed my decision to not operate at Field Day this year, but I will be scaling things down a bit.

Rather than bringing the "big" tower, seen in the background, I've come up with this smaller, lighter, and easier to handle replacement.

It's based on a Rohn "Non Penetrating Roof Mount" leftover from when I ran my community wireless (WiFi) Hot Spot back at my bachelor pad. The rotator is about 5-1/2 feet off the ground, with another 24 inches of mast sticking out of the top. Up on top of the stub mast will go the elevation rotator:

The four studs sticking up out of the housing are part of a set of clamps Yaesu calls a "Separation Kit", which allows you to split the Azimuth and Elevation motors and mount them separately. The two halves of the clamp spread apart, then slip over the stub mast, and you tighten the bolts to clamp it down.

Through the elevation rotator will go a tubular fiberglass cross-boom with a wood dowel inside so you don't crush the tube when you tighten the clamps, and mounted on the cross-boom will be the "Dual Band Easy Satellite Antenna" I purchased several years ago from Gulf Alpha Antennas.

I'm calling this "Silk Pursing" because I'm making it up out of bits and pieces I've had laying around. The rotators and cross-boom were going to be used on my "New And Improved" portable satellite station I was building to use for the even on the Iowa a while back. That got canned because the "Heavy Duty" eBay tripod I bought wasn't, and I busted the legs on it. The antenna was bought for previous Field Day events, worked extremely well, and got stored in the rafters when I built the "big" tower, and the preamps I'll be using came from a couple of places.

Coax I have by the spool, and connectors by the box!

I should be able to get the rotors and antenna all put together in the next day or two, test them, calibrate the rotor position pots and see how well it plays with the control software, and possibly be On-The-Air with it Sunday.

Set up at the Field Day site is in 10 days, and the clock is ticking......
.
.

"Gun Control" for Dummies

Massad Ayoob knocks one out of the park.

It's not about "guns", it's about "control".

But then you knew that already.....
.
.

Vahevala by Loggins and Messina

One of my favorite songs from days long gone....





I'm thinking about when I was a sailor
Spent my time on the open seas
When we'd stay off the coast of Jamaica
I'd secretly steal ashore
The natives were waiting for
The boy with the lazy soul
To sing with the sailor
[Chorus:]
Vahevala, homeless sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Vahevala, homeless sailor
Vahevala, homeward sail away
Every evening I'd be gone
Back on board by break of dawn
I'm thinking about the nights in Jamaica
Pretty girls dancin' here and there
Stole a keg and now I'm drunk as a sailor
The captain he don't know
Where Billy he done go
But I'm singing with native girls
The songs of a sailor
[Chorus]
Every night in Jamaica I'd sing with the lady
And drink with the men till the morning appear
Healthy sunshine is fresh on my face
As the songs of the night puts the ring in my ear
[Chorus]
.
.

15 Minutes of Nuclear Explosions

Definitely not something you want to be near, but beautiful in a scary sort of way.

H/T to The Market-Ticker!

Radio Weekend on the Battleship Iowa

As part of Museum Ships Weekend, one of the groups I'm with was able to secure permission to operate from the Comm Center aboard the Iowa this weekend.

I didn't operate the entire time my buddies were there as I'm still not 100%, but I put in about 4 hours Saturday, and 4 hours today.

We had a pretty good time, although Saturday was a bit uncomfortable, as the ship's HVAC system is non-functional at this time, and we had to rely on box fans in the hatches and passageways to blow some cool outside air into the spaces we were using. By 1400, we were all soaked with sweat, so I left early, came home, and took a nap.

Today was overcast and much cooler, so I was able to hang in there for over 5 hours, at which time we decided it probably wasn't going to be worthwhile operating until the end of the event, and shut down early.

We used pretty simple equipment, an Icom IC-718 compact HF transceiver, and LDG antenna "tuner", and the Discage antenna on the bow of the Iowa, and the "trussed whip" antenna located a bit further aft.

Here's an excellent article about the various  antennas aboard an Iowa-class battleship, courtesy of one of our sister ships, the USS Missouri.

