Amateur Station KD5NJR ... on the web...

iPhone test post

2010-02-21T20:48:00.001-08:00

Test post here from the trusty iPhone ! Now I don't have to get to the computer .

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:S 1st St E,Broken Arrow,United States

Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club

2010-01-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

Put some new comments on the BAARC ( www.w5bbs.org ) blog at w5bbs.blogspot.com.

I'm serving as President this year, so I'm trying to drum up interesting a variety of fields.

Rockets, radio, electronics, computers, that kind of stuff. Check it out. Leave a comment.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Kelso’s Corner (moon cartography)

2009-05-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481

Above link is good stuff about the moon. Notably cartography. Keep your eyes peeled for the part 2.

ROCKET TO THE MOON?

2009-05-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

ROCKET TO THE MOON?

Link to some very old (well, WWII-era) art work of rocket ships and the like. Man, what if we really kept up the space race ?

KE7HR Caver Radio

2009-05-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

KE7HR Caver Radio

Paul's website (link above) shows some homebrew gear he operates in caves. Yeah, he doesn't come right out and say if its underground to underground communications or talking from caves to others on the top but either way, I think you can rule normal repeaters and cell phones out.

At any rate, cool stuff I thought.

Aerodynamics on Land - Aiming for 800 M.P.H. - NYTimes.com

2009-05-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Aerodynamics on Land - Aiming for 800 M.P.H. - NYTimes.com

Wow, Ed Shadle & crew to travel 800 MPH in vehicle built around F104 Starfighter components.

Again. Wow. I'm off to look for details on this. (in my ample free time, yeah)

Scott

Gimli Glider - Wikipedia

2009-05-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Gimli Glider -

Air Canada Flight 143 shows that the Space Shuttle isn't the only large object that has done a lot of gliding. Sometimes 767s are pressed into that mode of operation.

**excerpt **

The Gimli Glider is the nickname of an Air Canada aircraft which was involved in an infamous aviation incident. On 23 July 1983, a Boeing 767-200 jet, Air Canada Flight 143, ran completely out of fuel at 41,000 feet (12,500 m) altitude, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton. The crew was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency landing at Gimli Industrial Park Airport, a former airbase at Gimli, Manitoba.^[1]

Ranger 3: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

2009-05-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ranger 3: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

Above link is for a 60's spacecraft program called Ranger. Ranger missions crashed into the moon while making live television transmissions toward the end. Idea being that even "standard definition" TV (I don't have frame rates and resolutions for this yet) was superior to the earth-based telescopic observations of the day.

Now, Ranger 3 carried a "hard lander" built of -- get this -- ordinary balsa wood.

I am going to have to check this out.

SolderSmoke -- The Book! On Sale Now!

2009-05-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

SolderSmoke Daily News: SolderSmoke -- The Book! On Sale Now!:

"SolderSmoke is the story of a secret, after-hours life in
electronics."

Isn't that a great way to start out a book pitch ?!? Talk about getting my attention. An after-hours life ? Isn't that what amateur radio is... sorta secret ? How do you explain it to folks ? A whole different bunch of folks from your work friends or your church friends or your family. They don't get what you're talking about. Repeaters. Field Day. Single Sideband. Antenna gain.

Anyway, Bill is a great ham and an excellent story teller. I'm sure I'll add this book to my collection.

YouTube - How to letter with lead

2009-05-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmttakfeyVA

In above link, Doug Patt shows you how to write... like an architect.

Facebook

2009-05-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I like Facebook. It's been a while now since it was strictly a college kid thing and chances are, you know a lot of people that are on it now. Friends from school, etc. I've have located and loaded into Facebook many area ham radio operators. It's free to set up an account. You (typically) use your real name as your handle. You can put down what you're doing at the moment, leave someone a small message, publicize an Internet link of interest and so on.

For small announcements and chit-chat back and forth, I think it's more convenient than stopping everything to make a blog post. Which isn't to say that I am going to give up on Blogspot, it's just (to me) better suited for longer ramblings. Facebook for small posts. Blogspot for permanent facts. Facebook for what no one will care about in a day or two.

