6 Meter Antenna Results

Annnnnd IT WORKS!

Worked 12 stations in the SE and Lower Midwest on Single Sideband this morning and early afternoon. Signals weren't rock crushingly strong, but running "S7" to "S9" with a local noise level of around S4~S5, so they're well out of the noise, but with some fading.

Then I switched over to the "Digital" modes, running FT8, and made a bunch more contacts, including the guy up near Wellington with a HUGE 6 Meter station. The digital modes are nice for racking up an impressive body count, but they're very "sterile", and I'm not sure I care for them. It took me a few hours to get the SSB stations I worked, and about 30 minutes to get the same number of contacts with FT8.

It goes like this:

You look in the display pane for the callsigns of received stations, double-click on one, and then just use mouse clicks to send "macros" (canned messages that are dynamically altered for each contact), then send "73" with a mouse click, and move on looking in your list for the next callsign to double-click on and start the process all over.

That's it.

No manually tuning around the dial hunting down signals, no trying to get their callsign, and making sure the other operator has yours correct, no fighting interference from other close-in stations or static crashes, just looking at the list of received stations, and mouse-clicking on one. Some people don't care for fighting to dig out a contact, and they're drawn to these modes, and good for them. Variety is  a Good Thing, even in Ham radio, and the technology behind the software is solid, but it seems "artificial", and a bit boring to me.

It definitely proves you can put a signal into an area. How useful that is can be debated, because a large portion of the signals are at, or below, your threshold of hearing, meaning you couldn't talk to them using voice, but the software manages to dig them out and display the transmitted data. Yes, there are many, many other digital modes where you can have a live, keyboard-to-keyboard chat, like we did with Packet Radio in Ye Olden Dayes, and some of the digital modes are capable of staggeringly good performance in digging signals out of the noise, making them extremely valuable for sending data when conditions are marginal-to-bad.
I guess it just lacks the Human Touch of actually talking to someone. Even if it's just a contest exchange consisting of a few words and phrases, at least I talked to a person.

I must be getting old.....

6 Meter Antenna Up and Running

And it only took me about three hours from start to finish.

The center is about 9' above the ground, just about a half wavelength, which is very good for a simple dipole.

And it's not super taught, but nice and straight. This is looking to the South along the wire and support ropes.

It's running in a line 30* West of North, so along a line 330*-to-150*, which is as "Broadside" as I could get it the the USA. It's up high enough to where it *should* be somewhat directional, but with the house and gutters being 1/2 wave away, and my 90' wire antenna located about 15' above it (they cross at about a 40* angle), the pattern is gonna be pretty wonky!

The North anchor point is a 5' section of mast clamped to the fence:

And the South anchor point is a screw eye into a tree. This way gives me lots of line on all three mounting points along the antenna so I can completely drop it to the ground for inspection and maintenance:

 The center point is hoisted through a "floating" pulley and tied down with the excess rope wrapped around a small halyard further down the tree. You can also see the coaxial cable "choke" about as close as I could get it to the feedpoint.

The wire and the support rope are belayed to the end insulators with several cable ties. I've been doing this for years, and never had one slip. Since I drop my little antenna farm yearly for inspection and maintenance, I'll catch the cable ties deteriorating before they break.....usually.

A view from the "backside":

I can't post a graph of the SWR because I can't get my antenna analyzer program to run on this PC, but running it manually shows the VSWR is less 1.3:1 @ 50MHz, dropping to about 1.1:1 @ 51MHz, 1.2:1 @ 52MHz, and peaks out at 1.9:1 @ 54MHz.

Whether it radiates well is anybody's guess at this time. I can hear the beacon down in Aurora, a about 60 miles away. He's running 50 Watts into a "Halo" antenna mounted at 30', so that definitely shows it's working to receive.

It's probably too late at night to get any propagation, but I just finished connecting my SignaLink, so I'll snoop around on some of the digital frequencies for signals. The digital modes are amazing because you can actually make solid contacts with stations at or slightly below the noise floor, which is running around "S5" here.

6 Meter Dipole Antenna Project

After reading  SiG's post on Radio Propagation, and seeing his comments about the big 6 Meter opening he was enjoying, I made some comments about rarely operating 6 Meters, but enjoying the times I did.

In mentioning that I only have one radio that will transmit on 6 Meters, and that radio will be going on eBay soon, he replied that I should make a 6 Meter Dipole, hoist it up, and give my hand a try at the upcoming ARRL June VHF Contest that's scheduled for this coming weekend.

Hmmmmm....do I have enough "stuff" to build a decent antenna?

Wire? Check! Plenty of 12 gauge Davis RF "Flex Weave" on hand.....

