Archive for the ‘Amateur Radio’ Category

Transformers Review

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

Transformers….The Movie. Just plain fun.

Aside from the unrealistic computer ‘hacking’ that’s to be expected in any film, especially one of the comic book/cartoon type genre, this movie was awesome.
The special effects, the dialog, and the action meshed together nicely to keep me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole movie. I can only think of a brief moment where I asked myself if this scene needed to be this long. I also thought the Autobot introductions were a bit corny. Overall I recommend this to anyone who likes a good action packed movie. And props to the inclusion of Amateur Radio called ‘shortwave radio’ saving the day when worldwide communication was stopped by Decepticons.

And my favorite part..I’m going to continue my ‘beauty’ category with a couple of the gorgeous women that were the stars in Transformers.


Megan Fox

Rachael Taylor

CQ CQ CQ de KC9IHX/AG

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Passed Element 3 today.
I’m now officially awaiting my General Class Amateur Radio License.

The Knack

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Pictures!!

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

Pictures of my Amateur Radio set up in my car.

New Years Accomplishment Wish-List…Part 1

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

So I’m not really good at making resolutions, so I figured I’d make a list of accomplishments I’d like to realize this year.
Some could probably be considered resolutions, but hey, if I don’t deem them as such, I can’t say that I failed to stick to them. :)

1. Lose Weight: I don’t consider myself overweight, and I am in no means overweight when considering my age/height, however, I’m above my target weight. I feel like I’ve eat too much and am not as active as I’d like to be. Here is my plan: Purchase a stationary bike, play Hockey, quit laying around after work.

2. Get back into shape: You’d think that this would fit under No1, but to me, it doesn’t. It might certainly be a result of No1, but I could easily lose weight without increasing my stamina and energy level.

3. Get my General License: Now that the FCC has dropped the Morse Code requirement for all Amateur Radio classes, I have no excuse. I just need to hunker down and study. It really only gains me HF privileges and I don’t have an HF radio, but I would still like to do it.

4. Catch up on new/old Technology: This is pretty much a requirement of my job, but I’ve been doing a lousy job of it lately. I get so busy at work that I don’t have time to read/research/poke around with new technology. And once I get home, I don’t feel like it. I got a few good books for Christmas and need to set aside some time to read them. I also need to read up on a few of the things we’re going to be implementing at work.

5. Cook More: I can do it. I’ve got the tools. I just need to make myself cook. Too many microwave dinners, too much eating out, too many pizzas.

6. Save for a Down Payment: I kinda started this in August but I need to work a little harder at it. A buddy of mine moved in December, seeing his house and helping him move/rearrange made me jealous. I want the flexibility of a house, and I want to start gaining equity. And I want a garage. :)

7. Do something Racy: (Its not what you think Mom) I often say I own a street legal Race Car. And I do. But what have I done with it? Nothing. I want to autocross, or rally or something. Maybe even just go to a performance driving school.

This is the end of Part 1. If/when I think of more, I’ll add a Part 2.

[AUTOSAVED] New Years Accomplishment Wish-List…Part 1

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

So I’m not really good at making resolutions, so I figured I’d make a list of accomplishments I’d like to realize this year.
Some could probably be considered resolutions, but hey, if I don’t deem them as such, I can’t say that I failed to stick to them. :)

1. Lose Weight: I don’t consider myself overweight, and I am in no means overweight when considering my age/height, however, I’m above my target weight. I feel like I’ve eat too much and am not as active as I’d like to be. Here is my plan: Purchase a stationary bike, play Hockey, quit laying around after work.

2. Get back into shape: You’d think that this would fit under No1, but to me, it doesn’t. It might certainly be a result of No1, but I could easily lose weight without increasing my stamina and energy level.

3. Get my General License: Now that the FCC has dropped the Morse Code requirement for all Amateur Radio classes, I have no excuse. I just need to hunker down and study. It really only gains me HF privileges and I don’t have an HF radio, but I would still like to do it.