We had a nice 30 minute "rag chew" today the The Mighty Mo, marking the first time we contacted her from the Iowa.

BTW....all FOUR Iowa-class ships were on the air this weekend, marking another first. Next year will be the 60th anniversary of the first time all four steamed together, and we'll be working up a big event for that!

The discage is a rather unusual antenna, in that it can be fed two ways. If you feed it at the junction between the "disc" and the "cage", it acts as an HF Discone antenna, and will radiate efficiently from 10 MHz to 30 MHz.

If you feed the lower cage portion against ground, it acts as a wide band monopole, and works very well from 6 MHz to 10 MHz.

Discones are more commonly used at VHF and above, and you've probably seen one, and called it a "scanner antenna". They don't have ANY gain, so they're not much better than a piece of wire, BUT they are remarkably broadbanded, often operating over 10:1 frequency range, making them very popular with scanner users.

I don't know for sure how many total contacts we made, but I logged almost 200 during the two days, and operated the radio for at least that many more.

The Iowa is a marvelous place. Every time I walk down a passageway, go up or down a ladder, or just sit in one of the spaces, I get an eerie feeling, almost like I'm being watched. Some of the other people who volunteer feel the same thing, and it's a reminder to us that we're merely stewards of the ship, and are just keeping it clean and well kept for the real owners, namely all the people who served on her, and gave her life, during the time she was a Ship of the Line.

And I'm honored to be allowed to help keep her "shipshape"......

Don't Worry, I'm Doing Fine.....

I haven't posted on any of the blogs I regularly visit because I've been using my wife's PC.

And I'm too damn lazy to have to enter all that info on each blog I want to comment on.

Since The Kids moved out, she's been doing a major make-over on their room, and I pulled everything out of the middle bedroom I shared as a Radio Room/Weight Lift Room/Clothes Closet with her son and his girlfriend.

I helped her pull out all the plastic screw anchors, patch the holes, "Vee" out the cracks, and spackle the walls. She handled all the priming and painting, while I dragged *everything* left out of the middle bedroom.

Got some more IKEA crap so it would match the other IKEA crap I bought when I first moved in, and spent a couple of days moving little "scale model" pieces of paper around until I was happy with the new arrangement.

Then I put the "1:1 Scale" furniture in the room, and I'm slowly moving all the computer and radio stuff back in.

I'll have about three times the room I had before, and _might_ be able to move the "Electronics Repair Area" out of the breakfast nook in the kitchen, and into the new "Lab Area" along one wall of the room.

Still taking it easy, and I've been cleared to return to work on June 10.

Go Say "HI" To Tam.......

She's having a major case of the "mehs".

I know the feeling quite well these days....

Memorial Day 2013 Aboard The USS Iowa

I couldn'r make it, but the association sent me this link.

Enjoy!

Memorial Day

Thank you to all our Military people, especially in these troubled times.

And mere "thanks" cannot express our gratitude to those who gave their last, full measure.

God Bless You All....

Blog Tinkering, Part Deux....

At the request of a very good friend, I've bumped up the font size to 16, and changed to color to black.

I'm completely open for ideas as to color and size, as *my* eyes aren't all that good anymore, either.

Frankly, I'm surprised I can hit the target at 100 yards with the iron sights on my Marlin 336 or 1894, let alone get it in the black better than 90% of the time!

Guess I had some pretty good teachers, and the lessons stuck.

And for those that have asked, I'm feeling better, haven't had a cigarette since May 10th, and my caffeine intake is about 5% of what it used to be.

And I have the gouges in the Radio Room walls from trying to climb them to prove it.......

The hives have disappeared, thanks to a medication/dosage change, but I still get the "itchies" from time to time.

If *I* Could Play The Electric Guitar.....

I'd want to be able to play it like this......



