Quiet New Year's Eve....

Not much going on here. My wife went to visit a dear old friend from High School, so I'm just snuggled in here tonight with the dog, listening to the scanner, and seeing what mischief other people are getting into tonight.

Quiet night so far, but then it's only 1930 here, and I expect the "action" will pick up several hours from now.

Went to In-N-Out for dinner tonight, so I'm nice and full, and will be hitting the hay early tonight.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Terrific Apollo / Saturn-V Launch Composite

This one of the best I've seen.

Just about makes me shed a tear....

Also reminds of standing on the Launch Platform Odyssey at 154*W, 0*N with one of my friends one night. The Moon was up, and I said to no one in particular, "Gee....We went there once"....and he almost started crying.

Funny what makes grown men tear up, isn't it?

OK....It's **OFFICIAL**....I'm Going To Be A GRANDPA!

We've known for a while now, but wanted to wait until The Kids In Colorado announced it.

Making the announcement of the wonderful news are, left to right, Coco, Obie, and my big lovable moose-of-a-dog, Diamond.

As expected, my wife is absolutely ECSTATIC.

Any doubts she had about moving to Colorado went POOF! the moment my daughter-in-law told her.

Gee....looks like I'll have to buy another set of tools in around 15 years or so......

Merry Christmas to All My Friends and Family!

Me In Full-Geek Mode c.1967~1968

A high-school buddy of mine on FarceBook found this photo of me and posted it.

The ham gear is the Heathkit "SB Series" I built, consisting of the SB-301 receiver, the SB-401 transmitter, along with the SB-600 speaker, SB-630 station console, and HD-10 single-lever keyer.

The receiver had the optional 400Hz CW filter, and the transmitter had the optional "crystal pack" so it could operate as a stand-alone transmitter. If you didn't install the optional crystals, you were locked to the oscillators in the receiver. You could operate "split" or slaved together in "transceiver mode", but the transmitter couldn't operate by itself without the heterodyne crystals installed.

The box with the large meter to the left is the control box for my "HAM-M" antenna rotator, which was installed in my 70' fold-over tower that I bought used and refurbished.

The antennas in use were a Hy-Gain 402 2-element 40 meter Yagi at 75', and a Hy-Gain TH6DX about 10' above that.

Yep, I put out a pretty BIG signal, and then added about 10dB more when I built my dual 4-100 amplifier.

The receiver has my Renwal "Visible V-8" kit on it.

This is down in the basement of "The House I Grew Up In" back in Joliet, Illinois, and is before my Dad's buddy, Master Carpenter Al Poole, built the beautiful L-Shaped desk/console for me along the back wall, and down the left side of the picture for about 6 feet. I can't pin down the exact year for this as I don't remember when the desk was built.

I don't remember which one of my Dad's buddies did the electrical work, but I had him install  a 220V/25A circuit and outlet for when I had my linear amplifier finished. I knew I couldn't get enough power from a 110VAC outlet to be able to run a 1000 Watt DC Input amplifier, so the 220 outlet was a must.

Here's a shot without yours truly in the picture, showing the 220 Volt outlet directly above the transmitter:

The "Visible V-8" was one of the hundreds (possibly more) of model kits I built over the years, along with the "Visible Man", and the Monogram P-51 Mustang that was molded with a clear skin, and has numerous changes over their silver-skinned version of the same model.

I used to drive my poor Dad nuts every time I built a Monogram WWII Navy plane, and asked him if "I got it right"!

Took me a while to understand that my Dad was a SeaBee, and while it technically qualified as being "In The Navy", he never served on a carrier, knew very little about Naval Aviation in WWII, and the only time he spent on ships was going between islands in the Pacific on his way to build the next airstrip, bridge, base, hospital, and all the other stuff the SeaBees did.

As far as the Visible V-8 was concerned, it was a pretty neat kit, with little bulbs for "Spark Plugs" and a "working" distributor to light them up at the right time.

I was always jealous of the Visible Chrysler "Slant Six" that my best buddy Joe had.

His model actually had real metal screws to hold the connecting rods together, and as I recall, piston rings you had to install on the pistons! How cool is that!

Christmas is Almost Here....Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

You'd better be nice, because Santa does NOT like naughty!





Shamelessly swiped from Lone Star Parson.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Rainy Wednesday on the Iowa

Been raining here again (.7" last night, with more to come), and it was a pretty soggy day yesterday on the Iowa.

I dropped off a new Ben-Q "Short Throw" projector that my wife and I donated after a plea for a donation at the Crew Dinner we went to, and then headed to the Comm Center for my typical Wednesday stint.