Center insulator? Check! I have a Hy-Gain center insulator new-in-box.....

End insulators? Check! Would you like plastic or ceramic?

Support rope? Oh, yeah, got several hundred feet. Would you like new, or slightly used?

So I cracked the books, came up with some dimensions, and proceeded to cut wire, and belay the insulators to the ends of it.

Took me an hour to round up all the bits and pieces, and about another hour to lay out the wire, measure it to length and cut it, install the end insulators, crimp/solder some ring lugs on the free ends, and bolt it all together.

Here it is stretched out on the garage floor. It's about 9' end-to-end.

Oh, and since it's a Dipole ("Balanced") antenna being fed with Coaxial Cable ("Unbalanced"), we'll need a "Choke Balun" (more accurately a "Line Isolator") to keep RF current OFF the outside (The Shield) of the coax.

A simple VHF coaxial choke consists of 4 turns of cable, "solenoid wound", in a ~3" diameter. I wound mine using 48" of RG-8X cable and a cardboard Morton Salt container as a form. I put some cables ties on it to keep it from unwinding. This took another couple of hours to round up the parts, find something to use as a 3" coil form, cut the cable and put connectors on it, wind it, and secure it with cable ties.

Here's my feed line choke. Identical in function to the one I made for my 20 Meter (14MHz) vertical, but scaled down for 6 Meter (50MHz) operation.

And all put together and waiting to be installed. I taped the coax connection to the center insulator, both for some weather proofing, and to prevent the connector from loosening up when the antenna sways in the wind.

I was planning on hoisting it up today and connecting my antenna analyzer to it, BUT....it's windy as all get-out, drizzling on-and-off, and just not a nice day to do it. I'll get it hoisted up and swept on Tuesday.  That gives me tonight to get the radio and power supply set up and ready to connect to the antenna once I've got it in the air.

This is the first 6 Meter dipole I've ever built, and I'm sure I'll be in for a few surprises once it's up in the air and I connect the analyzer to it.

I'll be running my Old Faithful Yaesu FT-847 transceiver "Satellite Radio" as it's the only rig I have with 6 Meters. I'll easily be able to get this dipole mounted "In The Clear" more than a half-wavelength above ground, so it should work about as well as a dipole can work. And with 100 Watts of RF power out of the radio, and maybe 35' of low-loss feedline, I should be able to work most of what I can hear. If there's a good opening I should be able to make a lot of voice contacts, my preferred mode. If voice mode is too noisy/weak for me, I can switch over to one of the digital modes like FT8, and make lots of contacts.

More pix when it's in the air.

FRIDAY!! Neighborhood Updates and Some eBay Selling Tips...

Things are opening up here in the "Blue Sector" of Flyover Country, people are towing boats and campers, and it looks like we might be able to salvage the Summer.



In Local Neighborhood News, the young couple at the end of the cul-de-sac have split up, the slightly older couple in the house next to theirs have divorced, the house the really old couple lived and moved out of (the one where they took 4 dumpster loads of perfectly good furniture out of!) is now occupied by a young couple who work for the USFS, the house directly across the street from us has been sold ("Pending, Accepting Back-Up Offers" per Zillow), and a house just across the street from where our cul-de-sac starts is for sale.

And my eBay sales are roaring along. "Old Stuff" I'd picked up for just a few $$ has been selling for surprising amounts, and the newer things I'm disposing of have been going for more than I expected. Some of the stuff I'm "loosing money" on, but it's balanced out by some items that sold for well over what I was expecting.

Any eBay tips, drjim?

Yes, a few.

1 - Either submit your listing on Sunday morning, or schedule it to begin Sunday afternoon, California time. My experience, and it's been verified by others, is that auctions that end on a Sunday afternoon draw more last minute bidders than if the auction ends at 0300 on a Tuesday. And I've had items double and triple in amount during the last 15~20 minutes on a Sunday afternoon.

2 - Write honest, accurate, truthful descriptions of your items. Avoid "cutesy" terms like "MINTY!" and "RARE!!!!". Peppermint or Spearmint? "Rare" compared to what? I've seen items tagged as "Rare", and then found several of the same item further down in my search listings. Accurately describe (or try to) any known faults or issues with your item.  If the item doesn't work, say so, and sell it as "Parts Or Repair ONLY". Don't wish for the best and make up something like "It worked 30 years ago, so it should work now". If you write something like "I didn't know how to test/run/inspect this item" then your buyers will assume it doesn't work, and bid accordingly. It's like all the "Ran When Parked" memes you see on automotive sites, you ain't foolin' NOBODY! Include EXACTLY what's in your auction. If there's an item in the background, or you have it hooked up to other things to "demonstrate" that it works, clearly state those items are NOT included. Some people will squawk that you didn't include everything pictured unless you say it's NOT included. CLEARLY state your shipping and handling fees so there's no griping. Some items are expen$ive to ship, and some potential buyers will contact you to try and negotiate a lower cost.

