Hobby

Radio Activity

/ KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Hi all. I recently read a good idea on a Facebook group I belong to : 146.520 National Calling Frequency. The post was : “Lets try to generate some activity on the National Calling Frequencies and celebrate Christmas, or what ever holiday you want to support this winter. At 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00 on December 23, and December 24,call CQ for anybody wanting a Christmas QSO. We can do this on 146.52, 223.500, and 446.00 to generate activity. If nobody answers that is how it goes, but hopefully we can get some activity if everybody gets on the air and calls out it might be surprising in the activity that we can generate.”

This sounds like a great idea to me. I will call when I can, depending on work and will wish people a happy holiday season.

The Feast Day of Saint Krampus

/ KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Sigh. Yup. I bet you thought that the title of this post would reflect the contents. Nope, you were wrong. You may have noticed that I do not post on any specific day or keep to a schedule. I have my reasons. I am not really a fan of people who talk just to talk and post just to post as some seem to do. If I don’t have anything to say I tend to keep quiet. Some folks write in an almost religious manner, practicing an arcane ritual to exorcise their inner demons. Me, I take my inner demons out for regular exercise and walkies. When I started this blog it was to be a newsletter for a club with articles and topics of interest to radio enthusiasts but the club did not “officially” approve of it. Their loss. As for silence, I can work a whole 12 hour shift without saying a single word. In any event, have a Happy and safe Krampusnacht!

Promising Future?

/ KB3CVO / Leave a comment

I am on the ground floor of a new club. A group of dedicated hams in Perry County, PA have come together to form a club. Our first meeting was held over Zoom and there were 15 attendees. I feel that the attendance is promising. There are a lot of good ideas floating for activities and I am hopeful. The officers will meet soon and hash out details and present their concepts to the club for membership approval. Here is a copy of the meeting minutes as available on the web page perrycountyarc.org :

Perry County Amateur Radio Club
Meeting Minutes for November 18, 2021
Attendance:
AL3C, KA3BVJ, KB3CVO, KB3FNB, KB3OCC, KC3FVN, KC3MPL, KC3PNR,
N3MLB, W3BUZ, W3JON, W3KAT, W3SHD
Absent: KC3LAN, N3RPM
7:30 PM
Chris Fuller (N3MLB) gave a brief overview of the club and when it started a few years ago.
Chris gave an overview of the goals for the club which included hosting events for Field Day,
Special Events and other activities. He explained that in order to obtain a club call sign the club
needed to elect four positions which must include President, Vice President, Treasurer and
Secretary. Since the By Laws and the Constitution were drafted and shared with members on
the Perry County Amateur Radio Club’s website and Facebook page a month before the
meeting, potential members were encouraged to voice their opinion.
Several potential members shared what they wanted out of the club which included those
events mentioned by N3MLB. W3SHD, W3BUZ, KC3PNR and KB3PSN also contributed to
their thoughts and asked for more comments from the floor. Hearing no further thoughts, the
club moved onto discussions regarding electing club officers.
It was decided by the group to nominate several members and then have the members vote
through the polling feature within Zoom. W3SHD, KB3PSN, W3KAT, AL3C and N3MLB were all
nominated as potential officers. Hearing no further names, Chris Fuller initiated the poll for
President, Vice President, Secretary and then Treasurer. A total of fourteen votes were casted
as one person (W3JON) dropped off the Zoom meeting approximately thirty minutes
beforehand.
The members elected the following:
President: Matt Morrison, KB3PSN
Vice President: Chris Fuller, N3MLB
Secretary: Robin Cartwright, W3KAT
Treasurer: Scott Shedd, W3SHD
The remaining time was spent discussing potential club meeting dates and times. It was
decided the club officers must hold their official meeting within the next week or two and then
schedule a club meeting. It was decided that Thursdays seem to work best for everyone.
The meeting was adjourned arounded 8:45 PM.

I believe we are off to a good start.

The Edmund Fitzgerald

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I have been listening for the past several days to try and work the Special Event station commemorating the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This afternoon I found them on 7.052 working CW. I was able to work them. I am happy! Information on the event can be found on qrz.com under the callsign of W8F.

Veterans Day and other stuff

/ KB3CVO / Leave a comment

Hi all. First a shout out to all the vets out there. Thank you for your service.

I would like to change the subject a bit and put in a plug for FISTS, the International Morse Preservation Society. This is a group of ham radio operators dedicated to using Morse Code (CW) on the air. The club promotes fellowship and mentoring. From their webpage:

“FISTS is a well established and recognized CW (Morse Code) organization in the world of amateur radio. Founded in 1987 by Geo Longden, G3ZQS, it now has a world-wide membership in the thousands and growing daily.What FISTS wants to accomplish.