I'd noticed one of the projectors down in the museum area by the gift shop was off, but didn't know it was broken and "beyond economical repair", but that's taken care of now.

And I replaced the video card in the NI6BB station computer as the fan on it had failed, and the computer would shut don with a "video hardware fault" after being turned on for around 10 minutes. I put one of my "in stock" high-end video cards in it until I can get the fan replaced on the card that was in there. Since the $50 card that was in there was more than adequate for the programs we run, I'll pull my $300 card out after I put a new fan on the card that was in there.

During on of my forays out on the deck, I answered some questions from one of our visitors and his little boy. Turns out he was a Combat Photographer for the Army, and was in 'Nam from 1965 to 1967. He'd been from on end of 'Nam to the other, and told me he was currently working on a book about his experiences.

Unfortunately I didn't get his name, as I got too wrapped up listening to the stories he told me!

As always, it was a great day on the Iowa!

RATS! Dead Battery in the Jeep....

Ran out to Walgreen's last night to get a magazine ("Super Street", not the kind of car mag I typically buy) that has coverage of the "Supras in Vegas" event.

Came out of the store and BZZZZZZT! when I turned the key to start the Jeep.

Called my wife, who got dressed and came to the store (God bless her heart!) so I could jump the Jeep from her little car. Got the Jeep started and drove around for a bit to put some charge in the battery.

Got home, and ALL the parking spots on the street were gone!

That's a post I've been wanting to write, but hadn't been ticked off enough to do.

Coming Soon!

Had to pull her car all the way up to the driveway gate, and then crept the Jeep up right behind her. Turned it off and tried to restart it and BZZZZZZZT!

SO....this morning I took my super-duper-charge-any-battery-known-to-man charger to the Jeep, pulled the connections to the battery, and connected the charger.

The charger went into "analyze" mode, declared the battery to "OK", and then started charging. The state-of-charge as measured by the charger was only 65%, BUT I noticed the battery clamps were somewhat loose on the battery posts when I hooked up the charger.

Absolutely NO corrosion on them, as I greased them pretty well when I put this battery in the Jeep a few years ago.

Hopefully it's just a case of the battery clamps loosening up over time, and things will be OK again after the battery charges up, and I properly tighten the clamps.

This model Jeep uses an obscure size battery, and last time I replaced it cost around $200. It's the biggest battery I've ever seen in a passenger car, and looks like it belongs in an 18-wheeler.

***UPDATE***

Well, it's not the starter. Charged to 100%, and all I get is the BZZZZT!

Jumped it with my mammoth Optima "Yellow Top" I use for my portable solar-powered Ham operation, and it started right up.

THREE times it started flawlessly.

Connected the charger back up, and charged to 100% again. Disconnected the charger and no start. And after ONE attempt to start it, the charger showed that the state-of-charge had gone from 100% back down to 65%!

Looks like it developed a bad cell, literally overnight.

Obamas Legacy.....

The wife and I are off to the "Crew Appreciation **Christmas** Dinner" onboard the Iowa tonight, so I thought I'd leave you with this little video, passed on to me by a good friend.

Enjoy!

Rain and Cold Weather for L.A.

So far the rain gauge says about .15" over the last several hours. NWS claims we could get 1" to THREE inches of rain tonight. That's a whole lot in such a short time for out here. Most of the soil here is adobe, a clay/sand/"black dirt" mix, and after an inch of rain or so, not much soaks in, and it starts to pool and run off.

And I know "cold" is a very relative term (just ask Rev Paul!), but THIRTY SEVEN degrees and raining in SoCal is a bit "unpleasant" for the natives.

Just hope we don't start getting mudslide in whatever burn areas there are this year.....

Virgin Galactic's "SpaceShipTwo" Completes Suscessful Glide Test

Full story here at SatNews.

Hard to believe it's been two years since they lost the first one due to an inadvertent pilot error.

 

For those that don't know the history of this interesting mothership/spacecraft combination, here's the article at the Wikipedia.

Pearl Harbor Day on the Iowa

Had a great time today playing radio on the Iowa, and also the somber experience of the ceremonies held in commemoration of 7 December, 1941.

The press was everywhere for the noon time ceremonies, and if you live in the L.A. area I'm sure you'll see it on the news.

We made well over 300 contacts using the "regular" Amateur Radio equipment, but the guys running the 1980's era "legacy" Navy equipment had problems. Seems one of the R-1051 receivers we've been using has developed a problem with the frequency changing mechanism, a complex arrangement of gears, chains, and rotary switches.