3 - TAKE GOOD PICTURES! Include pictures of any manuals, original boxes, cables, cords, and accessories the item comes with. Since I mainly sell radio and electronic equipment, I take pictures of the front panel, the back panel, the top and bottom, and both sides of the case and cabinet. If there's a nick or a ding in the case or front panel that *I* can see, other people will see it, too, so I'll take a close-up of the flaw as best I can. I also pull the covers off so potential buyers can see how clean (or dirty) the insides of the radio are. This gives a good indication of well well the equipment was cared for, and stored. If I see rust or burnt parts inside the radio, I'll pass on it.  If you want top dollar, make sure your potential customers can CLEARLY see any flaws you pointed out in the listing. Use good lighting, and for God's sake, man make sure you pictures are IN FOCUS!

4 - Set your opening price to the MINIMUM amount you'll accept for the item. Yeah, I've done the opening bid of 99 cents and paid extra to have a reserve put on the item. It doesn't work any better than putting your minimum price as the opening bid, and you'll avoid the lookie-loos who put in a $1 bid just to see what the item sells for. And even though you list the item as an auction, you'll likely get a question or two asking "Buy It Now??". I just ignore them, or say "Sorry, auction ONLY".

5 - Be realistic in the value of the item. Just because you think it's worth $1000 doesn't mean that's what you'll get for offers. If you're at all serious about maximizing your eBay profits while minimizing your stack of junk in the basement or garage, you should be searching for similar items, and watching them to see what they go for. Sometimes it's disappointing to realize your prized Turbo-Encabulator has DROPPED significantly in value from what it was worth just a few years ago. For example, I have a nearly new (really!) high-end Sony SLV-R1000 VCR. It was Sony's top-of-the-line VCR, can record in "Super VHS", and can be used for an editing deck as it has a "Flying Erase Head", and all sorts of other "Prosumer" features. I paid about $900 for it Back In The Day, and I've barely used it. Maybe 6 tapes. Even has the original box, manual, set of bagged cables, the whole nine yards. A few years ago they were still going for $600~$700.

If I'm lucky, I might get $300, unless I happen to connect with a videophile who lusts for one with all the trimmings.

6 - Once you get a bid, and the item will sell, PACK IT UP. This saves irritating last minute hustling around to find a box, find some packing material, making sure you have packing tape for your tape gun, shipping labels, and other things that can delay you from shipping the item.

7 - Oh, yeah....packing and shipping your item. This can be highly variable depending on what you're shipping. For small, light items, you can wrap them in bubble wrap, box 'em, and ship 'em. That won't work for heavier and/or bulky items. Neither will throwing it in a box of packing peanuts and shipping it.

I'm going On The Record here to tell you do NOT use your friendly UPS store for packing your item! Every_Single_Large_Item I've received that was packed by a UPS store arrived damaged. I'm not saying they're 100% incompetent, but I have no other choice based on what I've seen. Pack it yourself, and you'll do a better job!

If you can find a place that specializes in shipping things like Personal Computers and other delicate things you'll probably be OK, but you'll pay dearly for it.

I bag the item in a trash bag, wrap it with at least one layer of heavy-duty bubble wrap, and add some additional padding over any easily broken protrusions, like the knobs on a radio. Then it gets boxed, with either more bubble wrap on the bottom of the box and down the sides so the whole thing fits snugly, -OR- a good layer of packing peanuts on the bottom, sides, and top. I prefer the bubble wrap because it's far less messy to pack, and your buyers will appreciate it, too.

For extremely valuable items, I'll line a box with cut styrofoam sheets, and make sure my bubble wrap "cocoon" for the item fits in the box snugly.

For really heavy stuff, I'll double box the item, but this starts getting expensive, as non flat-rate shippers also charge by the volume of the box. Double boxing an item can make it cost 30%~50% more to ship, so make sure you explain this to your customers.

When possible, I ship via USPS Priority Mail "Flat Rate" boxes. I have a stack of (FREE!) boxes and labels, and I can go in the Post Office, walk up to the self-service kiosk, and have my item shipped in 10 minutes if I don't have to wait for other people. I could do the "Stamps-R-Us" thing and print my own postage, enabling me to just drop the item in the shipping bin at the P.O., but I haven't.

I've had very good results with shipping small things this way, and it's fast, easy, and not too expensive.