So, if you want to see some of my more half-baked ideas before they make it here semi-baked, look me up -- Scott Haley -- on Facebook.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Digital Apollo (Part 2)

2009-05-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I wrapped up Digital Apollo recently (MIT Press, David Mindell) and I thought it was overall pretty good. The part I enjoyed the most was at the end when he talks you through the landing process and then talks about the landing experienced by each crew. They were all a little different.

You also get a good explanation of the genesis of the Apollo Hardware. Provided I remember some earlier late night reading sessions, the hardware has heritage in a computer intended for a Mars mission. The packing techniques were from guided missiles (makes sense). I'd heard that before. And the software (which was considered something of an afterthought at first) did a lot of simulating analog solutions to problems. This section of the book is something I want to go back over in greater detail sometime. Most other versions of this story concentrate on the word width, memory size, clock speeds, so on and so forth, but not what needed to be done.

Also inside, some good discussion on the X-15 and how much intervention the astronauts wanted. Should the astronauts literally fly the ship or just supervise systems ? Some folks thought you'd use stick and rudder and fly the rocket off the pad, literally. Another camp was for fully automatic (Ranger, Surveyor) operation. What happened was a mix of the two, a sort of semi-automatic mode. Really, I think the Apollo flight software would have been smaller / simpler if the pilot didn't have so much control over the trajectory. Why? Because a lot of points had to be coded into the software where you gave the operator (oops, astronaut) the chance to change control, or edit a setting, so on and so forth. Maybe two separate programs (each on a computer) with a big toggle switch (auto, manual) would have been worth looking at ?

Anyway, it's a fun book if you're into technical history.

Ten beautiful computers | Boing Boing Gadgets

2009-05-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

Ten beautiful computers | Boing Boing Gadgets

Above is a link showing "1o Beautiful Computers." Most of these are small British machines. They're worth taking a quick look at.

DHC-2s

2009-05-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

www.dhc-2.com is one of my favorite aviation websites. I found it after Tiffany and I were up in Canada. See, we were on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver and they had a Canadian gift and bookshop on the ferry. One of the books I picked up was "The Immortal Beaver". Turns out these are fascinating and rugged bush planes. We had the opportunity to ride later on in the trip. This was "our" plane we rode on: http://www.dhc-2.com/id185.htm

Teardrops & Tiny Trailers

2009-05-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Teardrops & Tiny Trailers

Okay, use above link to check out these 'tiny trailers'.

What do we need to make one of these an off-grid power station (wind turbine parts, batteries inside, solar panels on outside surfaces ?) then another trailer to camp in, etc. ? Maybe keep the radios in it ? Could be interesting...

High Power Rocketry: N - Prize

2009-05-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

High Power Rocketry: N - Prize

Okay, so in recent posts I talked about ancient and contemporary homebrew rocket efforts. There is an X-Prize (called N-Prize) effort out there to help organize and encourage this mess.

Above link discusses a hybrid approach to an orbital payload using rockets and balloons.

Ham radio folks and the homebrew microprocessor sets have been working in the high altitude balloon area for a while now.

Let's see where this goes !

Scale Saturn V

2009-05-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

Baltimore City Paper - News Features: Rocket Men

If you haven't heard by now, Steve Eves just set a 'model' rocket record with a 1700 lb. Saturn V. Check out the above link. This project reminds me of the old BIS Lunar mission that I talked about earlier in the year.

The homebrewers are starting to catch up with the NASAs of the world.

A Life in Twilight: The Final Years ... - Google Book Search

2009-05-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

So, I checked this book out of the library thinking I could learn a bit more about what Oppie did after the Los Alamos project. Everyone knows that his Communist leanings got his security clearance revoked and that eventually he got back some of his good name, but I was hoping to hear about some other stuff... like his time at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS).

A Life in Twilight: The Final Years ... - Google Book Search

test post

2009-05-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

Test post from BlogIT, the Facebook application.