It looks to be a simple problem, as these things go, just requiring a bit of jiggling one of the switches to wake the receiver up again, so I'm guessing dirty or slightly misaligned contacts. A bit of DeoxIT should clear it up, but getting the receiver apart enough to actually get at the contacts is a bit of a PITA. Fortunately we have a person who has restored several of these, so we're going to go through the required paperwork to get it off the ship and let him go through it. We have the complete service manuals for it, and a good supply of spares he can use. We really don't have the facilities on the ship anymore to drag it to the Electronic Repair Shop and do it there, as all the test equipment was removed before the ship went into the Reserve Fleet.

The legacy transmitters we've been using have been working 100%, and we now have a "new" antenna, with an autocoupler, for use with the legacy transmitters, and just having the autocoupler makes using them much easier, as we don't have to manually adjust an antenna coupler for lowest reflected power when we change frequencies.

Election Post Mortem: Tucker Carlson Makes a New York Slimes Columnist Really Squirm

This is great! The only other thing I've seen that's this good is the NewsWeek Managing Editor squirming around try to explain not only how their "Madam President" issue went out in error, but why it was so stridently anti Trump, and some would say anti American.

Hint:......NewsWeek doesn't produce their own "Commemorative Issues"!

I'll post that one later on.

In the meantime....enjoy this twit from the New York Slimes getting raked over the coals.....

'Tis The Season!

Shamelessly borrowed from Irish......

Scopes for Air Rifles?

A very good friend of mine has a really nice 22 cal air rifle. I forget what brand it is, but it cost him around $450, and got very good online reviews on several of the air rifle forums, and it's served him well in keeping the rabbit population under control on his vegtable farm.

WELL......he dropped it a couple of weeks ago, and the optics on the (CHEEP!) scope got knocked out of alignment to the point that when I looked through it, instead of seeing a round circle of light, I saw an oval.

And it kind of rattled a bit when you shook it...

So, I gave him the scope that came from Marlin on my 336 (I replaced it with a Nikon scope), along with several sets of rings of various heights so he could get it mounted to his preference. I helped him sight it in, and all is well. The rifle is a real ass kicker for an air rifle, and will punch clean through one side of a galvanized trash can, and almost through the other side at 25 yards. Pretty impressive to my thinking!

HOWEVER....he keeps reading on the forums that you need to use a specially designed scope made specifically for air rifles to withstand the back-and-forth shock that comes from the piston slamming forward to compress the air, and then the recoil from the pellet going out the barrel.

I'd never heard of that before. Can anybody with air rifle experience shed some light here, or is it just an "Internet Myth"?

He's worried that that "expensive" scope I gave him will get damaged, and even though I don't want the scope back, I'd like some info to put his mind at ease.....

One Upsmanship.....

From an email a buddy on the Iowa sent....

I know it's fake, but it's funny, too....

Not Much Here; Carry On!

Just been cleaning up the Radio Room a bit, mostly sorting through all the magazines (the paper kind) that have stacked up, and deciding which ones to keep, and which to dump.

I'll probably box up the car mags I don't want and ship them to one of my friends back in Illinois. Not too expensive if you use Media Mail, but it can take up to 3 weeks to get there from here.

And I've dug up a bunch of electronic items for eBay. I've got one of the original "FunCube Dongles" that's basically an SDR receiver-on-a-stick, and is the one that kicked off the whole "Cheap SDR" craze. Far better than a $20 dongle as it should be, as it was about $150 when I bought it.

The little "SDRplay" will also go on the block, as the AirSpy outperforms it by a wide margin.

A couple of RCA and Heathkit VTVMs, a couple of Heathkit Code Practice Oscillators and a Heathkit electronic keyer will go, along with some Toyota suspension parts I bought that are just too track focused to be relevant to street operation. The urethane bushings I installed are plenty "good enough" for my car, and I really don't think the Techno Toy Tuning track control rods, with their spherical rod ends in place of compliant bushings, would work OK on the street. The car I rode in that had them would rattle the fillings out of your teeth, and I don't want that.

I'll get started in on the garage cleaning (again....it's a never ending battle) on Sunday, and probably wind up with full "garbage" and "recycle" bins for Monday's trash pick up.

We used the last one of our "Large Item" free pick-ups for the year from the city last week, and got rid of a 75 gallon fish tank, some furniture that had been left outside and was deteriorated rather badly, and a "glider" type swinging chair/bench. It's like a porch swing, but has it's own frame so you can put it any where flat. That was gone before the city truck even got here, as we have some "junque dealers" who prowl the streets looking for items like that that can be refurbished, and sold at swap meets, or kept for their own use.

ANY large item made of metal will disappear, sometimes in minutes depending on what day of the week it is, and I doubted that item would make the city truck before it got here. It just needed a new canvas awning, it had no rust on it, and probably made the guy who picked it up smile.