You know I smoked a lot of grass.
Oh Lord! I popped a lot of pills.
But I've never touched nothin'
That my spirit couldn't kill.
You know I've seen a lot of people walking 'round
With tombstones in their eyes.
But the pusher don't care
If you live -- or if you die.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! The pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
You know the dealer, the dealer is a man
With a lump of grass in his hand.
But the pusher is a monster
Not a natural man.
The dealer for a nickel
Goin to sell you lots of sweet dreams.
Ah...but the pusher will ruin your body;
Lord he'll leave your mind to scream.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! God damn the pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
Well now if I were the president of this land
You know I'd declare total war on the pusher man.
I'd cut him if he stands, and I'd shoot him if he run,
And I'd kill him with my bible, and my razor and my gun....
GOD DAMN! The pusher
God damn the pusher.
I said God damn! God damn the pusher man!

Kids Are Gone, Dogs Are Gone, Wife Is Bawling Her Eyes Out......

And the house is strangely quiet......

Between the NO cigarettes, NO Diet Coke, and now NO dogs and kids, this place is starting to feel like something Rod Serling should give the voiceover intro for.

Cue music...........

Beretta To Leave Maryland And Kaliforniastan To Tax Ammunition

And I say good for them.

Read the whole thing here.

And my wife's retirement, and our departure from Kaliforniastan, grows closer each day.

Just hope we can hold out until then.

Kaliforniastan to tax ammunition.

.
.

Hives Again........ARRRRGHH!

WELL....changing from Brilinta to Plavix didn't get rid of the hives, and the Prednisone hasn't done anything, either.

Since I have to drop by the lab today for some blood tests, I'll swing by the walk-in to see what they say.

I was up and down all night long, and I've got to stop scratching the damn things because I don't want to get an infection.

I'm gonna need an ocean,
Of Calamine lotion..............!

The Amazing Omegadrill

Every bust a tap in a hole you were threading?

Ever bust off an E Z Out while trying to remove a busted bolt?

If you have, then you know what a PITA it is to get a broken tap out of a hole.

Sometimes you can break the tap up into individual pieces and pick them out, but what if you can't?

When I worked at Hughes Aircraft, if somebody broke a tap in one of the very expensive milled aluminum housings we used, we'd strip the housing down to bare metal, and send it out the have the tap "burned" out with an EDM process.

It worked beautifully, but was expensive and time consuming.

I happened to find several references where guys were raving over how good The Omegadrill  worked at an automotive website I like to visit, and it looks like somebody has come up with an answer to the busted tap problem.

They're not cheap, at $175 for a 9 piece set, but if they get you out of a jam, they're could be money well spent!

HIVES!!!!

Geez....maybe I should start a "Drjim's Medical Blog"....

Anyway.....when I was showering up yesterday I noticed an area on my right bicep that was covered with little red "pimples". I didn't think too much about it, and went out for a short walk.

Still not up to the Grand Walking Tour of the neighborhood, but at least I can go down to the end of the street and back without any discomfort at all. Still not up to getting dragged around the block by one of the dogs, but we'll get there....

Sweet little wife came home about 1630, and sometime later I went into the bedroom to get the hand-carved bamboo back scratcher my Dad brought back from "somewhere" in the South Pacific during WWII.

As I was scratching my back through my shirt, I noticed my back felt "bumpy". I asked my wife to come look at it, and she said it looked like the worst case of measles she'd ever seen!

My back was covered in little red pimples/bumps, and was itching like crazy.

I called the Doctor's office (it was 1730 by now), and got the answering service who took down all the info, and then transferred me to an "ER Nurse" who took it all down again, asked me a bunch of questions, and (probably following a script or "expert system") said it didn't sound major, and to contact my Doctor directly ASAP, meaning this morning when the office was open.

About 30 minutes later, the Doctor's office called to say one of my insurance forms for work was completed, and I could pick it up. Since it was my Doctor's regular nurse, and I had him on the phone, I went ahead and told him about the hives. He checked his computer (the info from my call was already there!), and said he'd tell the Doctor.

About 2015, my Doctor called (does this poor guy ever sleep?), talked to me for a while, and decided to take me off Brilinta (Ticagrelor), and put me on Plavix (Clopidogrel).

He's  pretty sure that switching drugs will stop the allergic hives, as well as help with the shortness-of-breath I've been having.