I have set up an account with FedEx from years ago, and it makes it much faster to ship with them, even though they now know me at the local FedEx location. I greatly prefer FedEx for anything I can't safely cram into a USPS Flat Rate box. Their rates are reasonable, they're >99% "On Time", and they handle the packages with care. I've had ONE claim in 20 years with them, and they paid within 48 hours.

This gets me back to things that were packed by the UPS store. One item I bought was a heavy radio receiver. The seller dropped it off with them, and they packed and shipped it.

It was DESTROYED when I received it. They took a 65 pound, vacuum tube radio, and threw it in a box of peanuts, taped it up, and sent it off. The box looked like it was airdropped and the 'chute failed.

The seller filed a claim, I took it to a UPS center for verification, and they denied the claim! They said it was "Improperly Packed For Shipment". Well, DUH! Ya think? When the seller protested that it was packed by a UPS store, they shot back the canned message "Every store is an independent franchise, and we can't control what they do. Claim DENIED".

The seller was a lawyer. He sued the snot of of them and won. That's why I don't do UPS.

Anyway....there's more tips and tricks, but this post is running long, and I have items to inspect/test/verify and photograph.

And listings to write.....

Enjoy the weekend!

Ruh-Roh......Western Rifle Shooters Association Blog Taken Down.....

Just hear about it from Phil over at BustedKnuckles.

For the time being, WRSA has relocated here.

And as I saw on another blog.....maybe you can stop the signal.....

Almost time to go back to old BBS' to distribute info!

YCMTSU!

Just heard on the scanner that a BOLO has been issued for two heavyset men in a gold Jeep Cherokee. They were talking with the people who called it in that they were "Looking for anarchists to shoot", and were heavily armed with "assault type rifles and pistols".

Earlier I head discussion of stretchers and a triage unit being set up "In case we need it tonight".

And some of the "Federal" frequencies I have programmed in are lighting up, and I've never seen that here.....

If I had a better antenna, aimed South towards Denver, I could probably get some of their wide-area coverage repeaters, but 60~70 miles is just too far with the little whip antenna I have on it.

Think I'll go clean some stuff, and inventory some other stuff, and get a few other things ready-to-use.........


1950MST - Colorado State Police just nailed a group making Molotov Cocktails at Colfax and Broadway, near City Center Park, next to the State Capitol.....

Getting a Bit "Spicy" in L.A.

Just got a text from my son. They're boarding up all the windows and doors at the large grocery store he works at near LAX.

No word on if they're going to send the employees home.....yet.


And on the local front, I see there were protests in front of the local PDHQ the last couple of days.

Read all about it here.

I have no idea of the history of our local PD in regards to complaints of excessive force.  I suspect a lot of these people are the local snowflake population out doing their virtue signalling.....

Late Spring Storm!

I've been watching the weather today, and we went from a 20% chance of rain to 30%, then to 40%, and now it's pouring, with "garbanzo bean sized" hail.

And it hurts when it hits!

It just started to rain, then small hail started coming down. By the time I'd cleared space in the garage,(maybe two minutes), and ran in the house to get the keys for SLW's car, it was raging, and I got pelted with a whole bunch of big hail while running (well, what *I* call "running") from the garage to her car.

That stuff hurts!

We got .15" of rain in a few minutes, and the yard was covered with hailstones. The hail melted within minutes as it was 85* here all day, and yesterday, and the ground was pretty warm.

I think we'll get some more rain, but the heavy stuff has passed.

Here's what my weather station recorded. Not the rapid rise in barometer and humidity, accompanied by a large drop in temperature.

And the radar from 2025 local time.

Still some out there, and the radar return indicates we should be having sprinkles, but nothing yet.

Spring Cleaning the Garage.....

Should probably call this one "Wake up, honey..."

Jammed up in the back, too....

And along the driver's side....

But after moving things around, rearranging things, and tossing some things away, we can see some progress....

I can walk through there again!

And finally, I can get to work on the ugly front bumper!

The tires that were in the bags taking up way too much room were the ones I had on the Jeep when I moved out here. They still have about 3/4 the tread depth on them, but I drive so few miles out here that I'm just going to leave the Blizzaks on the Jeep year-round. The "Summer Tires" are in the Jeep and will be going to Discount Tire for disposal, unless somebody wants them.

The small LED light fixture I had over the workbench went casters up, so I'm finally getting around to hanging the 48" LED fixture I bought last year.

This will get hung from the ceiling between the workbench and the front of the car. Should give me plenty of light on the front of the Supra, and some on the bench.