Interview Wirh General Mattis

This is about 40 minutes long, and worth every second of your time.

I think President Elect Trump has made a wise choice....





And I just saw this over at the Western Rifle Shooters Association:

Be Safe, and Stay Alert

a.k.a. "Condition Yellow".

We won a major battle in November, but this war is far from over.....

Is Trump "Your" President?

For those that don't get it, a simple flowchart:

CBS Comes Clean

Or about as close to it as the lamestream media is capable of doing.

Go RTWT over here.

More Rain

Which is cool because drought!

It started an hour or so ago as a light sprinkle, and now it's a genuine RAIN storm. It's under .1" as of a few seconds ago when I checked my weather station, but NOAA says it should continue most of the day.

Good news for the Central Valley area where a lot of farming is done. We didn't have any reported mudslides from the last storms that came through, but if this one dumps a lot of rain that might just change.

And the little Airspy SDR radio just keeps plugging along. I did some monitoring of the APT Weather Satellites, and although I didn't save the audio files to convert them to images, I saw NO signs of strong-signal "breakthrough" like I did with the USB dongles I was using.

If you're looking for a Software Defined Radio receiver that's far better than the $25 dongles, this one gets my vote.

And I've tried almost all of them....

Happy Thanksgiving

Having some family members and friends over for dinner and some board/card games.

Hope your day is a happy one as well!

Airspy SDR First Report

I didn't need to find a USB extension as the USB cable that came with this little was plenty long enough to reach from the back of my Linux PC all the way around to the front and still have a couple of feet left.

SO....I plugged it in, ran dmesg, and was reqward with the following:

[17442.607014] usb 1-1.6: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
[17442.700026] usb 1-1.6: New USB device found, idVendor=1d50, idProduct=60a1
[17442.700040] usb 1-1.6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[17442.700042] usb 1-1.6: Product: AIRSPY
[17442.700044] usb 1-1.6: Manufacturer: www.airspy.com
[17442.700045] usb 1-1.6: SerialNumber: AIRSPY SN:573064DC314023C1
[17443.788553] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[17443.818345] airspy 1-1.6:1.0: Board ID: 00
[17443.818350] airspy 1-1.6:1.0: Firmware version: AirSpy NOS v1.0.0-rc10-0-g946184a 2016-09-19
[17443.819047] airspy 1-1.6:1.0: Registered as swradio0
[17443.819050] airspy 1-1.6:1.0: SDR API is still slightly experimental and functionality changes may follow
[17443.819079] usbcore: registered new interface driver airspy


 This tells me it discovered a new USB device, queried it, and the device responded with it's ID, and the revisions, including what firmware is loaded into it. Very nice!

Then I started GQrx, selected "AIRSPY" from the choices, and brought up KLOS, 95.5MHz.

After that check, I tuned it to 162.550MHz for NOAA Weather Radio, and set up the filters and gain settings appropriate to listening to narrow FM voice.

It's been sitting like that for about an hour now, and there's been NO "break through" from strong local transmitters, and no funny images or spurs appearing in the panadaptor/waterfall display.

This is quite a bit better than any of the USB dongles I've tried, and I suspect it would be quite a bit better than the SDRplay receiver I have, although I gave up trying to make that radio work with Gqrx.

I haven't tried it with Linrad yet, but I'm sure it will work just fine.

And I suppose I'll try the GNURadio Companion program again, but it's pretty obtuse to use, and assumes you know a whole lot about exactly what you want to do with your hardware, and also understand the hardware extremely well.

So far, this little receiver looks like a real winner!

Radios and Rain!

It's raining cats and dogs here right now. Rate was was up to 1.5"/hr, and we've received about .65" since it started this morning. It's backed off to .45"/hr and the NWS radar shows the major portion of the storm has gone through, but there's another one right behind it.

We sure need the rain, but I hope it doesn't cause flooding.

AND....my Airspy Software Defined Radio  arrived the other day.

This one uses a 12-bit ADC, which gives it much better dynamic range than any of the inexpensive dongles have, and it's built into an aluminum extrusion with metal end plates, something lacking in both the SDRplay, and the vaunted HackRF One.

I haven't connected it to a PC yet due to some problems here. My KVM switch has failed again, and although this one has everything I want, this particular model just isn't very reliable. It's been "stuck" on the port for my Linux PC  for a couple of months, and I've tried everything I can think of to get it "unstuck". At first the mouse was acting strange, then the keyboard started giving me double, missing, or wrong characters. I wound up attaching a mouse and keyboard to the front USB connectors which made the PC reliable, and then it pretty much failed completely, with the buttons on the front panel becoming unresponsive. It still passes the video, but otherwise it's just a $125 lump. Replacing it with something different will require tearing apart about half my radio station due to the fact that I've got all the cables routed "nice and pretty". I'll probably just run a USB extension cable from one of the back ports on this (Linux) PC so I can try out the Airspy, and scratch my head a while longer on what to do about the KVM problem.....