And it's been FIVE WHOLE DAYS since I had a cigarette!

I still want a smoke, but my wife's decision to "allow" me (huh?) ONE can of Diet Coke per day has helped. Coming down off caffeine AND nicotine at the same time is NOT fun.

Oh, well......off to the pharmacy. My stepson is going to drive me, even though I think I'm perfectly capable of driving the 1.8 miles round trip.

Gee...I could probably WALK it if I had to!

Precision Guided Firearms?

This is neat.

Probably costs more than my Jeep.....

Thanks, Everybody

For all your support.

I really appreciate it!

I had my first post-op meeting with my Doctor this morning, and we discussed all of the ramifications of having a heart attack, and the changes in lifestyle, and new medications, that are required for a continued successful recovery.

One of the things I didn't know was that continued smoking can cause my brand-new, shiny stents to clog up in a remarkably short time.

If all goes well, these new type should be good for at least ten, and more like 15, years before a replacement is needed.

In 15 years, there may be something entirely new, although with the current state of the economy, I won't hold my breath.

We spent some time clearing up the confusion/consternation I had over one of the new meds, and the "banning" of one of my older ones, Benadryl.

As far as the stopping smoking goes, all my friends (and my wife) who have quit tell me the first 7~10 days is the worst, and once I'm past that, my chances of staying "quit" increase dramatically.

BUT....between the NO cigarettes, and NO caffeine, I'm going to call the Doctor tomorrow and ask him if there's something mild he can prescribe to help me slide through this.

I'm getting a bit antsy, and I have a feeling I might be climbing the walls by Thursday or Friday!

And I've lost about 7 pounds, which I suspect was mostly retained water, as I'm no longer drinking 8 or 9 cans of Diet Soda per day.

No, I'm not comfortable, and I'm still pretty sore (and bruised) where they made the incision to get at the femoral artery, but I guess I'm in a whole lot better shape than I was 5 days ago when the pain came on, and stayed with me until I woke up after surgery Sunday afternoon.

Back Home Again....

And really tired.

And slightly short of breath.

And I'd knock down someone's grandma for a cigarette!

I also have a headache from the various meds, and 4 new ones to take.

One "anti-platelet" to prevent the stent from clogging up, two for "high blood pressure" which I've NEVER had (gonna talk to my regular Doctor about that tomorrow morning), and a different cholesterol lowering drug.

And.....

NO more smoking

NO more caffeine (we'll see about that one..)

GREATLY increased exercise when I'm able to get around better

LOSE ~50 pounds

NO driving for a few days (dear wife is taking me to Primary Care Provider tomorrow)

NO heavy lifting for a few months

NO stair climbing until cleared to do so (cool....keeps me OFF the launch platform!)

And a dietary change.

Since I married my sweetie, I *have* been eating much better than when I was by myself, so these coronary artery blockages probably go back years, and have been steadily closing down, and finally caught up with me.

Some of the weight gain I attribute to the workplace accident I suffered last August, which cut down my mobility in walking long distances.

When I was laid-off from Boeing back in 2009, and became a "House Husband", I dropped about 30 pounds, felt great, and my A1c was down to ~5.6 or so.

Within a few months of getting called back to work for the project's new owners, I'd gained the weight back, and my A1c was creeping upwards.

I respond very well to exercise to control my weight and diabetes, and I have to get back to the regimen I was on before I went back to work.

Early retirement is looking better every day.....

Three Stents, No Further Damage or Complicactions.

Just woke up a few minutes ago.They installed three stents, and told me everything elses was OK.

Nice be able to use a real keyboard again!

I'm in the hospital.....

Had a heart attack Friday night. Getting an angiogram and stent or two todoay.blogger on the hone sucks.

Happy Birthday, Col Cooper.

Jeff Cooper would have been 93 today.

Whole lotta good stuff over at Fr. Frog's place.

Rest easy, Jeff!

Spock vs Spock

Shamelessly pilfered from Tam.

Enjoy!!

The Nest Is Almost Empty Today......

