A few weeks ago, I listed my plans for the summer.  They seemed all good.

Then I went to the Dayton Hamvention and that changed everything.

So my new plans:

Balanced Line Antenna Tuner

I didn’t buy anything to change what I said in the last post.  I saw two or three nice balanced line tuners, and they were out of my price range.  Having the antenna analyzer might help on this, though, as I can do more tests on the tuner.

Ten Tec Rebel

I intend to buy a Rebel.  Then I’m going to add an LCD screen to it so I can see things like the frequency.  I went to the Ten Tec booth to discuss that with their salesperson.

APRS I-gate/Digipeater

There’s no changes to this.  I do have to build another 2m groundplane antenna, and that antenna analyzer might help a little with that. 🙂

NEW: 6m Mobile Antenna

With differing work schedules for most of the locals I talk to on the repeater and the lack of getting a lot of time on my base/mobile rig, I’m considering moving that to the truck and running 6m.

Removed: Antenna Analyzer and Frequency Counter

The antenna analyzer replaces both of these, so there’s no point in me building them right now.

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I didn’t take as many pics as last year, but I did take some…

The view walking in on Friday morning.

A Commodore 64. The seller claims it still works. $10.

The straight key I bought

A tube tester.

This is an odd find at a hamfest. This is a traffic signal controller.

This was one of three similar go boxes made out of the same tackle box, most out of similar radios and tuners as well.

The antenna analyzer I bought.

VERY clean Hammarlund

Very clean Imperial

AM transmitter in restoration (front)

AM transmitter in restoration (rear upper)

AM transmitter in restoration (rear lower)

Those on Twitter already know that I’ve been tasked with managing the club email list because I am the secretary of the Milford Amateur Radio Club.  I asked on Twitter if anyone had any hints and I mostly got sympathy.

So I looked for something, and stumbled upon CiviCRM that looks like it may help.  CiviCRM is an open-source Customer Relations Management system that looks pretty cool.

The problem is, it requires MySQL 5.1.  That’s not a problem FOR THEM.  It’s a problem FOR ME.  I use GoDaddy shared hosting, and they have resisted every MySQL upgrade since 5.0.  So I looked at GoDaddy’s forum, and found a cornucopia of people demanding it, all met with the same response of “we have no plans to upgrade that on the shared hosting plans, but buy a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server.  Now, I pay about $100 per year for “Ultimate Shared Hosting”.  A dedicated server is $100 PER MONTH.  A VPS is $30 (ish) per month.

Mind you, the shared hosting works perfectly for me, as it’s cheap (I make no money from my websites, neither directly nor indirectly.  I don’t have the money to go to a dedicated server, nor do I have the money to go with a VPS, and if I did, I wouldn’t because I don’t want the added workload of administering a server.  I used to do that, and I got away from it because I wanted to spend time on content rather than computer administration duties.

So here I sit.  Via Twitter, I’ve received recommendations for BlueHost, DreamHost, Linode, and WestHost (and had a nice twitter conversation with an account manager from WestHost).  I haven’t made up my mind, and my hosting contract with GoDaddy is up in June.  I’ve enjoyed great up-time and service from GoDaddy in the past, but running several versions behind on the backend database is not only an annoyance (for not being able to use CiviCRM), but it is absolutely frightening to think that I may have other peoples’ emails in a database on a server that isn’t being kept up-to-date with security patches.

GoDaddy, you have a week to meet my requirements.  Upgrade to the latest MySQL.  Else, Daddy, you’ll Go.  Moving is a pain, but I will do what I have to do.  And that is NOT a promise.  I may decide to leave anyway because of how long this has been going on.

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If you’ve been in amateur radio and NOT under a rock, you’ve probably heard of this show called Last Man Standing.  The show stars Tim Allen as Mike Baxter KA0XTT, who lives with his wife and three daughters and works at Outdoor Man, which is quite similar to a Bass Pro Shop.

I watch the show.  For enjoyment, not because of KA0XTT.

I also saw some of the comments on Facebook after the show.  The comments can be put into two groups: “Tim Allen should get his license” and “it was an inaccurate portrayal of amateur radio because…”

First off, on the “Tim Allen should get his license”.  While I think we’d all love to have him as an amateur radio op (including me), he very well may not be interested.  There’s no ‘should’ about it.  If he doesn’t want to, so be it.  I wouldn’t fault him for having personal interests that don’t include amateur radio.

