Monday, February 27, 2006

Weekend

This weekend I left the house very little. Continuing to work on the shuffling around of furniture in the house. Moved my old "work" desk up to Jerrie's loft. Moved my "work" computer and other stuff temporarily to the "home" computer desk. So I have 2 computers side-by-side now. Which is actually kind of handy. For the past year, I had a seperate "work" desk for work-at-home. I want to get back to that again I think, but with the big shuffle going on, it might be a while.

On the ham radio front...not too much going on. Need to move the shack desk back to the new shop area. That is going to be another big project. Remove all the radios and wiring and the disassemble the desk completely. I have to re-configure the desk for a "right-hand" island instead of "left".
It will be nice having the "shack" in the shop. It will be closer to all antennas and allow me to have quite a bit less feed line. And..it will be easier to string antennas to the shack.

I think I'll still leave a minimal radio presence in the family area...at least a 2 meter and/or 440 Mhz radio and maybe one HF radio (or the R4C?) for RX only.

Would like to get copying some CW and get my speed up and get back on the air with CW. So an Rx station might help with that.

Here's hoping CallManager behaves at work tomorrow!

I need to get to bed.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Motorcycles and Ham radio

Motorcycle and Ham Radio commentary for the day...

This is what happens when it's too cold to go outside!



1. XYL and I both have Hondas. A 96 Goldwing and an 82 silverwing. We ride either or both ...the Silverwing (solo) around town..the Goldwing (solo or co-rider) on longer trips.

The Silverwing is a glorified scooter after riding the big bike.
But it's fun around town and has full bags and an AM/FM radio, so you can run errands with it.

We ride bike to get out and get sun and wind and get OUT of town. We're not into it as a lifestyle at all. Not even too much into the touring side of things. Just like to ride! Guess we're both just plain old throwbacks to mini-bikes, mopeds, scooters, and dirt bikes as kids.

2. Only 3 meters (bcast FM) and dare I say 11 meters on the bike so far, but they are built in. In the past we sometimes ran 440 between bikes since the XYL has her "NO CODE" tech.

Sorry...let's not get into that....go to qrz.com for that. (I AM just kidding) I don't care if you know the code, the capitols of all states, or the periodic table of elements as long you show a modicum of intelligence and courtesy on the air. Myself and a lot of my ham friends are old CBers from the 70's and long time active hams.
I don't care if you are an "appliance operator" as long as you are a good operator and know how to (or are learning how to) maximize the potential of your radio.
I admire any ham who even builds simple antennas or other small projects. I do think you need to do some things like to properly enjoy all the benefits of amateur radio. Try something new!

And how about Echolink...OK, I'll stop. (It can have a place as a part of amateur radio).

Anyway....This winter I bought a Yaesu FT7800 to use on the bike. Need to get that installed on the 1500 this spring when I get the bike out of storage.
I plan to use it more for rx (scanning) than 2-way. Also want to get XM Radio set up on the bike.

Side comment on the 7800...What a great little dual-bander! Best value in any dual-bander I've ever had. It's a steal at around $250. I've been using it in my car to get familiar with it. (OK...so who can leave a new radio just SIT there). The radio itself is so small, I didn't even bother to remote it in my car. I'm liking the 7800 so much in the car that I'm going to hate taking it out. Burghardt's might get more of my money yet...
I think it'll be a good radio for the bike..

Maybe I can ride in another month! At least a little?
:)
73

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Workshop



Alright! The workshop has hit the major milestone of going from a hindrance to an enhancement.
I have pegboard up and a bench with power and lighting! A lot of finish work left, but at least it's usable now and I can remove a lot of the construction materials...and the worst of the labor portion is over.

Dear Wife...Thanks for the Menards "cash" for my birthday last month!

Jan, Brett, Laura...The drill, skil saw and hammer were really put to use. Thanks!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Reality shows

What's up with all the reality shows? People don't have a "real" enough life as it is?

If they need adventure, I can give them some of mine.

I really don't understand the fascination...someday (sooner than later) we'll look back at TV in the 2000 decade and say "what the????...."

Not to mention they are totally over-dramatized and "rehearsed" (in their own way).


Of course, it's probably all part of my feeling toward the broadcast media...with the big corporations taking over, we have to take what they give.
Or leave it...which I choose to do as much as I can.

I'm SO glad to be out of that business. Even the 70s and 80s of radio seem like the "golden age" compared to now.
The thought of building a local station from the ground up is only for the huge conglomerates now.
Gone are the days when a young man or woman could start a station on a shoestring and build it up.

I gotta say...in our vehicles... my wife has Sirius and I have XM satellite radio. Once you listen to that, you will likely forget what the little "AM" and "FM" buttons are for. Guess I'll enjoy that until it is also "conglomerized."
Already XM is partnering with AOL (another huge service I don't think too highly of).

Am I getting old and crabby at 44?


;P

Brady's Blog

Brady's Blog

Working on the basement workshop here today. It's funny, but the biggest project to ever be done in there is the construction of the workshop itself.
Oh yeah, I've got everything in there...mitre saw, table saw, hammers, cordless screwdrivers, power drills, piles of 2x2s and 2x4s, hardware galore.
It's pretty much a mess...and I pretty much better get it done, because I'm really infringing on the laundry room at this point.

When the shop is done, I then get to build/re-build the laundry room to put some storage shelving back in place that I tore out when I cleared the area to build the shop. At least all the tools and supplies will already be there.
Oh...and then I get to haul all the stuff out of the family room (ala temporary storage area) back into the new storage area.

I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it....though at this point it's a way bigger project than I anticipated!

Friday, February 10, 2006

Brady's Blog

Brady's Blog

Trying the URL insert thing again.

879 page report

printed 9-up
works good.

Sent via SprintPCS

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Brady's Blog

Link for my other site

Just thought I'd throw the URL for my main website out there.

What does quote do?

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

this is an audio post - click to play
this is an audio post - click to play

from my phone

I really like this idea of being able to blog from my phone.

The whole idea of blogging (for me) requires that the input method be
as simple as possible. If I have to put a lot of effort into it, it's
not going to happen.

The ideas have to flow as soon as they are ready. I don't want to have
to edit a file and publish it and blah blah blah. I do that all day at
work!

Sending this from my fine Palm Treo 650 on Sprint PCS.

Brady's Blog

Brady's Blog

What?

Let's see how this goes...

I rarely even READ blogs, so why should I write one?

I'm not even sure this blog service is the one I want to use, but hey, it's free and seems fairly feature-rich!