The Tuber

2009-04-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wells Tuber built an unlikely vehicle, a loaded inner-tube. Outside Magazine did an article (I haven't read all of it yet) but I'm already thinking, how can I get a radio on this thing ??

Home-Grown Simulators

2009-04-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Quite a while back in Air & Space Smithsonian, there was an article about folks who built some pretty sophisticated mock-ups so they could better enjoy MS-Flight Simulator and similar products. I was glad to see the article put on the Internet archive.

Some of the folks did jumbo jet bridges with multiple computer monitors.
Note Daren Knightsbridge's simulator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8wN50X3Y8s

Others did fighter cockpits that required surrounding themselves with controls.

Additional link: http://www.avsim.com/partners/Home_Cockpits/

More Book News: Digital Apollo

2009-04-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

I got a Borders gift card from my relatives for my birthday. It didn't take long to check the email for a coupon and get the card emptied out pronto.

Digital Apollo is a book about the history and background behind the Apollo Guidance Computer.

I'm looking forward to checking this out in greater detail. Some time ago, Eldon Hall wrote a book called Journey to the Moon from the AIAA press. It was really good and showed how the AGC had its origins in the Polaris missile and other clever, simple machines like Bush's Differential Analyser.

I'll get into it later, but the AGC has been "resurrected" in both computer simulators and homebrewed hardware...

more to follow...

73
Scott
KD5NJR

"Read You Loud And Clear"

2009-04-06T19:51:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while, you find something cool and cheap. Or free.

The guys at NASA's history department have done it again. "Read You Loud and Clear" (13 MB Adobe Acrobat ".pdf" format) is about the Minitrack, SATAN, STADAN, Mercury and other tracking and communication networks that were deployed for the space program.

What I've read so far, a variety of frequencies (HF, VHF, SHF) were used as well as a variety of modes. (radar, SSB, teletype) for tracking, telemetry and comms.

Looking forward to exploring the book more. I guess maybe 40 or 50 years later, some of this could be homebrewed... sounds like fun.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Epic Rivalry

2009-04-06T19:36:00.000-07:00

So, I finished Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, and it was just okay.
Picked a new book up off BookMooch called Epic Rivalry. It's by the National Geographic Press, so maybe it'll be better.

I'll let ya know.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Dreaming and the BIS Lunar Lander

2009-02-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

I got caught up on a few back issues of Outside and National Geographic Adventure, then I went for a smoothie. After that, I went for a nice walk today and when I got home, I made some replies to Gene's blog and posted to Stan's a little ditty about the BIS Lunar Lander. It wasn't pretty... but isn't that good enough ? Little steps and all that. Not bad for an afternoon in which the wife was at work.

73
Scott Haley
KD5NJR

http://ke5lep.blogspot.com/2009/02/dreaming-is-good.html

New Book: Sputnik: The Shock of the Century

2009-02-08T16:38:00.000-08:00

I was doing some hunting for something in the garage the other day (ah, yes, it was for those old issues of QST) and I ran across a copy of Paul Dickson's Sputnik. It was on sale at Borders in paperback for $3.99 and apparently I had picked it up last fall at some point.

Anyway, since I've been thinking about space travel again lately, I'll give the book a whirl. I'll let you know if anything strikes me interesting.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Gonna Take a Hiatus

2008-12-15T16:55:00.001-08:00

As if I ever kept this updated anyway, I'm going to take a break from this blog to try and concentrate on a couple projects.

One is the blog for our Monday Night Net.

And the other is the blog for the a ham radio breakfast group
that is starting to pick up speed.

I've written a bit of content for it.

Check them out, leave some comments and participate with us.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

update on recent happenings

2008-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy here lately on a lot of little things. In no particular order.
* found old junker (P2 500 128 MB 15 GB) computer boots to Win98E2.
* made backup to USB HDD
* cleaned up un-necessary files. Install about 3 GB.
* it works on the Internet.
* Works great with Damn Small Linux.
* Gonna try someday soon to install permanent Linux partition.
* (can't get USB jump drives to work. I think machine might be USB 1.0

Gave a not-too-badly received talk on Web 2.0 apps to the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club.