Quiet Day....

Just sitting here enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee, and waiting for a laptop to decide if it's going to boot up or not.

Friday night I'll be running the auction for one of my radio clubs, and Saturday I'll be on the Iowa from 1000~1700 to help host a large Ham club visit. No word on if we'll escort them down to the transmitter room, but if we have enough people we'll take them down there. There's a "Two Man" rule in effect anytime you go down to Broadway, and we're required to have flashlights and a radio so we can keep in touch with Security.

December 7th we'll be operating NI6BB in memory of Pearl Harbor Day, so I'll be down there all day for that.

And the progress on getting the house ready for sale continues. I've got a ton of stuff I'm going to get rid of, and we have a "Large Item" trash pick up scheduled for the end of November. We've got some old furniture, a 75 gallon aquarium tank, and some other misc items to get rid of. I'm willing to bet some of it won't make it on the trash truck, as we have a couple of "junque dealers" who cruise the neighborhood two or three times a week looking at the items people kick to the curb, and they haul them away to do whatever with.

Did Angel Just Get A Mention On "Day By Day"?

I think she started the "Trump Acceptance Resistance Disorder", a.k.a "TARD".

If so....CONGRATS ANGEL!

Poor Little Snowflakes!

My daughter-in-law was FarceBooking with all her friends the other day to attend this anti-Trump rally in Fort Collins. Even though she was born and raised in Colorado, I think the time she spent out here at CSU Long Beach might have addled her a bit.

Read the whole article here, and enjoy!

Anti-Trump Idiocracy

Ye gawds....the flying monkeys and professional troublemakers ("Protesters"?) have sure come out of the woodwork.

As I was leaving the Iowa yesterday after having spent a wonderful day on the radio, escorting Veterans around, and meeting some amazing Vets, one of the security guys told me they'd received a 'heads up' from the Port Police that a demonstration was going to target the Iowa for "supporting Trump" during his visit to the ship last September.

It doesn't matter that Trump was invited to speak at a private event, or that Bernie Sanders and his group had approached the ship to hold a rally and were stunned to find out anybody wanting to use the facilities had to pay. The Iowa just happened to host an event where Mr. Trump spoke, and as such was a convenient target

Reminds me of why I nuked my first FarceBook account when I posted something about how having a handgun saved a woman's life.

One of my wife's "best friends", the screaming liberal loony moonbat female minster that married us, has gone off the deep end. Tuesday night/Wednesday she and her husband were actually physically ill over Mr. Trump's victory.

She's been continuously posting on FarceBook all the usual tripe that liberals spout when they get all butt hurt, and now she's proudly posted pix of her wearing a safety pin indicating her support of whatever wearing a safety pin means these days.

Some of the Supra people on FarceBook have also started getting rather upset on their personal pages, although the FarceBook Supra MK-II page has stayed civil.

And outside tonight, there are helicopters buzzing around, and sirens screaming in the distance.

Nothing so far on the scanner other than the usual Saturday night DUI traffic stops....


OK, just heard some scanner traffic from the West Side division. One of the officers on the scene said that after he made a few arrests, the rest of the crowd "seemed to be a bit more....uhhhh....law abiding".

Just heard part of a call from El Segundo requesting that "all available units get down here".

CHiP has just called for more units to one of the ramps on the Harbor Freeway, RTE 110 South. From the area (Wilshire District) I suspect troublemakers protesters are trying to shutdown a freeway again....

President-Elect Trump's September 2015 Speech Aboard The Battleship Iowa

I wasn't there for this as it was a private (By Invitation Only) event.

The podium was just aft of Turret #3, and if you'll look closely, you'll see a red, ribbed "thing" behind the speakers. This is the antenna mount for the Trussed Monopole antenna we use for BIARA Amateur Radio operations. The antenna itself has been removed as otherwise it would have been a distraction.

And security was very tight for the event, with "Men in Black" scurrying around before, during, and after the event.

What Alternate Universe Did I Get Zapped Into?

The British withdrew from the EU......

The Cubs won the World Series......

And Donald J. Trump is now President-Elect......

It's amazing the amount of downright hostility that's being expressed by the Lamestream Media, losers on FarceBook, and others.

My wife is the office manager (#2 to the principal, which means she really runs the place...) at a very prominent magnet high-school that specializes on teaching the STEM type of program.

