The 746Pro took a major dump (at the worst time)

I was working the Michigan QSO party on Saturday and about 2 hours into it, my radio died. I was about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the contest, working 40 meters with 49 contacts, 31 states, and 6 Michigan counties. I have been having trouble with the rig for about a year now with ALC spiking and power intermittently dropping. I never really though much about it except the fact that maybe there was a slight problem in my antenna system. Apparently, the problem is due to the driver board on the rig getting to hot due to the factory bias being set to high around 1.5 amps. I contacted a few repair techs to see if they knew what the deal was. I don't have the knowledge to work on surface mount technology so I will have to send it out for repair. Sending to Icom s way too pricey and takes way too long. About 4 techs said it was probably the final transistors with would cost anywhere from $250-$400 plus shipping (OUCH!). After hearing nothing but good things about Scott Malcom of MTS, I contacted him with my symptoms. He used to work for Icom for about 10 years and is an authorized Icom repair center. He said that more than likely 4 updates can be done to the radio to fix the problem. Take a look here: http://www.n1eq.com/tech/page_01.html MTS said it would be about 60 bucks estimate plus shipping. I am going to be sending it to him this weekend. Fingers crossed! I will be without an HF/50MHZ rig for a liitle while just when sporadic E season is starting for 6 and 10 meters.

Severe Weather - Tornado Watch

Severe Weather Event Friday Apr 11th 2008
RELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI
937 PM EDT FRI APR 11 2008..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..____________________________________________________________________0354 PM HAIL 4 NNW BURT 43.29N 83.94W
04/11/2008 M1.00 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
M-13 AND RATHBURN
0355 PM HAIL BRIDGEPORT 43.38N 83.88W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0424 PM HAIL ST. CHARLES 43.30N 84.15W
04/11/2008 M0.75 INCH SAGINAW MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0429 PM TSTM WND DMG VASSAR 43.37N 83.58W
04/11/2008 TUSCOLA MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
WIRES DOWN
0440 PM TSTM WND DMG CARO 43.49N 83.40W
04/11/2008 TUSCOLA MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DOWN
0442 PM HAIL FAIRGROVE 43.52N 83.54W
04/11/2008 M0.88 INCH TUSCOLA MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0524 PM HAIL 10 S UBLY 43.57N 82.93W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH SANILAC MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0600 PM HAIL 3 N OWOSSO 43.04N 84.18W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH SHIAWASSEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0614 PM HAIL 3 SW NEW LOTHROP 43.09N 84.01W
04/11/2008 E1.75 INCH SHIAWASSEE MI MESONET
DURAND AND ALLEN RD
0640 PM HAIL GOODRICH 42.92N 83.51W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH GENESEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0702 PM TSTM WND DMG HOWELL 42.61N 83.94W
04/11/2008 LIVINGSTON MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DOWN AT GRAND RIVER AND FLEMING
0707 PM HAIL NORTH BRANCH 43.23N 83.19W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0710 PM HAIL 3 N GRAND BLANC 42.97N 83.62W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH GENESEE MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0733 PM HAIL HOLLY 42.80N 83.62W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0734 PM HAIL WHITE LAKE 42.65N 83.50W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0735 PM HAIL COLUMBIAVILLE 43.16N 83.41W
04/11/2008 E0.25 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
HAILED FOR 5 MINUTES. COVERED GROUND.
0735 PM HAIL COLUMBIAVILLE 43.16N 83.41W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
HAIL OCCURED FOR FIVE MINUTES AND COVERED THE GROUND
0740 PM HAIL LAPEER 43.05N 83.32W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH LAPEER MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0758 PM HAIL BLOOMFIELD HILLS 42.58N 83.25W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0758 PM HAIL WATERFORD 42.66N 83.39W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0804 PM TSTM WND DMG BROWN CITY 43.21N 82.99W
04/11/2008 SANILAC MI LAW ENFORCEMENT
TREE DAMAGE
0810 PM HAIL IMLAY CITY 43.02N 83.08W
04/11/2008 M1.00 INCH LAPEER MI MESONET
0817 PM HAIL BIRMINGHAM 42.54N 83.22W
04/11/2008 E0.88 INCH OAKLAND MI TRAINED SPOTTER
0828 PM HAIL SHELBY TOWNSHIP 42.67N 83.03W
04/11/2008 E1.00 INCH MACOMB MI TRAINED SPOTTER
WIND EST AROUND 60 MPH WITH SMALL BRANCHES DOWN
0830 PM TSTM WND DMG PECK 43.26N 82.82W
04/11/2008 SANILAC MI EMERGENCY MNGR
POWER LINES DOWNED IN PECK
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURRED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.25 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURRED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES
0836 PM HAIL MEMPHIS 42.90N 82.77W
04/11/2008 E0.75 INCH MACOMB MI MESONET
OCCURED IN BOTH MACOMB AND ST CLAIR COUNTIES

John Corbett is to Jeff Bridges as Gary Busey is to Nick Nolte

I had a revalation tonight.....