The stepson and his girlfriend will be moving to the Fort Collins area at the end of the month, and her Dad (a really cool guy) got down here Saturday morning to load up her car and most of her stuff to haul back later today.

"The Kids" have been working pretty non-stop all week sorting things out, packing stuff up, and help her Dad load the truck. They made a really big dent over the weekend, and I'm astounded how much stuff they got loaded.

Her entire car is floor-to-ceiling with her belongings, and loaded on the flatbed he towed down here.

The box of his crew cab dually is completely packed, up to about 6 feet! He had plenty of tarps and tie downs, but I gave him a 4-pack of ratcheting cargo straps "just in case".

So, now that we're back from dinner, the hands have been shaken, the hugs exchanged, and we waved them off on their way to Fort Collins.

They're going to overnight in Las Vegas, and then finish the trip Monday.

She'll be coming back out here in two weeks to be Maid of Honor at her best friend's wedding, and then she and stepson will load up the rest of her/his/their stuff, and motor on out of Kaliforniastan.

I wish them well, but DAMN....they're taking BOTH dogs with them.

Looks like we'll have to start the puppy search again.....

Vacuum Tubes, a "Modern Aladdin's Lamp" by AT&T

Some of the early glass tubes used in transmitters were truly works of the glassblower's art.

When I worked at Fermilab, the RF Power Amplifiers used in the Booster and Main Accelerators used water-cooled metal-ceramic tubes made by Eimac.

They were 4CW100000X, indicating they had a Plate Dissipation of 100,000 Watts!

A quick look at the "Eimac" website doesn't show them listed anymore, so I'll have to get a hold of my buddy Dave who still works there and find out what they're using these days.

Anyway....a friend of mine sent me the link to this AT&T video about the Good Old Days.

Enjoy!

The Twelve Truths In Engineering

This was originally published as an April Fool's Day RFC, but I thought it was relevant to all of us who do geeky things.

Enjoy!

The Fundamental Truths


   (1)  It Has To Work.

   (2)  No matter how hard you push and no matter what the priority,
        you can't increase the speed of light.

        (2a) (corollary). No matter how hard you try, you can't make a
             baby in much less than 9 months. Trying to speed this up
             *might* make it slower, but it won't make it happen any
             quicker.

   (3)  With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
        not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
        are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
        as they fly overhead.

   (4)  Some things in life can never be fully appreciated nor
        understood unless experienced firsthand. Some things in
        networking can never be fully understood by someone who neither
        builds commercial networking equipment nor runs an operational
        network.

   (5)  It is always possible to aglutenate multiple separate problems
        into a single complex interdependent solution. In most cases
        this is a bad idea.

   (6)  It is easier to move a problem around (for example, by moving
        the problem to a different part of the overall network
        architecture) than it is to solve it.

        (6a) (corollary). It is always possible to add another level of
             indirection.

   (7)  It is always something

        (7a) (corollary). Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't
            have all three).

   (8)  It is more complicated than you think.

   (9)  For all resources, whatever it is, you need more.

       (9a) (corollary) Every networking problem always takes longer to
            solve than it seems like it should.

   (10) One size never fits all.

   (11) Every old idea will be proposed again with a different name and
        a different presentation, regardless of whether it works.

        (11a) (corollary). See rule 6a.

   (12) In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there
        is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take
        away.

OUCH....Hard Drive Failure In My Weather System

Well.....Sunday afternoon I decided to clean all the dust bunnies out of the little PC that controls and logs the data from my Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station.

I shut it down, unplugged all the cables, took the cover off, and took it out on the back porch to blow the dust out like I've done many times before.

Yes, both the PC *and* the air gun were properly grounded. I've seen boards get blown out (pun intended) by blasting them with compressed air, which can generate quite a healthy static charge if the air gun isn't grounded.

Got it all cleaned, put it back together, and it wouldn't boot.

Going into the BIOS showed that it recognized a SATA drive was in there, but couldn't read it.

Thinking I'd maybe (crossed fingers!) knocked a cable loose, I pulled it out, took it apart again, and reseated all the cables.