She said quite a large number of students (mostly girls, but some boys, too) were in tears today over Trump's victory.

And further, they were wondering when (not if...) the grief counselors would be on campus to help them in their time of need.

I was stunned when she told me that, as all of these students that I've met do NOT seem to the special little snowflake type.

Oh, well....a goodly number of supposed "adults" were crying, too......

Nobody at My Polling Place

Except the workers.

The lady there who took my mail-in ballot, marked it "VOID", and gave me a new one said the turnout was extremely light for this election.

And I saw one sign for Shillary in the neighborhood, and a clapped-out POS car with a "Fuck Trump" sticker on it.

Not quite what I'd expected in this mini "Diversity City" part of town.

T minus One Day

Whichever way the election goes Tuesday, I fear we're in a for very bumpy ride in the next four years.

Since I didn't get my mail-in ballot mailed-in, I have to go to my local polling place, turn in the ballot I received in the mail, get a new one, fill it out, and submit it.

Our polling place is on the grounds of the church we were married in, and the actual voting is done in the gymnasium, where we had our reception. It's in North Long Beach, a place that's, ummm..."diverse".

I've never seen any signs of voter intimidation all the times I've gone there, but I'll definitely be in  "Condition Yellow", which I always am when outside the home, and usually when I'm inside as well.

I don't do predictions as that's not a business I was ever in, but I'll leave you with this message from Rev. Paul:

A Prayer for America

Father God, we humble ourselves before You, and ask you to forgive this nation for its sins. The United States of America has turned its back on You and Your commandments. It has condoned the taking of innocent life, rebelled against Your authority, and made it illegal to even mention Your name in many public venues.

Father, we ask You to have mercy on us, and grant us not the judgment we deserve, but Mercy. Please Lord, give us one more chance to fulfill our original promise to You, and proclaim Your lovingkindness to the nations of the Earth.

Lord, let Your will be done here, including tomorrow's election and in the days to come.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sunday.....

Hope you all had a pleasant day.

I finally finished the last of the laptops for the Marine Mammal Care Center. I got stalled for a bit after they picked up the first one because the took the power supply and it took several days for my friend to bring me another one.

Rather than fight with cleaning up the existing Win 7 install, I whacked the drive with DBAN and proceeded to do a clean installation of Win 7, and then snagged all the correct drivers for it from the Dell support website.

The third one was a bit more involved, as the "pointing stick", a little nub in the middle of the keyboard that you can use like a mouse, had failed, and sent the cursor sailing over to the left side of the screen as soon as it booted up.

Since I've never met anybody who uses that thing, I took the laptop apart and unplugged the cable for it where it plugged into the motherboard.

Then lather, rinse, and repeat as I did the #2 laptop.

These laptops originally came from Dell with Windows 7 Professional, but it was the 32-bit version. This limited memory to less than the 4GB that was installed from Dell, and made my collection of used memory useless. When I did the fresh install I used the 64-bit version, and was able to bump the installed memory up from 4GB to 8GB. It took a bit of searching on the Dell support site to find the 64-bit versions of all the drivers, but it was worth the effort to give these old laptops double the memory.

And I installed the GWX Control Panel to keep these machines from getting infested with the Windows 10 OS.

I'm glad these are finished, and now I can get back to doing my own projects again.....

Post Election Pursuit of Happines

Courtesy of Mr. Whittle and friends, who say it far better than I can.

CUBS WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!

Growing up in the Chicago area made me a life-long Cubs fan.

I've seen their ups and downs, wins and losses, and all the heartbreak that goes with being a cubs fan.

Tonight they finally did it!

Congrats to the Cubs.

This just makes me wonder if The End Times are near......

Record Number of Early Voter Democrats Seen in Chicago....

Hmmm...maybe I should have posted this as "LATE Voters".....

Uh Oh....Looks Like Blogger "Burped" Again....

Hmm....lost all the recent post updates that show under everybody's blog title, and when I got to one of your sites, it's just a strange looking "index" type of page.

Wonder what the NSA is "secretly" embedding in the code.....


AND...two minutes later everything is fine again.....

Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long-Leggedy Beasties....

and Things That Go BUMP in the Night!

Didn't have too many Trick or Treaters tonight, possibly because it was a Monday night.

So....my wife will be taking the rest of the candy we bought into work tomorrow so I won't have to eat it all, and blow my newly lowered A1C to smithereens......

Hope you all had a pleasant evening!

My Flu Shot Gave Me The Flu!

Well....not a full-bown case of "The Flu", but I definitely had a reaction to it.