4. Catch up on new/old Technology: This is pretty much a requirement of my job, but I’ve been doing a lousy job of it lately. I get so busy at work that I don’t have time to read/research/poke around with new technology. And once I get home, I don’t feel like it. I got a few good books for Christmas and need to set aside some time to read them. I also need to read up on a few of the things we’re going to be implementing at work.

5. Cook More: I can do it. I’ve got the tools. I just need to make myself cook. Too many microwave dinners, too much eating out, too many pizzas.

6. Save for a Down Payment: I kinda started this in August but I need to work a little harder at it. A buddy of mine moved in December, seeing his house and helping him move/rearrange made me jealous. I want the flexibility of a house, and I want to start gaining equity. And I want a garage. :)

7. Do something Racy: (Its not what you think Mom) I often say I own a street legal Race Car. And I do. But what have I done with it? Nothing. I want to autocross, or rally or something. Maybe even just go to a performance driving school.

This is the end of Part 1. If/when I think of more, I’ll add a Part 2.

Storm Spotting/Chasing

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

After the National Weather Service issued a Severe T-Storm Watch for Champaign CO I checked out the radar to see what was up. (1800CDT)
Three big blobs of red appeared on my screen.
I grabbed my phone and gave Josh a call. No ringy, no answer.
20 seconds later, my phone rang, it was Josh.
“Hey wanna go chase the storm”
I looked over at Bethany and said “Hey wanna go chase a storm” Her eyes got real big and she said yes!
We took a couple more bites of our BigMacs and headed out.

Josh and I thought the chances of us being deployed were slim so we grabbed our gear and just headed towards the storms.
We stopped at the Savoy Wal*Mart to pick up Chris who wanted to tag along.

I hopped on the radio to see if anyone else was out and about. There were several people watching radar but only a couple actually out.
There was rotation spotted on radar in the southern most storm, so south we went.
Josh monitored Champaign CO ESDA and EOC, I monitored the CCARES repeaters.
We ended up going south, then heading north, then south, then north again. We ended up right in the path of where the fun stuff was happening.

Eventually CCARES actually activated and we were deemed tactical call SPOTTER 1. We held our position just a bit north of 1000N and 600E. We found a perfect patch where we could sit high enough to see over everything, and were far enough from anything dangerous. apprx(1930CDT)

Unfortunately, of the seven reported tornado spottings, we didn’t see any of them. We didn’t see much of anything actually. just a bunch of cool lightning.
Josh set up his camera and Bethany snapped away. Check out the best ones on ReeleySoft. After getting deactivated, we stuck around for a while, but eventually it all died out. We headed back around (2100CDT)

So this trip was doubly fun. We got to chase a bit, and we got to be activated yet again under CCARES. Maybe we’ll get more action next time.

Work/Home

Thursday, January 12th, 2006

My mind is mush.

Work:
I have a product demo call with a vendor today regarding slfow reporting.
Working on learning multicast.
Learning/brainstorming IPv6 implementation ideas.
Learning LDAP/FreeRadius for common auth of our *nix boxes and core routers/switches.
Need to catch back up on Perl.

Home:
Ham Radio stuff
Taught myself Postfix in 30 minutes last night.
I’m becoming a madwifi expert.
I’m moving in a month.

KC9IKL de KC9IHX

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

Josh got his call letters today.
Pretty cool.

Now I just need to get a Radio.

Whoa

Friday, October 28th, 2005

For some time now I’ve had an FM scanner in my car.
I used to monitor just the local METCAD channel, but now I’ve got it scanning all of the local dispatches for traffic.

My officemate Josh is also a radio nerd so we usually have a handheld scanner going in the office. I’m amazed at the amount of medical/fire/police dispatch throughout the day.

The odd thing about it is that they always seem to follow a theme for the day.
A few days ago we had three falling accidents by 1100. Today we’ve heard about four accidents and its only 930.

I’ve been getting into this Amateur Radio thing. Its really fun. I’ve been using Debbie’s small HT and I need to get on the ball and get myself my own. Unfortunately, I have several other expensive things to buy/pay for in the next couple months, so we’ll see what happens when.

———–
Also, for those that asked. My Mother and Step Father are fine. Their house and boats were undamaged by the Hurricane. Just a lot of tree damage.