On the “It was an inaccurate portrayal of amateur radio because…”… well, no shit!  It’s Hollywood!  They don’t care about making their show technically accurate (and they NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL).  They don’t care that Mandy didn’t have a control operator present or that nobody identified, they care about making something entertaining.  The point was to entertain millions of Americans that don’t know nor care about the rules.  The show hasn’t, nor is it the show’s point, to feature amateur radio in any sort of technically correct light.  If you want proof of Hollywood screwing this up, take a look at every movie, show, and commercial that has included amateur radio – start with that liquid gold commercial (that featured a CB radio while talking about amateur radio operators).

And on that last point, it doesn’t stop with amateur radio.

End rant.

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I’ve decided that since I have free reign over the attic, I need (and want) an antenna farm up there.

What I Have

Currently, only one antenna exists in the attic: an 80-10m trap dipole.  It works pretty well and can be tuned on 160m and 6m, but it is limited in direction.

What I Want

Everything!  Well, almost…

Since my dipole lacks the NE and SW parts of the country, I want to build another and place it perpendicular to the current one.

I also want to install 2m and 70cm rigid dipoles (horizontal) on rotators.  That will be interesting considering the issues with the roof structure.

Last, I want vertically polarized antennas for 6m, 2m, and 70cm.  Sometimes I need those bands.  More often, I want those bands.

The Plan

Since I’m talking about three antennas that connect to the HF port of my rig and an additional four for the VHF port, I want to have only two expensive coax feeders.  I’ll also do something to remote switch the antennas.  I’ll probably run a CAT5 line with the antenna lines to help with this.

The Extras

In addition to the antennas, I want to put HSMM-Mesh in my attic.  That will require another CAT5 line as well as a POE injector (which I’ll likely build myself).

The diagram isn’t exact, and I haven’t compared my logbook to where I think my dipole hits well, but it’s close enough.

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At the time of writing, I’m in DC.  I ran into a little problem that created another little problem.

The First Problem: My Cell Phone’s Battery Life

I’m not really sure I need to type anything here.  Many phones don’t last a full day anymore.  Mine included.  Because of that, I decided to buy a rechargeable battery (like a Minty Boost, only less cool because of the Duragizer® logo.

The Second Problem: Blister Pack

Not wanting to wait an instant on getting this little thing charged, I got back in the room and realized that since I flew here with no checked baggage, I have nothing to open this with.  Nothing except an inkpen and a Maguiver attitude.
I used the pen like I was trying to kill the back side of the blister pack, which is so unlike the calm slicing I would normally do with my pocket knife.

So after a few stabs, I started to notice that the pen was giving it’s all.  It had, with me at the hand, decided that some plastic was not going to stop it.

At first, it just showed around it’s tip.  But it wanted to press on.  It was NOT going to give up.  I thought I heard it say “Live free or die!” as I stabbed two more times.  With a crack, I realized the pen had given all it has to give. 

All was not lost, however, the last stab that took the pen’s life… er… tip was a critical hit to the blister pack.

It was up to me – my own bare hands – to finish the job.  And finish, I did.

Goodbye Washington Hilton pen.  Goodbye.  Until we meet again at the writing desk in heaven.

This was posted from my phone. As such, the formatting and spelling may be a little off. Also, this was meant to be funny. I’m an engineer, not a comedian, so it very well may be boring. But the part about me hearing the pen, that was fake. The rest of this is real.

I didn’t do so hot on my goals for 2012.  I lost a lot of time due to blowing up my rig, family stuff, vehicle repairs, and several other things going on.  That being said, 2013 isn’t going to be better in that regard – I’m taking up a second job for at least 66% of the year (as an adjunct professor), and I expect as many things to come up as last year.