John Corbett




Jeff Bridges










Gary Busey

Nick Nolte







nuff said!

Weekend Update: Work, The Mall, and Jesus - The Small Beetle Man?

I have been really busy at work lately.. I have become the "webmaster" and have been charged with the task of building the company's website from the ground up. It has been fun and I have been learning alot of HTML along the way. This weekend was a break time from that. Piper had four days off work so we decided to go to the mall on Saturday. We got to the mall around 11am or so and about an hour later I got called into work. Piper decided that she would stay at the mall with the kids while I drove back out to work and took care of business. After finishing with my first call, I got a second call (groan). I took care of the two calls and headed back to the mall where I located Piper and the kids in the food court in the Taco Bell line. I headed off to the Panda Express line for some Beef Broccoli, chow mien and Kung Pao chicken. Afterwords, we wandered the mall for a bit and I ran into Circuit city to get a USB flash drive. I found a Sony 1GB on sale for $9.99 (bonus). When I took it to the register, it rang up at $17.99 (WTF!?) I went back and got the sign that said $9.99 and the sales person called the manager. The manager said that I could not have it for $9.99 because the sale ended 4 days ago. I said "That's not my problem, you have a sign for $9.99, you have to give it to me for that." The manager said "Fine, we will do it for you this time." like they were doing me a favor. I got pissed and told them "Don't act like you are doing me a favor for 8 bucks. I am doing you a favor by not buying all ten of them on the shelf for $9.99." After that they shut their mouth and I was on my way. There was a Singstar http://www.us.playstation.com/singstar/ booth setup so people can play the game. It is a karaoke type game. Andrew and Jamie sang Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" and had a good time. We ended up buying the 90's version of the song with 2 mics where I promptly lost my voice.

Sunday, Piper and I went to breakfast at our usual spot because the kids were at church with the Grandparents. Our place was closed (DOH!) due to a power outage. We ended up at Big Boy down the road where we sat next to an energetic 4 and a half year old boy who was making lots of noise. The noise didn't really bother us too much because we are used to Andrew. At one point, the kids mom was telling the other people at the table (the kid's grandparents maybe?) a story. We couldn't help but listen in. The mom was saying how the boy a few days ago told her that "Jesus was very small". The mom said "What do you mean Jesus is small" The boy said "Jesus is small like a beetle". The mom said " No, Jesus is big, he is the size of a man". The Boy responded with "Yeah, a beetle sized man!" LOL! There was also an older couple there having breakfast that I noticed. They were both reading the paper and didn't say a word to each other the whole time they were there. I asked Piper if we would end up like that someday. I think her response was "I don't know?" Weird.. It is strange that you would even go to breakfast and not enjoy the other persons conversation.. Oh well.. I am off to bed for now. BTW, we had some thunder and lightning here today. The Tigers also lost their home opener. :(

I am still around. :)

I am still around. I have been really busy lately. I have been working on my works website which has taken a lot of my time. We had about 5 inches of snow here the other day, most of it has melted now. Happy Easter!

Log! by Blammo!

Remember this:



LOL!

Antenna Realization

I put the G5RV up with bad results. I have come to the conclusion that due to my location, 60 feet is about the longest dipole I can hang with half way decent results. The 102 foot G5RV that I "bent" to fit was great on 75 / 80 meters put absolute garbage on 40, and it barely worked on 20. I took it down and put the 52 foot G5RV-JR back up and within minutes I worked a station in Texas on 40 with an S9 signal report. Shortly thereafter I worked the Virgin Islands on 14.243 (20 Meters) with 5x9 + 20DB over report. I guess I am just going to stick with the JR on 40-10 Meters and maybe get a hamstick or rotatable dipole for 80 meters. Really, I am not too worried about making contacts on 80, but it would be nice to have the band for contests because sometimes it is the only band "open". In other radio news, I did get the phono plug to wire a mic to the Clegg and I still need to run a ground wire outside to the ground rod. I also need to see about getting some RTTY (Radio Teletype) going soon. I do have the computer interface for that.