No dice....

So, off to Newegg to order a new drive, as all the drives I have "in stock" were way too big to dedicate to this PC.

A new 120GB Samsung Solid-State Disk was installed, and I'm loading OpenSUSE 12.3 64-bit on it now.

Then I'll update it, download the wview software and all the special libraries it requires, and configure the whole shebang.

*IF* I'm lucky, I might be able to recover the archived data from the "failed" disk, and transfer it to the new SSD.

Otherwise, well......I "start the clock" all over again recording weather data, and sending it to the CWOP, and on to NOAA.

Really OLD Radio/Electrical Magazines

I was at a board meeting for my radio club this afternoon, and one of the board members had a sack of OLD magazines with him.

He saved them from the dumpster as he figured they have some historical value, and I agreed to scan them.

They're from 1911!

They're in remarkably good condition, but some have tape holding the covers on, and some of the pages are starting to deteriorate, so I'm going to be extra careful as I scan them.

After I get them all scanned, I'll make a DVD with the magazines in pdf format, and I'll also post them on the web if I can find a place that doesn't charge.

In the meantime, here's a scan of the cover of one of them.

RCA "Indian Head" Test Card et al

Most people call these a "Test Pattern", but this particular one is more accurately referred to as a "Test Card" since in the early days of television, it was printed on heavy card stock, and held or positioned in front of the camera.

Wikipedia (where else these days?) has a very good article on this particular RCA Test Card, along with some external links to a guy who found one of the originals in a dumpster back in 1970.

When I worked for DirecTV, we used one of these, showing how far technology has advanced sine the early days of TV.

The history of optical targets, or "test patterns" is quite interesting if you're geeky, and covers everything from the TV test patterns to the strange markings painted on aircraft and missiles to track them during flight, and conversely, strange patterns painted on the ground or roof tops to serve as resolution checks for high-flying cameras.

Unusual Movie Prop Gun Cartridge

During the last few weeks when I was off work on Medical Leave, a movie production company that had contracted with us came in and set up all their gear.

They did a lot of filming up on the bridge, down in the engine room, the Launch Control Center, and what we call "Room 101", which is the Rocket Assembly Room where the payload gets mated to the rocket and tested before we transfer it over to the Launch Platform.

Almost all of the filming was done on 2nd and 3rd shifts, and since I was AWL (Absent With Leave!) when the schedules were made, I didn't get asked to assist the production company while they were on board.

It was mostly assistance to keep them from getting lost, making sure they didn't get into places they shouldn't go, and escorting them to the rest room.

Well, they finished filming over the weekend, and started breaking things down and moving them off the ship Monday morning.

The filming they did was a lot of "action" sequences, and according to my friends who were observing, involved  LOT of prop gun shooting.

So much so, in fact, that people were sliding around on the spent brass in between takes before they could get the floor swept up for the next take!

One of my friends said they were taking 5 gallon buckets of brass off the ship!

Even after "cleaning up", they were still finding brass rolling around, so one of my friends saved a spent case for me.

He had no idea what kind of gun they were firing, other than "It was some kind of machine gun!", and since it was a prop gun, might have been rechambered to fire these blanks.

It's obviously a blank from the crimped end, but the head stamp indicates it's a "9MM Win Mag", which I had never heard of.

A wikipedia search turned up that it's considered an obsolete cartridge, designed in the 1970's to duplicate the ballistics of a 357 Magnum in an auto pistol cartridge, sort of like a prehistoric 357SIG, I guess.

So, here's a couple of pictures of a cartridge you may have never seen before.

.
.

Bringing the Mighty Saturn F-1 Engine Back to Life

Interesting article over here.

Never thought I'd see the F-1 roar again.....

.

.

.

 

Salesman Joke

From a buddy of mine.....

A young guy from North Dakota moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?" The kid says "Yeah. I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota."

Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job.

"You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor.

"How many customers bought something from you today?" The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One". The boss says "Just one??? Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day.

That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here. We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida. One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota, but you're not on the farm anymore, son."