So here it is…

• Learn CW well enough to casually contest.
  • I’m not going to hide it.  I enjoy casually contesting.  I would like to be able to do some contests in CW because of more points, CW-only contests, and possibly eventually getting into QRP contesting.
• Work a VHF contest this year
  • I really want to burn up 6m, 2m, and 70cm.  My IC-706 will do those bands, and antennas are smaller and easier to deal with.  I’m going to be looking at Dayton for antenna-related equipment because I may try to go to a much higher point than where I live.
  • The way things look for my January (the absolute busiest month for me), this will likely be the CQ summer VHF contest or the ARRL summer VHF contest.
• Participate in more contests this year
  • This past year, I only participated in NAQP-RTTY, Field Day, Ohio State Parks on the Air, and the ARRL 10m Contest (and my participation in the ARRL 10m Contest was not much – 2 QSOs).  I want to hit several more, including the Ohio QSO party, more of the NAQPs, and some of the CQ contests.
  • I’ve never run a frequency in a contest.  I want to change that this year as part of running in some additional contests.
• Operate more!
  • I haven’t been on the air as much as I’d like to have been.  I need to change that.

Eventually, I want to get into QRP operations, so I’m going to try to not spend anything this year (or spend very little) and ultimately buy an FT-817, IC-703, or KX3.  I don’t expect to buy this year (unless I get a damn good raise, a bonus, one hell of a tax refund, and the pay for an adjunct professor is far greater than what I expect.  Also, of those 3, only the 817 does 2m and 70cm.  If I really enjoy VHF contesting, my decision would likely go for the FT-817 unless the KX3 adds a 2m/70cm module (and even still, the KX3 is far more expensive than the FT-817, and that will be a factor as well).

Hope y’all have a happy new year as well!

I registered KE8P as a vanity and it was approved today. This site, AC8JO.us will still work for a while though, as I just don’t feel like (or have the time) changing things over.

I saw a commercial on the news recently that struck a cord.  It was for a phone app that “keeps your family safe in a storm”.  I then saw an ad for the same app on that local news station’s Web site.

I’m a trained weather spotter, a member of the local Weather Amateur Radio Network, and a member of the local ARES/RACES chapter.  I know NEVER to rely on a cell phone during a disaster.  We had earthquakes in Cincinnati that caused NO DAMAGE and the cell phone network got slammed (because of everyone tweeting/etc about the quake).  If that’s the case, what do you think the cell network would do in a tornado?  We saw it on March 2nd – it went down.

The only safe thing to do is to have a weather radio!

I have a Reecom radio I bought from Amazon.  It works well, and I was able to configure it to only do alerts for Clermont County (my county) and only for major warnings – it would blink (but not sound an audible alarm) for flood warnings (which do not affect my home) and severe storm warnings (important, yes, but I usually already know about those).

If you want to go one better…

If you want to go one better, you can get a scanner and listen in on the ham radio ops (we’re on 146.88 Mhz and 147.375 Mhz in Cincinnati during severe events).  Of course, you’re only getting part of the story because police use their own radios to report (you can get scanners for that, too), and weather spotters can also use their telephone to report weather events.

Should you not download the app?

I’m not saying not to download it or use it.  If you’re in the office or at home and your cell phone is using wi-fi (and you have power and Internet), you’re probably fine.  I’m saying that once those lights go out, you should already have a weather radio.  Don’t let one of these phone apps give you a false sense of security.

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I was one of the first among the ham community to get a Raspberry Pi.  Since getting it, I’ve felt somewhat lame because it took me a few days before plugging it into my TV and making sure it works.  When I did that, I only ssh-ed into it for a few minutes.

I spent the next few weeks trying to figure out what to do.  After all, the possibilities are endless.  After much thought, I decided the best thing would be some sort of box that would connect to a TV and show something radio related.   I thought about it and decided that the screen format of Sports Center (on ESPN) would likely be the way to go.  Since it is sports and they try to cover a lot, they have a vertical scrolling bar on the left side that shows what they are talking about next (so you know if you want to stay watching or go to the loo or get another beer).  I think that the vertical scroller is something to adapt to this, although it may not be as live as SC, it will give an indication of what’s coming up next.

So for things on that bar, I can think of a few things:

• DX Spots
• Solar Weather
• Contest Calendar or contest stats (when in a contest)
• Log stats (recent QSO locations)
• APRS-IS
• Nearby satellites

Recent Headlines (perhaps from ARRL) (perhaps as a crawler at the bottom of the screen? Perhaps also including other news sources like SARC?)

So I’m looking for both ideas and volunteers. This project will be open-source and emphasis will be on making it skinnable, extendable, and something useful to the ham community.  If you have an idea or can volunteer, feel free to leave it in the comments below or email me at callsign at callsign.us.

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