Enjoying hearing about Owen Garriot's boy Richard flying in space again soon.

Enjoyed the episode 1 of Linux in the Ham Shack.

Gonna take a few days off this week.

Celebrated wife's 30th bday.

73 for now.
Scott
KD5NJR

Google Sites Webpage

2008-09-15T17:26:00.001-07:00

I'm gonna mess around with this Google Sites business a bit I think.
sites.google.com/site/kd5njr

... more to follow.
73
Scott

After Labor Day

2008-09-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, it's after Labor Day now, so the family(ies) are all visited and the left overs are almost all gone. Trying to figure out a routine to keep on top off all the good information that has been flowing in through the web of late.

I've got Google Reader loaded up with a lot of Ham and space blogs. RSS lets Google Reader let me know when something new happens. A lot of plain old web sites use RSS as well. I know RSS had been around for a while, but I just rediscovered the customizable Google homepage and the Reader of late.

When I find something good over the course of the day, I set the flag on Reader. In the evenings I go over the starred items and if they're good, I put them in Delicious. Now, if I could just get that to instantly push to Twitter and daily push Facebook, that would be great.

So I'm gonna try and use all this internet information to get a few old computers thinking Linux and speaking packet. Should keep me out of trouble.

Besides all that, we've got a repeater to re-deploy and a new Foxhunt adventure in early October. The Route 66 On-the-Air HF contest and special event are in Sept. too.

Jay: Hurry up with that baby thing !

73 guys
Scott
KD5NJR

August Fox Hunt

2008-08-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Tom (KD5CNY) and myself had a great time hiding out and messing with people at the August Fox Hunt.

We got as close to the repeater as we could and we could and hit it through dummy load. That dummy load was just leaky enough to trigger the repeater, which is the only rule of the contest. We were found after 3 hours.

The great part was that after the two teams found us, we gave up the secret and had about 10 folks rally at the foxhole and caravan to the hot dog place.

Good to see everyone together.

Hope we can wrap out the month with a few more good nets and head into September with a meeting on the Tuesday after Labor Day.

73
Scott
KD5NJR

Monday Night Net is, well, tonite. 8p. 146.910 (-)

2008-08-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

You can remotely check-in via Twitter
www.twitter.com/kd5njr
OR
remotely check-in via Blogspot
w5bbs.blogspot.com

other stuff:
Thought about
a) The VE2HAR Internet / Packet Radio gateway. ( THANKS KE9V)
b) Maybe trying some of "HMSS" aka ham radio over wi-fi. I've got a lot of new pointers in www.delicious.com/kd5njr

73 for now.
Scott

Update for Summer 2008

2008-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

"Update for Summer 2008" doesn't seem like a very good title for a blog post unless the title of your last post some 2 years earlier was "Update for Summer 2006". Anyway, with "Science Friday" on in the background (a discussion on an amateur astronomy and a new(er) galaxy or something) let me type just a few words to bridge the gap.

Namely I've been married for 2 years now. I wouldn't really change a thing. We stay super busy with family and church so that is where most of the time goes. By the time we both get home in the evenings seems like there is just enough time for some TV. Thank goodness for a DVR and plenty episodes of Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch and Discovery Science. I've also tried to catch up on all the books I've "collected" at Borders over the years. As I get those wrapped up, they're going on BookMooch (look for me, KD5NJR) I brought a whole box back home of new books from the Holland Hall (prep school) Book Fair too, so there are tons of books to read.

KC5JKU (Gerry) and KD5RHF (Kevin) have been helping out with the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club's Monday Night Net. That is still a good time to get everyone together on the air or in person most Monday nights.

Ahhh... the computer farm. The "daily driver" is a Mac Mini. I never did build another DOS machine from parts like I had intended too (bought a case, power supplies and incidentals 3 days before I got married) but as long as this little machine holds together and I don't need to write code or anything, I'll be fine.

I don't think I'm going to maintain a big outline of links like I had set up on earlier posts. Delicious seems to handle that. www.delicious.com/KD5NJR.

