I’ve just emerged from a brief visit to the 19th-century (via a storm-driven 36-hour power outage) and among all my other experiences and impressions during this odd weekend, none was more powerful than an extremely visceral understanding of just how fragile our modern infrastructures are.
Oddly, there was no Internet connection, and after a cursory check to see why, I realized that our power was out, a condition that had taken my Internet service and home phone–which comes in via Comcast cable–down.
…once home, my cell reception was extremely intermittent, far worse than usual, a condition that made it impossible for me to get online via Verizon’s EV-DO…
Hmm. No power, no cell phone, no internet connection, not safe to drive… but that’s California, you say. They have bad stuff happen out there all the time. (Which seems to be true, if you watch the evening news.)
I’ll admit to slacking a little lately, due to being busy with school and the holidays. I think now might be a good time to make sure I have my gear in ready mode. Tornadoes in January? This could be an interesting year….
I’m still happy that the morse code requirement was (finally!) dropped. That action was about 20 years overdue. I also still question the timing (at the bottom of a solar cycle), but I’ll take the access to HF without complaint. Have I made any contacts on any of the HF bands? Nope. I’ve needed a new microphone for my IC-735 for a while now, and haven’t found one at the same time I had money for one. (Hopefully soon.) I also haven’t learned the code yet; it’s easy to say that it only takes 15 minutes of practice a day, but finding the 15 minutes is hard with two jobs and school competing for time. (I am still fiddling with receiving CW and RTTY with help from a computer.)
As far as getting people interested in ham radio, someone needs to produce a 25 watt 10 meter mobile rig that sells for $149.95 at Wal-Mart. Then they need to convince Hannah Montana to get licensed and on the air, and endorse the rig.
(You heard it here first.)
I didn’t get to do as much in the area of emergency communications in 2007 as I’d hoped. Classes had to take precedence over meetings and nets once school started again. I might try to participate in Field Day this year, since I’ll actually have battery power to work with (I have a deep cycle marine battery, but I’m still working on powerpoles for everything). The state ARES conference was again scheduled on a Saturday when the Badgers were playing at home, so I missed that again… sigh.
So what about 2008? I’m making a trip to AES to get a microphone within the next couple of weeks, so I can experiment on 10 meter phone. I’d like to say this is the year I’ll get going with the code, but I have Spanish and Trigonometry to worry about this spring. I’ll be at the next Dane County ARES/RACES meeting (17 January 2008), so I can get updated and official, as well as the next Midwest SSTRC meeting (21 Jan 2008). Other than that, I’m going to be busy with school until May, so the best I can do is make it a resolution for 2008 to get on the air a little more. Best I can do for now!
The semester is finally over, so I’ve had some time to do some ham related stuff that I had to put off in favor of classes.
I moved my dipole inside, mainly because I don’t have a way to get the feedline (coax) outside without leaving my patio door open. This being Wisconsin, leaving one’s patio door open presents some heating problems. So the dipole is now hanging inside my patio door, partially hidden by my blinds. It’s not perfect, but in a first floor apartment you take what you can get. I’ve been experimenting with CW and RTTY decoding software on my Ubuntu Linux box now that the antenna’s inside.
Patience and persistence paid off; I found an original Apple Airport card on ebay for $50, which is $30-$60 less than everyone else was asking. So now my iBook can do wifi, which is incredibly handy for getting schoolwork done. I’ll also be able to take the iBook out storm tracking next season (which is less than six months away), meaning I’ll have access to radar out in the field.
And it’s Christmas Eve… so I’m going to spend the rest of the evening with the St. Olaf Choir on PBS in one ear, and the HF rig in the other. Wherever you are, best wishes for a Merry Christmas!
I have nothing too major to report… my dual band handheld still travels with me in my backpack, but I’m now in school three nights a week. So between work, being in class, doing homework, and my other part time job, I haven’t had much time to devote to fiddling with radios. There also hasn’t been much weather worth going to to see lately, so I haven’t done any storm chasing.
I did participate in a Dane County exercise in August, which was interesting mainly because it was my first operational exposure to ICS.
Exercises are actually very interesting… I hesitate to say “fun”, because emergency response isn’t something that’s supposed to be “fun”. It did feel good to step into a situation where something fairly major was happening, but everyone knew their roles and things gelled pretty quickly. Let’s call it a good working environment.
And with that, I have homework yet to do today, and I’m headed to work this afternoon. But yes, I’m still around.
There’s been no weather to speak of around here lately… so just some random updates.
Picked up a new computer at the University of Wisconsin’s SWAP store. $55.00 bought me a 1ghz pc w/512mb of ram & a 20gig hd, a Sony Trinitron monitor, keyboard and mouse. SWAP sells most of their machines without an operating system, so I had to get a variant of Ubuntu installed (which is what’s running as I type). I’ll probably ditch this distro and install something nicer, but it’s pretty functional now. Anyway, UW SWAP sells loads of useful stuff; keyboards, mice, computers, network hardware, office supplies, furniture, etc. The chair I’m sitting on is from SWAP, too.
I have voice privs on 10m, and haven’t done squat with ‘em. Still looking for a used microphone that’ll work on my Icom IC-735. I’ve said before that someday I’ll learn the code, but I haven’t yet and I see no free time on the horizon… so part of the getting things running on this computer may be getting some Morse software running. I like the idea that low power with CW can get you places. It’s also been run-the-air-conditioning weather here, so I keep my window shut; meaning my coax can’t get outside to the dipole hanging on my patio.
Looking at a couple of equipment additions later this year; very strongly considering a dualband 2m/70cm amplifier for the car, and a wideband receive antenna for at home. Possibly considering a 2m antenna for the car (in addition to the dualband that’s already there), thinking it would be nice to have both the 2m and 2m/70cm radios available at once.
And I’ve made a couple of tweaks to the site; nothing major enough to talk much about. I’ll likely be posting more once I get this machine (hereafter referred to by her hostname Drew) set up properly and get the audio and such interfaced to the radios.