Yesterday was a good day

Everyone was unusually nice that I encountered yesterday. It was about 58 degrees and sunny most of the day. My morning started out going to Ferndale down the dreaded I-696. To my pleasant surprise, I was like moses driving down the middle lane. Cars were "parting" and there was smooth sailing. The only problem I had was going through Southfield next to all the radio and TV transmitters. I am sensitive to RF / EMF and I always get a headache through there. After the trip to Ferndale was Novi, Milford, Bloomfield Hills, and a few more. My day was mostly driving (160 miles). I got a call from the office around 11am asking me where I was at. I told them and they said to call when I was 15 minutes away. I called (thinking there was more work to do) and was asked "what do you want on your whopper" (shit, I am getting bacon on that MF'er). I got back and a whopper meal was waiting for me, bought by one of the managers (bonus!). After that, more driving where I noticed that due to the warm weather, there were many females out jogging with tank tops on (also bonus!). I saw a few guys "basketballing" snowballs into a dumpster behind an oil change. Everybody was just in a pumped up good mood due to the weather I am guessing. The only weird thing I saw all day was a sign that said "hurting after abortion?" with some 800 number to call for help. I thought how ridiculous of a question that is. Somebody is supposed to not be hurting? Weird. Anyway, towards the end of the day I bought a 2 dollar scratch off ticket (I usually buy either a 2 dollar or 1 dollar scratch off every Friday) and won 10 bucks off it! I did get a bit of exercise when I had to setup a hospital bed down in the basement of a house with 2 flights of stairs. I partially worked off the whopper anyway.

Ham radio stuff and an active morning mind

Regarding a previous post referring to the Clegg 22'er. I have noticed that my mind is very active in the morning lately. My alarm is set for 7am but I usually hit the snooze about 3 times and don't get up until 7:30. Between Jamie milling about, clanking his cereal spoon and Andrew "writing" new songs in his head and singing them aloud in his bed, it is a moot point to try to fall back asleep. I usually lay there in a limbo state unable to turn my mind off. I have noticed during this state that I have many "revelations". The most recent, from today was the fact that I realized that the fact that my Clegg 22'er is not broke but simply needs a microphone wired to it. As much as I hate wiring mics, it has to be done. The manual is not exactly clear on how the "SPOT" feature on the radio works. It says "change the knob to spot and it will resonate the harmonic frequency of the crystal". I tried that and the crystal does not resonate. OK, well, what I didn't obviously realize until my mind activity period this morning is the fact that maybe the radio needs to be keyed in a transmit state first? It is a long shot, but the bottom line is that a mic needs to be wired just to see if the rig even transmits before I give up on it. Looks like I will be hitting radio shack Friday on my travels to grab a phono plug to wire up.

Also, I ordered a full size G5RV dipole http://www.radiowavz.com/html/g5rv.htm The antenna is 102 feet in length and I will have to manipulate it a bit to get it to work. It should be a lot better than the 52 foot long JR version I have now. It should also get me on 75 and 80 meters now which is important for contests. Since the Michigan QSO party is coming up next month, this should do the trick. Tomorrow is supposed to be close to 50 degrees, so it should be OK for a quick "hanging". My current antenna is in need of replacement anyway. I have repaired the wire part already due to the lawn service "whacking" it and cutting it in half while it was down. I have also repaired the 350 OHM twin lead very crudely with electrical tape (also due to the "whacking"). I told Steve (KD8EMZ) that he can have the G5RV JR to mess around with. Hopefully the full size gets me on 80/40/20 at least. I have an Antron 99 for 10/12/15/17 that I can use in full contest mode, or when the DX is rollin'. The 2 meter / 70cm ground plane is coming down by the end of this month anyway so I can switch between the Antron, the 6 meter loop, and the 2 meter beams. I love the spring / summer!

No nap time? WTF!?!?!

I went to Andrew's Kindergarten orientation today with Piper. I have a few questions.

#1 - Why did the principal of the school keep calling it "Kinneygarden"?

#2 - Is everyone that has kids now look like they are 50 or am I getting really old?

#3 - How come they set such low standards for kids? ie. Learn how to spell your name / learn the alphabet ect. (Andrew is way beyond that crap).

#4 - Where the hell is nap time?

Someone asked about "nap time". I thought it was the most legitimate question of the night.

Remember nap time?

They used to turn the lights out and sometimes read to us and sing songs? We even had mats!!!

The answer was: "We don't have nap time for the kids. After they come in from recess, they have a 15 min period to take their shoes off and get their drinks" WTF?!?!?

I think this is absolute BS. That is the whole problem with the world today. Nap time not only gave you a chance to reflect on the mornings paste eating activities, it gave you a chance to wind down and relieve some stress. Lets face it, it is hard trying to cram all that learning into your small brain when all you want to do is run around.

Oh well. I guess my kid will never enjoy "nap time". Shit, they even have nap time in India where all our jobs are going.

Makes you think, huh?