Sweet Little Wife has picked up a new hobby....refinishing furniture, of all things! She bought this really cool, very well made drop-leaf table at the ARC Thrift Store. It had some damage to the finish (it's 50+ years old), so she tried cleaning it. No joy....So she's gone down the rabbit-hole of learning to use stripper to get the finish off, then block sanding it with increasingly finer grit sand paper. She put one coat of finish on it, decided she didn't like the color, and stripped it all off again! She's learning very fast, and is getting an appreciation of what "Hand Made" means. In the meantime she's also picked-up an equally nice side table for $10, and an absolutely killer cedar chest made by Lane. We decoded the serial number and found out it was made in the Summer of 1941! So she now has a Pre-War, solid cedar with veneer, American-made classic piece of furniture. It has finish damage on the top veneer, and after realizing she had a real "heirloom", she decided to take it to a guy in town who does exquisite work.

Things are opening back up here, and life is slowly returning to normal. I'm sure the sheeple in town and the students will be talking of "The NEW Normal", but that's just something the chattering classes do. For the rest of us it means we can go back to living our lives pretty much as if nothing happened.

You know, kinda like "Global Warming"?

New Canoe for Drjim??

Hmmmm....change the hull number to 61 and I might be interested.....

Bummer about SpaceX scrubbing the launch, but the weather was a bit too iffy. And clear weather will help the Photo-Optics Team get better film and/or video of the launch. Considering it's SpaceX, they probably do 100% video. I went to a High-Speed Imaging conference some years ago, and the recording of high-speed events had pretty much gone to all video by then. The company putting on the conference was literally the last place in the world we could get our high-speed (400fps/16mm) film cameras serviced, so I got to spend two extra days in training with the guy that worked on our cameras.

Finally On Kubuntu 20.04_LTS

I downloaded it a couple of weeks ago, and slowly began the process of getting all my bookmarks and stuff off the drive in this PC and on to a portable drive. Then, before I started, I realized I had some new drives in the workshop, so I went and got one of those. I swapped the drives, and completely disconnected the "#2 Drive" in here that I use for storage. I've had issues in the past where the installer for the Operating System saw two, matched drives, and went ahead and nuked the second drive, and set the two drives up is a kind of a RAID fashion, meaning I lost all the stuff I had on the other drive.

Good thing I have backups!

So I now have a new 4TB WD "Black" drive (the "High Performance" version compared to a "Blue" drive) in here, my secondary storage drive is safe and reconnected, and things seem to be running smoothly.

I'm snagging and installing various applications as I remember/need them, as I usually do a "Minimum" install. The "Standard" installation adds all kinds of stuff I'll never use, and duplicates of popular programs so a new user can try them and see which they prefer.

Do I really need three music players, four text editors, three different photo viewers, and a dozen games I'll never play? I mean choice is good, but at some point it becomes clutter, especially if you've been using Linux as long as I have.

And since this is a release with Long Term Support, I'll have a much easier time upgrading it to the next release, rather than having to start from scratch again.

Time to see if I can get my webcam up and running so I can join the Skype session used for a "Virtual Meeting" of the Amateur Radio club aboard the Iowa.

Memorial Day.....

Others can and will say things much more eloquently than I can, so I'll just leave this here.....

Haven't seen anybody selling poppies this year, or I would have bought one, just like my Dad taught me to.

Thought  I'd add this pic of the USNS Mercy departing Los Angeles on 15 May.

Got dusty in here when I first saw it.....

Out and About Today

Had some items to ship, meds to pick up, COFFEE to buy, and several other errands to run.

Zipped in and out of the FedEx place in about 15 minutes, typically quick for them, but the USPS was a mess.

All three of their do-it-yourself kiosks were down, so I had to get in line.

A very LONG line.

And it moved sloooow.

I finally get up to the counter, put the first package on the scale, and quipped with the clerk that I usually do this myself, but the self-service machines were down. The clerk replied, "Gee....that must be why we're so busy today!".

duh.....

Oh, well, he's behind the counter all day and I don't really expect him to know what's going on in another part of the building.

Then it was up to the North side of town to do a curbside pick-up of two magnifying lamps at the Home Depot. I'd thought I'd checked "Free Shipping To Home" when I placed the order, but something must have burped when the order went in, so they did the free shipping to the store. Unfortunately they were sent to the store on the opposite side of town from where FedEx and the Post Office are.

Granted the whole town is only about 9 miles North-to-South, with minimal traffic, but it would have been nice if they had been shipped to the store I always shop at, a few blocks from the FedEx store.

Some stores had "Must Wear Mask" signs, and some didn't. People out here seem to fall into two categories.

1 - "Sheeple", who blindly follow everything the media say to do "For The Children!" without questioning. They're easy to spot because they look so meek and downtrodden, shuffling along, almost broken.... Some look almost normal, but with an air of sadness about them.

