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.
Odds and Ends
Veterans Day and other stuff
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:
Something to Ponder
Find your true self
Use your strengths and weaknesses
Care about others
Keep your own self true
Just be alert
Only trust in you
Each day is a new beginning
Bring something to the table
Identify toxic influences
Destroy nothing unique
End things in a timely fashion
Never not learn from failing
Queens and Princesses
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
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
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
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
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!
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.
A book Review
The book I am reviewing today is “Today I Am A Ham” by Ethelyn M Parkinson. My wife found it at a yardsale. For a youth-oriented book, I found it interesting and enjoyable. 14 year old Eric aspires to be a ham while maneuvering through typical family and school and friend issues. He isn’t the athlete that his coach father wants him to be; he also is’t the perfect brother that his drama queen sister wants him to be. He gets the full support of his other sister and, with the help of friends and local adults, he is able to get his ham ticket. As for sports, I will leave that to you. On the whole, it was a good read. Below is a link to some reader reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1697633.Today_I_Am_a_Ham
Weather and Radio
There is a long association between weather and radio in general and Amateur Radio in particular. When broadcast radio started to become in general use, people began to rely on it for local weather reports. Amateur Radio was also found to be useful for spreading weather reports, not only locally but over long distances. One topic of conversation over the radio has always been the weather. Many QSOs include the local weather. It does go deeper than just chatting, however. Hams are concerned about the weather. If thunderstorms come along, it is bad to have your equipment hooked up in case of a lightening strike. Hail and high winds can take down antennas. Trees can come down during storms and flooding can cause all kinds of havoc.
Amateur Radio operators (hams) have been and still are relied upon to provide back-up communications in emergencies and a lot of emergencies are weather related. Even if a ham cannot get to an area and assist with communications they can still be of value by reporting local conditions. A lot of hams have weather stations in their yard and can report things such as temperatures, pressure changes and precipitation totals to the NWS. There are phone apps that allow you to report (mPing is one example and is free) local conditions. What do you do if your cell service is out? Well there are a lot of clubs out there that hold nets when there is severe weather. You can log into a net on a repeater and report. They usually have a back-up plan in the event that repeaters are down. There are also weather nets on the HF bands where you can report conditions. A lot of options exist.
At the extreme end, there are hams who go out spotting bad storms such as tornados. anyway, here is a list of some resources to use if you want to get into weather reporting or learn more about the weather:
http://www.weather.gov is the National Weather Service website
https://www.weather.gov/SKYWARN This is the official NWS Skywarn page
https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/wfo_links This is a link to find local spotter classes in your area
https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/course/23 This is a link to online spotter training
https://www.skywarn.org/local-groups/ And finally a link to locate groups in your area.
I hope this has been useful information to someone out there. 🙂
