October 29th, 2008
I’ve been quite interested in replacing my GPS in the Pathfinder for a while now. I’ve noticed that the new batch of GPS’s from Garmin’s are pretty damn cool. My old Street3+ has been looking pretty long in the tooth as they say. So when Amazon had a big sale on them, I broke down and got one.
I ended up with the Nuvi 650, which is pretty slick. I figured all of the new Nuvi GPS were going to have roughly the same software and mapping functions, so I was focusing on size, extra features and most important the GPS receiver chip. The 650 has the incredible SirF Star III receiver, this thing is simply amazing. Last night while sitting on the couch, Rosie turned on the GPS and in about 60 seconds it locked on and was showing our position.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Garmin Update
October 26th, 2008
I’m been quiet a while now, seems life has been getting in the way. Work has been pretty crazy and I don’t expect it is going to slow down anytime soon. While we are not working on any big project, we are now officially in Q4 mode. At Amazon the whole year is just a build up for the Christmas buying season and our part of the puzzle gets a huge jump in traffic as well. We will start seeing day after day of 3x traffic from or most busiest day during the other nine months of the year. Everything leading up to for us the first or second week of December.
So this weekend was a complete unplug from work. Yesterday Isaac and I spent the whole day doing stuff while Rosie went hiking. (She keeps saying this is the last hike of the year) So Saturday started with pancakes and lots of playing around the house. When it started getting close to lunch, we took off to Toys-R-Us and then Subway for a pizza in a box. Isaac crashed on the way home and then had a three hour nap, which is about twice his normal. By the time Isaac got up, Rosie was home and we all went to Mexican for dinner.
Today I got to sleep in, something which is pretty rare around here. I packed Rosie and Isaac off around noon for the Train Museum in North Bend. I have been finishing up some house projects, like the patched hole in the bathroom and the hallway light. Both required patching the dry wall and trying to smooth out the seams. I went ahead and shot the orange peel on the bathroom, only to put another layer of filler on it.
The rest of the time has been spent trying to debug the 9600 UHF modem problem. I got the receive working right away, but transmit has never worked. I finally made up a patch cable to run audio into my mac and then used a software oscilloscope program to watch the signal. I think the audio isn’t getting into the radio, because I’m not seeing anything. Either that or there isn’t enough drive from the TNC to the radio.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Catching up…
October 12th, 2008
It has been a wonderful weekend. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, we took a family trip to Bainbridge Island yesterday and Isaac rode his bike all over Fort Ward. This morning Scott came over and we managed to get the new beam up on the tower. And I seem to finally be over the ick, except for a few sniffles. Oh yea, I haven’t gotten paged once! (Thanks Ben)
So yesterday we got up a little late and drove down town. We had breakfast at the diner then caught a ferry over to Bainbridge. The weather was amazing and we had a great time exploring Fort Ward with Isaac. We took his bike, so he road all over the trails, including taking a couple speeding trips across the grass to the waters edge. He really enjoy exploring the beach, even though it is all rock. We had a semi-OK lunch at a pizza place in town and caught the ferry back to Seattle. Isaac crashed before we even got to Seattle and then proceeded to have a 3 hr nap on Daddy when we got home.
On Sunday we got up and I made pancakes for everybody, then proceeded to get ready for round two of the antenna raising. I had everything packed out to the backyard and even cleaned the gutters by the time Scott pulled up. After spending a while getting everything prepped, I climbed up the tower and hauled up the ginpole. I probably spent 60% of my time just hanging there today and the rest doing the annoying work of attaching the antenna. It is always annoying because everything has to be done over your head and usually you can’t see what your doing. But the beam went up and is working, I am quite happy.
My new Cushcraft A3S finally on the tower
Isn’t it pretty!
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Antenna success!
October 11th, 2008
Everybody at work has come down with this ick that knocks you on your ass for a couple days. My number came up on Friday. In my case I also got a horrible ear ache, something I haven’t had since was a kid. But I popped some stuff head, fever so you can sleep meds last night and feel much better.
Rosie and I finally started watching the new season of Hereos. I’m not sure why people are saying it isn’t as good, I think it is every bit as good as the first two seasons. I some how managed to not download the second episode, so we had to wait a day before picking it back up. I really need to get busy about building a myth box to record these in high def myself.
I’m hoping to-do round two on the antenna raising this weekend. If the weather plays nice tomorrow, Scott is coming over to help. I got most of my harness for raising the thing built last night, just need a few more pieces from Home Depot today. Which brings up another point.
When making the harness, I wanted to create a joint for two 2×2’s to fit together in a cross pattern. So I cut the joint using multiple passes on the table saw, which worked perfectly. I have no idea where I came up with doing it that way, I just did it. (I never got to take wood shop in high school, where I assume they teach you stuff like that) I love having some real tools to make building things like this possible. I think all those home improvement shows I watch have finally flipped a switch in my head.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on The ick, Hereos and antennas
October 3rd, 2008
We made it to Moses Lake, WA this afternoon. The PNWVHFS conference starts tomorrow, something we haven’t been able to attend since Isaac was born. (He was actually born on the conference weekend three years ago) Through much back room dealings and calling in favors, I managed to get the conference moved out a weekend, so we could attend. (Isaac had his big birthday party last weekend)
Rosie and Isaac finally crashed, but I’m having trouble getting to sleep. I always have a problem getting to sleep the first night of any trip. I don’t know why, but it is sort of annoying. But they have decent wifi internet connectivity at the hotel, I got my bag of peanut M&M’s and a Sprit, so I’m good. I just wish it wasn’t so damn hot. Who would figure it would be 70 degrees at 11PM in October?
A friend came down with a nasty cold this weekend and won’t be able to make it. He asked if anybody was going to video tape the big speakers. (Meaning Dr. Taylor, Nobel Prizing winning Dr. Taylor and ham radio author of WSJT) I had thrown in my video camera at the last minute, so I spent $20 to get a cheap tripod at Walmart tonight. I’ll see how hard/fun it is to try and video tape something like this, I’m probably way over my head already.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on