2 - "The Rest of Us", who grudgingly put a mask on when required, and immediately take it off when exiting the premises. They're also easy to spot, especially upon exiting a building, but they walk with a sense of direction and purpose, showing the pride and confidence a Free Man has.

As far as people driving along with all the windows rolled up tightly, and wearing a mask? Well, you've seen them before "unmasked". They're the ones blissfully driving along with the turn signal flashing away, usually 5~10 under the speed limit. And after several blocks or more, they abruptly change lanes lanes to make a turn in the opposite direction of what the flasher had been indicating.

Be safe out there!

And now for a little humor.....

 

Rainy.....

We've received over 1/2" of rain this week, most of it in nice, gentle showers. Makes me glad I was able to fertilize (good old "Weed-N-Feed" like Dad always used) the yard a few days before it started, and even got some grass seed properly sown in a couple of the Big Bare Spots alongside the garage. Still have about half the backyard to reseed after I went bonkers with the chemicals  the first year here -AND- didn't water enough.

Whacked the grass damn good, I did.....Reminds me of the "lawns" back in SoCal.

I wasn't used to being allowed to use so much water without risking bankruptcy and the Water Police (Lost Angeleez is NUTZ!), so I was being conservative with the water.

Didn't work and I burned out half the yard.....Le Sigh....

And swapped out my Sweet Little Wife's studded snows today for the wheels and tires that came on the car. It's a 2013 Hyundai Elantra, and the tires are just now down to the tread wear bars, and a couple of them are "chunking" in a very minor way, so looks like a trip down to Discount Tire is in the immediate future. The OEM tires are "Hankook", but I think we'll go with something better this time.


/RANT/

This lockdown BS is getting on my nerves. Not so much here, but in seeing what's happening in other states.

Kommiefornia is staying locked down for another THREE months! That's going to cause some permanent damage to the state's economy and make it even more a third-world shit hole than it already is.

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the blue states stay locked down until after the election, allowing "mail in" ballots and an astounding level of blatant voter fraud to occur.

And like some of the Interent memes are saying, why haven't we heard of massive die-offs in the homeless camps around the country?

Why are the politicians who forced this shutdown still drawing full pay and benefits?

And they took an extra vacation?

It's starting to look like time to water the Tree of Liberty again.....

Red Dots!

Since my wife has trouble with the iron sights on her TRR-8 357 revolver, *AND* her instructor mumbled something about the gun needing an optic, I popped for an early birthday present for her with a HOLOSUN Reflex Sight.

It got very good reviews on several sites I read, and Brownell's had it in stock  at a good price, so I ordered it.

I'll wait'll she goes out on one of her shopping excursions, and sneak it on to her pistol and set it up after it gets here.

Never thought she'd turn into a "gunney", but life is full of surprises.

ARRRGH......PC Isuues of My Own Making....Jeep Repair, etc, etc, etc

Some time ago I was having a great deal of trouble getting a version of OpenSUSE installed on a few machines, and threw in the towel. I decided on Kubuntu 19.04.

WELL......I screwed the pooch by NOT getting one of the "Long Term Support" releases. And now this version is unsupported, and since I also missed upgrading it to version 19.10, I'm stuck with it, and no longer get any updates, and don't have an easy path to upgrading it to a newer one.

Yes, I suppose it could be done by somebody with more linux-foo than I currently have, but after spending two days trying dozens of "Recommended Solutions" with ZERO positive results, I'm tossing the towel in again, and going to do a clean install of 20.04_LTS, which is supported until April 2023.

I'm grabbing my passwords, bookmarks, and some other files off this disc, then I'll install another hard drive, and put 20.04_LTS on it.

I'm glad I have several 4TB disks sitting around, and I'll make sure not to miss the next "End Of Life" notice for 20.04_LTS.

I had to take my Jeep into the dealership yesterday for some work. My Check Engine Light has been on for about 6 months, and my code reader told me the code was for the Oil Pressure Sending Unit. Looking it up online reveals that code means it failed "Off Scale High", and although I can clear it, it throws it again about 10 seconds after the engine is up and running. I bought a new sender at O'Reilly's, but I can't get a wrench or socket on it without having the Jeep several feet in the air (No Thanks!), or getting it on a lift. I would have taken it to a local garage like "Grease Monkey", but I also had four recall notices on it for various things, so I bit the bullet and took it to Fort Collins Jeep.

I dropped it off at 1000, and they called at 1245 to come and get it. The sensor (Genuine MOPAR!) was $60, and the labor charge was $108.75, for a total bill of $191. Looking at the receipt I see they charged me $16.31 for "Customer Pay Shop Charge For Repair Order", which is a bit cryptic, but most likely means I paid that amount to just issue and process the work order. Back In The Day when I was running a shop we never would have charged for something that. It was just considered part of the overhead in running the place, like the lights, heat, telephone bill, parts washer and shop towel service, and was included in our hourly labor rate.