Monday afternoon was my quarterly medical check-up (I'm Type II diabetic), and besides the confirmation that I've lost 15 pounds and the blood draws they always do, they asked if I'd had my flu shot this year. Since I hadn't had one yet, and I was there, I said to go ahead and do it.

By Tuesday afternoon my arm was really sore, I had a serious case of the sniffles, and my stomach was more than a bit upset.

Wednesday morning I was really out of it, and spent a good portion of the day either in bed, or in the bathroom.

I'm back to about 99% today, so I either had a definite reaction to the shot, or I was "coming down with something", and it just happened to hit me 24 hours after I had the shot....

I never used to get the flu shots, and there were only a few times I ever got really knocked down sick.

Right after I'd moved in with my wife-to-be, I got really sick.

Since we weren't married yet, and her medical insurance wouldn't cover me until we'd been married something like 30 days, I just toughed it out and was miserable for a couple of months. I told her to remind me to get the shot the next year, and if I squawked about it, to remind me just how sick I was when we got married.

ANYWAY....besides the weight loss, my A1C was DOWN 2 points, so all the frantic activity I did during the 7~8 weeks I worked on the Supra definitely helped. and my Doctor was quite pleased, and told me to keep doing "The Toyota Physical Fitness Plan" I was on.

Not going to get much done today, as we're expecting some heavy rain starting late this afternoon, and running through Friday. I've staked down/tied off the canopy I got to cover the Supra, and cleaned out the garage enough to get the OEM wheels and tires strapped down to a small furniture dolly, and tucked under one of the big shelves.

And threw away/consolidated several large boxes of "junque" parts that were beyond saving.

If I keep this up, I'll be able to get the car in the damn garage where it belongs before the winter rains hit.....

Bob Hoover Slips The Surly Bonds....

I watched him fly many, many times. For a while the yellow P-51 was hangared at the Torrance airport when it was in the Rockwell livery.

His performances was always the highlight of the airshows for me, right next to the Blue Angles and the Thunderbirds.






God bless you, Bob.

You were one of a kind.....

Reposted from Murphy's blog....

Bob Hoover dies at age 94

Rainy Days....

Didn't get any automotive work done this weekend because by the time I got ready to go out on Sunday, it was raining.

And it rained today, too.

Had a bunch of indies work to do. I rebuilt a laptop for a local non-profit group, and got most of the audio interface box I'm building for the Iowa finished.

Our CTO, who served on the Iowa from 83 to 89 (I think) and is a computer guy, built up a Raspberry Pi to act as an audio playback device. We'll use this box to interface to The Coke Machine and route audio up to one of the bridge speakers, where our visitors will hear such things as "Helmsman, 30 degrees to port", along with other bridge commands.

And I found out today from my quarterly Doctor's visit that I've lost 15 pounds from the last time I was there.

Now to keep it off.....

Dogs......

Found on Brigid's blog, and I just had to share it......


“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ”

― Roger A. Caras

I'm Gonna Be A Grandpa!

OK, the DIL has told her family, so now I can tell you.

My wife's youngest son and his lovely wife are expecting. ETA is May 2017.

Any doubts, reservations and/or fears my wife has harbored about pulling up stakes here and moving to Colorado have just gone POOF!

I'm just praying that things hold together long enough that we can make a graceful, stress free exit from The People's Demokratik Republik of Kalifoniastan....

Not Too Much Going On Here....

Not too much going on here other than we got .3" of rain the other night. Just enough to wash most of the road dirt off the Supra, and turn my Jeep into a bloody muddy mess.

Spent yesterday on the Iowa, and volunteered myself for another project, but this time it's a small one.

We have several unused audio inputs to the "Coke Machine", and some of the Grey Radio Guys decided that it would be nice to have them available to use with "external" devices.

These lines are in the "Crypto Room" (FACCON 2), and are just cables hanging on the bulkhead right now. They used to connect to some audio encryption equipment, but that stuff was stripped out of the ship many years ago, and FACCON 2 is now the server room for all the various things on the Iowa that need a server. Somebody had purchased a conduit box, and some cable clamps, along with a mismatched set of XLR audio connectors. They asked me to fab a top plate that would mount the connectors, so I brought the stuff home. When I told them I didn't think the finished project would look very good, the response was "That's OK, nobody will ever see it".

Yeah....well since I'm building it, I'll see it, and it will gall me knowing that I contributed to the hack job hanging on the bulkhead in FACCON 2.

SO.....I stopped at my favorite little hole-in-the-wall electronics parts place on my way home, and picked up a nice cast aluminum box and some nice XLR connectors and mating plugs for them. I'll get the XLR jacks mounted on the front panel, drill some holes for the "cable glands" where the .625" audio cables will come into the box, and fab some mounting brackets out of aluminum angle so we can bolt this thing to the bulkhead. We've got the green light to just drill and tap holes in the bulkhead (it looks to be 3/8" steel plate, possibly thicker, with nothing on the far side), but I think there might be a nicer way to do it. I'll worry about that after the box is built.