Hear lately I have discovered Google Reader so that is letting me add links to Delicious account at an alarming rate. Helps my memory and Bookmarks organization. Jay says my memory is starting to go. I'm not suprised.

I discovered Facebook too. There is getting to be a fair percentage of my high school friends showing up on that. I'm surprised. That has been a lot of fun. Zack, Jay, Curt and some others from college are on there too.

I upgraded my amateur radio license to General class just to do it. I haven't put up antennas yet. Living down in a bit of a valley, I know it won't really help things on VHF anyway. Not a lot of regular ballooning activity like there used to be. I miss that, but the club has sponsored a foxhunt (hidden transmitter hunt) every month this year. That is fun in its own right.

With all these new web apps and blogs like MAKE: I'm sure I'll get the inspiration to try something new. I need to look over the documentation on Twitter this weekend.

How could I forget, after a couple years of working with television transmission (Vyvx) I moved from Level3 Communications to American Electric Power. I know I am going to enjoy it.

73 for now.
KD5NJR
Scott

Update for Summer 2006

2006-07-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, where did the first half of the year go ?
Well, helping get the missus-to-be ready for the wedding was easily a full-time job.
So besides slowly adding to the collection of junk in the shack with the help of eBay, not a lot has gone on radio-wise. I have to admit that watching an active blog like www.makezine.com/blog makes it hard for me to write my own !

Yes, the wedding was great. Then we were off on a driving tour and cruise hitting
* Seattle
* Victoria
* Vancouver
and then
* Juneau
* Glacier Bay
* Skagway
* Victoria.

Despite all the data crunching and planning, OSU didn't balloons again as far as I knew. But Gerry Paschal has been really helpful with the Broken Arrow Monday Night Net. 146.910 (-) NO tone. Monday 8p CT.

All the computer gear is still around. Just waiting for a reason to get hooked up and used again.

I'm Back !!

2006-01-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

Where did time go:

It seems like it's almost been a year and what do I have to show:
1) working in a different dept. at work than I used to.
2) I'm engaged.
3) Santa (and work) was good to me and I have a heap of new toys to experiment with this year including:
4) Posting furiously on the ASTRO (Okla. St. U. high altitude ballooning) forums. w5yj.okstate.edu for more info.

a) a Heath ET-3400 microprocessor board (6800-based)
b) a BasicStamp board
c) an Intel play microscope with a USB port
d) a charcoal smoker....

so, a cool clock ? a flight computer for the balloon missions ? a torture chamber for electronic parts ? a computer-driven smoker ? stay tuned...

73
Scott

Scott's Apple Mac Stuff

2005-04-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here is where I want to talk about the Apple Mac -- most notably the Mac Mini. My first reaction to this mac was that is seemed inexpensive. Mac users tend to be fanatic and for good reason. The device works well. Mine was really loaded (Bluetooth entry devices, wireless 802.11g communications, expanded memory and the DVD burner) but still I was off and running in about 5 minutes.

Interesting still is that it is very small (less than 7" by 7" by 2") and runs a Unix varient at heart.

As a result, there has been a lot of chatter regarding the Mini, mods, hacks and that applies for the iPod as well. Some folks are embedding Minis in older all-on-one Macs to make a very unique device. I'l eventually like to write code for the Mac family, starting with widgets, which I think will code quickly, then going backwards to more portable UNIX scripts and perhaps older System 7 compatible code if old iron appears useful in my balloon, rocket, amateur radio and history interests.

I'll try to track my favorite Apple resources here.

Contact me if you find something of interest !!