Kinda reminds me of McNamara and his "Whizz Kids"  squeezing every penny they could out of things like the M16.

"Well, if we delete the chrome plating and change the powder type in the ammo we can save $3 a rifle!", or whatever the cost was.

To take a little sting out of handing over $200, I'm going to write it off that I paid about $75 to get the sensor swapped, and the other charges were for the recall notices.

The $40 I spent on the sending unit from O'Reilly will get stuffed into the "Bad/Uncollectable Debts" column.....

I certainly can't complain about the service. It's a brand-new building, the service bays are immaculate and have all the latest diagnostic equipment, and the free ( ? ) coffee was very good. The staff was very efficient at getting me checked in, and equally efficient at taking my payment and getting me back on the road.

Two of the recalls were for reprogramming the "Final Drive Controller Module" and one for the "EBC Controller Module", and the Jeep appears to start and run smoother, so I can't complain there, either.

I talked with the Service Manager, who was out writing tickets, and he said their business is down about 70% compared to what it was before The Virus. Cars are selling OK, but he didn't know how much the volume was down. He winked and said you could get some really good deals on certain cars in stock, and they'd make me an exceptionally good offer on my existing Jeep. I'd imagine they're getting eaten alive by their "Floor Plan" with Jeep/Chrysler, as they're a fairly high-volume dealer.

The next things I have to do on the Jeep are to get the oil changed, get it smog tested, and then renew the plates. And I still need to get the windshield replaced, and it needs new front struts and rear shocks. I'd ordinarily get new inserts for the front struts, but that means tearing them apart to replace the cartridge, and as long as they're apart I should replace the top strut bearing and the rubber-bumper/strut-rod protective boot parts. If I just buy complete replacement units I get all that, plus new springs. It also cuts the repair time significantly, because as soon as the old one comes off, the new one goes on, saving me a couple of days of tearing things apart, cleaning and replacing parts, and then putting it back in.

The rear shocks are easy-peasy, just regular "Tube Shocks", and I'm kicking myself for not doing it when I did the rear brakes. Once you take the rear wheel and tire off, the shock and all the mounting bolts are right there in front of you. The hardest part is getting it in the air and pulling the wheel/tire off.

So, Life Under Quarantine continues, and projects are being worked on.

And I just about have my Lightning Detector Project from last summer finished, just in time for the Spring storms!

Be safe!

Local Wildlife In Action

In the most realistic enactment of a National Geographic episode, I just saw a rabbit get nailed by a hawk in our neighbor's front yard.....

I'd been watching the rabbit from the garage for a while, and it was watching me. It's was a much lighter shade of brown than I'm used to seeing, so I guess the local rabbits develop a lighter coat in the winter.

So anyway.....this big, almost white, rabbit was smack dab in the middle of our neighbors brilliant green front yard just minding it's own business, Fat, Dumb, and Happy, when this brown bolt slams down from the heavens.

And I mean it SLAMMED down! I could hear it hit and hear bones crunch. The rabbit jumped a bit, and made some blood curdling noises as the hawk finished putting it down with talons and beak.

The hawk then looked around a bit, clamped on the the rabbit, and lumbered aloft at what was probably a bit over max gross.

Stunning reality check if you think about it, and it happened about 35 feet from me.

More Neighborhood Changes.....

Talked to one of our younger neighbors today, and she filled me in on the local gossip.

She and her husband are now divorced, and she leased a house a few blocks away. No idea where he might go, or if he'll stay in the house.

The young couple next to them are also divorcing, with him going to the Denver area for work, and she's headed to Florida with the kids.

The older couple who moved out a few months back had sold their house to a company that cleans them up and flips them. It was this company that hauled everything away in numerous dumpster loads, not the original owners. It's been sold, and the two cars we see there now are the new owners. So far they're very quiet.

The house next to them, which was a rental, is sloooowly being worked on. The owner lives in Arizona, and nobody knows if he'll rent the house again, or sell it. It's been empty since the two single Mom sisters bought a house about two blocks away. The only activity we've seen has been a single truck and two guys who put new carpeting in the house, and now a single guy who appears to be a painter. I don't think he's painting the whole interior, as it's kinda silly to paint the complete interior after you've had the carpet replaced! That's what the people we bought this house from did, and it resulted in the baseboards not being fully painted. Kinda hard to get down to the bottom of the molding with an inch of carpet and underlayment.