       1. To further the use of CW on the amateur bands.
2. To encourage newcomers to the CW mode.
       3. To engender friendship within the membership.”

Their webpage is http://www.fistsna.org. They hold activities on the air such as sprints and other contests. Best thing of all is there is no dues! You can join online.

Now for something a bit more different, a 1970 film promoting ham radio from the ARRL and posted on Youtube:

Queens and Princesses

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Here is a thought I had today. Most of the fairy tales we know and love involve princesses and queens. A certain company that I will not name makes big money off of the movies and merchandise associated with these stories. Think about this: the princesses are all kind, and good natured and faultlessly good. The queens are warped and mean and totally evil. Wait a second …. don’t princesses become queens? Do these wonderful princesses evolve into the epitome of evil when they ascend the throne? The plots of these stories revolve around the evil queen trying to destroy the good princess. What if the queen had received an instinctual or intuitional premonition that the princess will become evil when she becomes a queen and the “evil” queen is trying to save the world from a princess that turns evil? Wouldn’t that make the queen “good” for trying to eliminate “evil”? Food for thought, people.

COVID and Chemtrails

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It is widely believed that the Governments of this world are spraying their populations with chemicals and germs from high flying planes. If you do a search on the web you will find a plethora of pages about this subject. Some of them offer proof of this and some debunk it. It is a mixed bag. Here is an example of a webpage: https://stillnessinthestorm.com/2020/02/the-united-nations-exposes-chemtrails-100-proof-we-are-being-poisoned/

I have a simple proposal. Since the infrastructure is in place to perform this, why don’t we all contact our congress critters and insist that they use this to spray us all with the COVID vaccine. This would eliminate the need for egregious mandates and “vaccine passports”. If they are already spraying us with malicious chemicals, why not, by popular demand” spray something beneficial? You can find contact information for your politicians online. Let’s get this rolling!!

Death and other fun topics

/ KB3CVO / Leave a comment

This entry I am going to talk a bit about cemeteries. Cemeteries are our legacy. They chronicle the passage of time and can give a feeling of loneliness and/or insignificance. They could also give a feeling of peace and tranquility. Back around 100 years ago or more, people viewed cemeteries as parks. holding picnics or taking leisurely Sunday strolls down tended paths. They did not fear the dead, they respected the grounds and treated it with an awe filled reverence. Lovers would sit under the trees or lean on the stones dreaming of things to come. Poets would be inspired by the atmosphere of serenity.

There is a true equality in death and it doesn’t matter the size of your stone. Below you will find some pictures I took today in one of the cemeteries in Carlisle PA

Looking SE
Another view
A view west
There is a lot of symbolism on the older stones. I have even found one on which the finger is pointing downwards. That one is in a cemetery in NH
Here is a monument to Molly Pitcher, a Revolutionary War Hero.
The texture of a broken and aged stone can remind us of the fleeting significance of all we do.

Next time you pass a cemetery give it a look. You never know what you might find … even if the only thing to find is peace of mind. 🙂

non timetis messor

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A wise person once said: “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana”. Does time really exist or is it just a subjective way for us to delineate our lives? My cats are not concerned with the passage of time. They eat, sleep, and play on no set schedule. When I make beer I am aware of times such as boiling for at least 60 minutes, fermenting for about 2 or 3 weeks, a week or 2 to carbonate, but is that anything near reality? To the yeast, fermentation is done when it is done. The beer will only carbonate as fast as conditions such as ambient temperature allow. There is no hurry, no sense of necessity. With ham radio, I keep track of time as a reference. I note down what time my contact started and what time it finished. I do no worry about how long it takes to establish a contact. I just call until someone answers. Maybe that is why I am not into contests … too much pressure of time involved, trying to make as many contacts as possible during a limited timeframe.

Oh well, enough for now. I am going to go back to frittering my life away harmlessly. Namaste, y’all.

A Confession!

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I like goldfish (Carassius auratus). Some in the aquarium hobby would see them as common or plebian, but I like them. Don’t get me wrong, I like all kinds of tropical fish such as plecos and corys and neons, but I have always had a soft spot for goldfish. I actually prefer the simplicity of the common types. I rescue feeders from pet stores and give them a chance. Right now my biggest is about 4 inches. He started out black but has since turned gold.

I do like the fancy ones, the orandas, moors, reiku, etc, but i prefer the simple little comets and feeders.

Here is a picture of one of my tanks. The picture quality could be better but it was taken with my fone and fish tend to move around.

There is a simple pleasure I derive from watching them swim around. It is relaxing and has an almost therapeutic virtue to it. More nonsense to come later.