The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day. He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"

The kid looks up at his boss and says "$101,237.65".

The boss, astonished, says $101,237.65! What the hell did you sell?"

The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks. Then I sold him a new fishing rod to go with his new hooks. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."

The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK?" 

The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing'".

.

WTF Is Going On With Blogger???

Well.....DUH!

I've tried to reply to posts on other blogs, and it will NOT let me post with my super-secret "drjim" ID.

It keeps insisting I use an old ID that I only use for a few Yahoo! groups.

This is getting REALLY annoying!

Maybe I should just move to Wordpress, or just get another domain, and run everything from there....

VERY Good News From The Hospital

My wife's grandson has been released, and he's back home.

They held him and extra week so they could wean him off the drugs they had him on. I don't know what they used to put him in the induced coma, but after they took him off that, they put him on Methadone so he wouldn't go into withdrawl.

They finally got him off that, and he went home on Tuesday morning.

Pretty amazing when you consider they had the Chaplain and the grief counselor team team there not that many days ago.

Again, THANK YOU for all the prayers and support. My wife was amazed at the number of people I "know" through this blog that poured out sympathy and prayers.

Thank you all, again......

Tinkering.....

I'm digging into the HTML code. I figure if they won't give me what I want, I'll just dig out my O'Reilly HTML book, read the code (Use The SOURCE, Luke!), and MAKE it do what I want!

I'm trying to get this set up so it nicely fills a 1280 x 1084 screen.

If it spills over on yours, or wraps around, or does anything that make it unreadable, PLEASE let me know.

Like I said, my HTML-foo hasn't been used in (quite!) a while, so I fully expect to get this looking real purdy on my 1920 x 1080 monitor, only to have it look like sh1t on other people's monitors.

Once I get the scaling and width correct, I'll try and do something about these rather lurid colors.

Please Stand By.........

Blog Tinkering

Spent some time this morning trying different templates.

Since my HTML-foo is low these days, I'll just keep putzing around with what blogger supplies until I find one I like, and then tweak it a bit.

Bear with me.....the blog might look pretty weird from time to time!
.
.

Maryland Governor Puts Tax On......RAIN?

Just is just how far down the path of tyranny we've come.

I suppose next they'll tax us on the CO2 we exhale!

Go here and read the whole thing.



Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me.

.

Prince Rupert's Drop

This is amazing.

Back to Work on Friday

I should have bent my Doctor's arm to let me stay out until Monday, but.......

Anyway.....the extra antibiotics are doing their job, and the swelling and redness of my index finger are going away.

As a result, my Doctor doesn't think I'll need surgery to root out all the infection, but he's going to be watching it closely. If it flares up, or changes significantly, he'll get me in to the Hand Surgeon ASAP.

It's still a bit difficult to write, type, use a mouse and small tools, and solder, but I'm cleared to go back on Friday.

Radio Daze.......

Since I can't work on my Jeep, or work outside on any antenna stuff, or tinker around on my workbench (can't solder and use small tools with my finger all wrapped up), I've been spending most of the weekend listening to the radio.

There's a lot of Ham radio activity today on the 15 and 10 Meter bands, and the scanner is running in the background, too.

So far the scanner has provided most of the entertainment.

** A couple fighting in the parking lot of a local Double Tree hotel, cursing and throwing clothing and wine bottles at each other.

** A "medical emergency" aboard a Jet Blue flight that's due to land soon. A 34 year old woman complaining of dizziness, and also claiming she'd been "drugged by a nice looking man" at the airport bar of her departure city. A doctor on board took her vitals, and pronounced her "fit, normal, and a bit of a bubble-head".

** A traffic stop by the LAPD where the driver claimed not to know that his state-issued I.D. card wasn't the same as a state-issued driver's license.

** An ambulance call to a certain address where the driver said "Oh, NO....Not HER again!".

And the usual traffic stops where the driver has multiple FTA's and warrants.

One person had four warrants with the total exceeding $50,000.

And he was driving a brand-new Ferrari with cardboard plates.

Just gotta love L.A.!

.