I'll post some pix of my progress, which should be pretty quick as the garage is cleaned up and sorted out after The Great Supra Suspension Rebuild.

And as far as the "Coke Machine" goes, the last time our pillage/plunder/salvage crew was up in Bremerton while I was in Vegas, they found a COMPLETE SET of the plug-in cards, and the manual patch cards, for the Coke Machine!

Not only was this stuff was considered to be unobtainium by people that know these things, but also to be ULTRA unobtainium, the rarest sort, so we really lucked out in finding a set of these.

Rather than having to manually patch audio connections by using small wire between the card connectors and a "patch block" I ginned up, we can now just push the buttons on the front panel to set up the circuits we need. I think the Iowa is probably the only museum ship with a fully functional "Coke Machine".

And that, in itself, is pretty cool....

Hillary's New Campaign Theme Music

Couldn't find any music about flying monkeys, so this will have to do.

After all....Halloween is just around the corner.

Busy Day for Radio on the Iowa

Today was the Scout "Jamboree On The Air", or JOTA.

In years past we've had 100 to 150 Scouts come aboard to yak on the radio, and have had up to six stations in operation.

Today we only had TEN Scouts.......

Not sure what's going on, but one of the other guys checked around, and attendance at all the SoCal JOTA events was waaay down this year.

So, we got to spend some extra time with the Scouts, and show them more things than we normally do. I gave them a tour of the receiver and switchboards area, and then fired up one of the Model 28 teletype machines, and ran some test tapes so they could watch it print.

I wound up running the tapes ten times, so each Scout could have their own hard copy to take home, along with their souvenir NI6BB card:

After they were gone, I checked out two new members on our Ham Radio equipment so they can come in and operate on their ow. Out of the 50 members we have on the roster, maybe 5~7 are active and come in regularly, so having two more people who want to come operate will be good.

Sunday I'm getting a haircut and beard trim in the Iowa's barbershop. One of the Old Skool barbershops in San Pedro has their barbers come in several times a year to offer up haircuts in return for a $20 donation to the ship. I had mine cut the last time they were here, and since I ned a haircut again, I'll go down to the ship and make use of the service.

We also have shore power fully functional now, and that happened right around Fleet Week. I was too busy bashing away on the Supra to report it, but it's soooo nice to not have the huge generator hammering away next to the ship. We were able to get almost all of the equipment and labor donated, so what would have been a five MILLION dollar project wound up costing us about $300k.

Thanks to our donors, and well done to all who made it possible!

We also have another acquisition, a 1950's Piasecki "HUP Retriever" helicopter.

We were able to purchase this for under "market value", and after it arrives Sunday morning, it will sit at the ship until it get transported to Torrance airport where a volunteer group will restore it.

There are very few of these left, and from what I've been told, this one is in better condition, and came with more spares, that we originally though. I've heard a couple of people say there's enough stuff to get it airworthy, although I don't think the restoration will go that far.

I'll take some pix of it tomorrow if it's there when I am......

Jeremy Clarkson on the SR-71

I always thought these aircraft looked very sad when I saw them on display.

They belong in the sky.....

Bill's Reaction to Seeing The Donald's "Special Guest Stars"....

Kinda says it all......

Shamelessly swiped from Angel's blog.

Wife In Another Accident

Just got back from the body shop where they took the car.

She was pulled over to the side of the road for a fire truck, and some young kid slammed into her.

He said he saw the fire truck, but not her.

TONS of witnesses, including the crew on the fire truck, the paramedic truck following them, and the ambulance following the paramedic truck.

And the owners of several stores at the intersection saw it, and came out and gave witness statements to the police.

The fire truck and paramedics said the car that hit her was traveling "well over the posted speed limit", and the two store owners said it looked like "he was going 70".

The driver that hit her admitted to the LBPD that he was going "over 45, maybe 50" and it's a 35MPH zone.

The ambulance crew wanted to take to the ER, and like a dummy, she refused. She had some weird kind of neck surgery some years ago before I met her, and that's why she can't shoot a rifle or ride a horse, because those motions could possibly injure her.

She was more concerned about saving the $$$$ for the collar, back board, and ambulance ride (they charge separately for all those things these days) than she was about getting checked out.

She's on the phone with the kid's insurance company right now (some place named "Alliance" who appears to have really crappy customer service), and I just heard her say she's calling her Doctor to get in today.........