Excuse…
February 20th, 2015 kennyr
Stuff that I like, stuff I hate and all that is in between….
Upgrading weekend…
February 15th, 2015 kennyrI got a Icom ID-5100 for Christmas and a couple weeks ago finally pulled it out of the box and put it on the air. There are a number of things I like about it, but there was one glaring issue, it didn’t play well with my homemade DSTAR repeater. Some Google searching reveled this is a common problem, the ID-5100 is very picky about the signal shape, which means I don’t have the audio levels set quite perfect on the GMSK modem.
So I have been ‘planning’ to upgrade my DutchSTAR GMSK modem to a DV-RTPR board on the repeater for a while. (Like maybe three years?) Since fixing the ID-5100 problem was going to require messing with all the stuff to update to the DV-RTPR board, I decided to finally just make the switch. I found the partially built cable to connect it to the repeater and finished it, then dragged everything into the repeater room to hook it up. Getting the DV-RPTR to play with the repeater was really easy, which means it was time to put the new computer I built for the DV-RTPR into place as well.
That is when the plan feel apart a little. The Ubuntu OS installation was so old, it isn’t supported anymore. So before I could do anything, I had to rebuild it. Since I have a serious issue getting USB thumb drives to boot anything, this ended up taking hours. I finally got it to boot and started the installation before going to bed. Of course it stopped a short time later needing some input and I had to un-wedge it this morning. It is still going, but at least appears to be at the stage where it is installing packages.
Since I’m stupid, I decided to check the version of Ubuntu on my desktop linux box and found it was also running the out of data version now. The thought of flattening it and starting from scratch pained me, so I just told it to auto-update itself. I figured the worst that will happen is I need to flatten it and start from scratch anyhow. So it is also now unpacking a butt load of packages.
Finally K1N is in the log….
February 14th, 2015 kennyrThere exists a little piece of rock that the US claims as their own in the Caribbean, just east of Haiti and and west of Jamaica called Navassa. There isn’t much there, but the US Fish and Wildlife control who can land on the rock and nobody has been allowed for many years. This makes it a highly desired contact for hams chasing DX, since many were probably not even licensed the last time the island was on the air.
For the last couple weeks a major DXpedition has been under way on the island. I didn’t even try to log a contact with them the first week, since all the big guns were lighting them up. Today is their last day on the island (Actually I think most of the crew has already left) and they have asked everybody who has already got a contact to stop trying, so us little guys have a chance.
Well my noise situation sucks, I can’t even hear them on 20m. But they have been quite strong on 10m all afternoon and after calling them for several hours, I finally got into the logs. Yea!
2015-02-16 / UPDATE: I just checked and confirmed my contact made it into the log officially. Guess I need to figure out how to upload stuff to LoTW again.
K1N Confirmed for KU7M
ID-5100 Problems….
February 8th, 2015 kennyrFinally hooked up my Christmas present this weekend and got it programmed for my DSTAR repeater. Discovered the ID-5100 is even more picky about the deviation and levels than the ID-51. I either need to pull the entire repeater down to get at the GMSK modem or finally finish setting up the DVRPTR board I purchased forever ago to replace it.
RT @TheMarkTwain Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
February 7th, 2015 kennyrTags: twitter
I use to think people who wore those tall rubber boots to work were crazy
February 6th, 2015 kennyrToday I think they are a pretty good idea.
Tags: twitter
Never thought a watch video would be so cool….
January 4th, 2015 kennyrThis is just amazing….
TKD Black Belt Video….
January 4th, 2015 kennyrI was off all this week and have been catching up on various things. One of the to-do items on my list was finishing the video of my black belt test. I got the video’s of the other black belts done right away, but sort of ran out of steam when it was time to-do my own. I finished putting it together yesterday and got it posted tonight.
I had originally did a short video of one of the three breaks, which included some slow motion video of me breaking a real wooden board. This was done before I upgrade my MBP to 10.10. So I was a little surprised when I attempted to load iMovieHD and it gave me a error message, seems iMovieHD isn’t supported on 10.10. So I had to import the Quicktime video and edit out the intro, so I could glue that footage into the new fully version. Also mean learning the new iMovie, which actually was a little easier to use.
Here is the video….
NOTE: I know this is bad form, but the miss in the first sequence is the only board break miss I’ve had during any of my tests. At the time, I couldn’t figure out what happen. (The second attempt broke the board, but it wasn’t pretty.)
Anyhow, with the video it is pretty clear what happen. CGN Vlcek flinched and moved the board about three inches as I was coming around. It isn’t difficult to break these boards, as long as you hit them in the center. I bounced that attempt off the edge, which means I kicked the board out of CGN’s hands rather than break it. Holding for board breaks is really tough, I’ve found turning my head and closing my eyes is the only way to guarantee you won’t flinch.
Ok, enough with the frozen world impression
December 31st, 2014 kennyrCan we turn up the temp please…
Tags: twitter