I spent the day spraying RoundUp in the backyard gravel beds, and selectively spraying Weed B Gone in the front and back to get the dandelions, thistles, and other weeds before they go to seed.

And we have a gigantic mushroom infestation at the base of the cottonwood tree we had cut down and hauled away. I was just reading that vinegar kills mushrooms, so tomorrow I'll head out and get (another) sprayer to put vinegar in.

Otherwise, life goes on......

Sea Launch Back In Limbo

And apparently the owner regrets moving the ships to Russia.

He said he was promised it would be "no more" to berth the ships there compared to Long Beach, when in reality it's costing him twice as much....

And there's no suitable launch vehicle until maybe the "middle of the decade".

Interesting, and so very sad.

RTWT right here on SpaceNews....

Emporor Polis Threatens Weld County

I think Weld County should tell him to go pound sand.....

Read all about it over here...

Hey, Springtime....You Gonna Stick Around Now??

Abso-freaking-lutely beautiful outside today. 67*, mostly sunny, 3~4MPH breezes, and with the exception of some rain later this week, it'll be like this for a while.

It's "Springtime In The Northern Rockies", which means we could still get clobbered with 12" of snow, but the chances of that happening are diminishing daily. This last snow was a lot drier than I expected, and was fairly easy to get blown off the driveway and sidewalk. It was a lot more than I expected, meaning it was deep enough to require hitting the same spot twice with the snow blower, and as such, I ran the batteries down just clearing a single 24" wide lane down the driveway and sidewalks.

And the stimulus money we received will be going to fund a GAS POWERED snow blower very soon.

The "Honda vs Ariens" battle will be decided by what I can get at what I consider to be a reasonable price.

Thunderbirds Fly By

Should have used a different lens.....

This was shot with my 80mm~400mm "Image Stabilized" lens. Why is it blurry? Because the lens doesn't focus as fast as my other Nikon lenses do, and a switch on the side of the lens got bumped, slowing it down even more.

And the slot man, all by himself.....

The lens was all the way back at 80mm, meaning I really should have used one of my lenses with a shorter focal length.

Oh, well....at least I got to see them.

USAF Thunderbirds to Fly Over Northern Colorado.

 Got a big lens on my camera, and the weather is forecast to be partly sunny and 50*.

Read more about it here.

April Showers Bring May Flowers.....

But April snowstorms bust up trees!

We got clobbered pretty good last night. Not as much as the Thanksgiving storm, but a bunch nonetheless.

I haven't crawled out to measure this, but I'm guessing 14~16"?

It even stopped my anemometer and windvane....

And broke two branches on our poor little crab apple tree...

Loaded up (no pun intended, SiG!) my ground radials on the 20 Meter vertical, too...

It's pretty, but I hope the branch on the maple tree makes it!

Bent down the lilac bush by the side of the garage...

And pulled the juniper away from the side of the garage, too...

Oh, well.....Time to get the boxes off this thing, the batteries off the charger and into this thing, and go do battle with the Forces of Nature!

Y'all be safe out there!

Here's One For LL...

A Bit of Humor.....

Saw this on FarceBook and had to share it.....

Blessed Easter To You All

Rejoice, He Is Risen!

Having The Kids and The Little Guy over for burgers and stuff. We usually have a big family Easter gathering here, but not this year.

Y'all be safe out there!

Radio Control Car Guys Help Local Hospitals

One of the forums I'm a member of is the Arrma Forum for the Arrma brand of radio-controlled models. This is one of the BEST Internet Forums I've stumbled across, and I'm happy to be a member. Rather than in-fighting about who's little toy car is "best", "fastest" or "coolest", like several other radio-control forums I've visited, these guys help each other with tips, knowledge, and humor. "Dumb Newbie Questions" are promptly answered correctly, without prejudice, and the newcomer is welcomed. It's a great forum, and I've learned tons there, along with helping a bit by answering some electronics questions.

Besides all the tech advice, some of the forum members are quite creative at 3D printing. So much so that I've downloaded the required 3D design software so I can start learning about designing stuff again. I've had courses in AutoCad, and in high-school and college I took numerous "Drafting", "Mechanical Drawing", and several other "Graphics" courses. It helped me a LOT in my career, as I could crank out a properly dimensioned drawing, sketch, or schematic diagram in short order to get parts made, or for reference in the future.

These guys go far beyond that, and have started making "Ear Savers" for the hospital masks that health care workers are stuck wearing these days.

 Rather than having the elastic cord rub your ears all day, just use one of these:

How many you can print depends on how big the bed of your printer is, but one guy was printing nine at a time with his printer.

The stl file can be had here if you have a printer.


Pretty clever work from a bunch of "hobbyists", and they're giving them away by the dozen.

Well done, guys!