73
Scott

IPOD
hacks
http://www.ipodhacks.com/

mods
http://www.ipodmods.com/

after market products
http://www.griffintechnology.com/ <= remote controls, FM modulators, other stuff for Apples
http://www.everythingipod.com/

other sites
http://www.ipodlounge.com/

MINI
hacks
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000663032664/

mods
http://macs.hackaday.com/

other sites

APPLE OS X PROGRAMMING
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/dashboard.html

APPLE SYSTEM 7 PROGRAMMING

OLD MACS
http://www.applefritter.com/main
http://www.lowendmac.com/

Update for 4/9/05

2005-04-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been a busy time since I last wrote anything. A couple hours ago I got back inside from a couple hours of yard work. Mostly pulling weeds from the flower beds. I'd like to make them look a bit nice this year. I can probably just keep things trimmed and weeded better, but to add anything I'll probably need to make deeper beds. Maybe I can set out some flower pots. From time to time I'll see a nice looking container garden that catches my eye.

Anyway, what have I been up to lately. Well, praise band at church takes a lot of time on Wednesdays and Sundays. Besides that, I run the BAARC net Mondays on 146.910. TARC officer's and general meetings are on Tuesday evening and its getting time to put the finishing touches on Field Day.

At the same time, I'm trying to throw away or pack away the stuff I'm not using right now, and consolidate what I do use into a space where they actually get used. Easier said than done. I'm an awful pack rat. While I'm at it, I'd like to get the 6m and SSB antennas finshed up. I got a VHF tuner to try my hand at building antennas. Maybe I can have something for Field Day.

The W5YJ group hasn't worked much on ballooning lately, but their ham shack is improving. I'd like to get some procedure lists and software tools developed on a variety of common or small or cheap platforms for those guys.

The BAARC is in the process of tweaking their two repeater sites, and I'm trying to get involved with that effort.

Derek metioned trying model rockets again, so we are. And he is studying for his ham radio license.

Obviously this is a lot of stuff and I'd like to share how I'm doing it, what I'm using and how it is coming along. So I'll try to have period updates here that tell what is changing on the blog, which is layed out in a hierarchy.

PROJECTS

IDEAS

STUFF

TECHNIQUES

PEOPLE

PLACES

73

Scott

Projects

2005-04-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of Projects I'm working on.

Ham Radio Projects:

Model Rocket Projects:

Shortwave Radio Projects:

Balloon Projects:

Programming Projects:

Cool Stuff

2005-04-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here is where I want to collect news about cool stuff I run across.

Apple Stuff:
http://kd5njr.blogspot.com/2005/04/scotts-apple-mac-stuff.html

Ham Radio Suff for the Shack:

Ham Radio Stuff for Mobile Use:

"Weather" Ballooning Stuff:

Ideas

2005-04-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Here I'd like to talk about different ideas and thoughts that come to mind.

none right now.

MORE TO FOLLOW.

Scott's Space Info

2005-04-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some references and resources I might talk about from time to time.

NASA websites:
www.nasa.gov
spaceflight.nasa.gov
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html
http://www.marsonearth.org/

Space History:
http://www.apollosaturn.com/
http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/
http://www.collectspace.com

Non-government (someday amateur ?) spaceflight
www.amsat.org
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/

Space Capsules

Space Stations

Satellites: Communications

Satellites: Biology / Medical

Space Probes

Streetfinder III

2005-02-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

The other day the mailman dropped by a Rand McNally Navman Streetfinder III. Another cool eBay find. The software is kinda old (2000) and you can only export maps to the palm of a small size. Maps over 10k sq. mi. won't work. And, it locked up a couple times under Windows XP. But, if I'm ever out in the field needing directions / distances, etc. and away from maps.google.com, this will be good in a pinch.

The there was the GPS unit itself. It took a while to acquire the first time, (but that was to be expected) and when it looked like it would nearly work, it threw a fatal exception and needed to be reset. I let this happen twice before I wrote this off to some kind of incompatibility between the Palm app and the Palm OS 3.5, which I can substantiate. Again, this was software that I assume was written in the late '90s or 2000, in the heyday of the Palm III series.

So it was looking like I paied $30-ish bucks for something that *might* be hacked into a robot or balloon, but a quick look at palmgear.com showed other software possibilities. Like PathAway III. I'm on my trial now, and i rather like it. A lot like UI-View where you bring your own maps, etc. It is shareware. It's about $50 after the trial is up. But, it had a status screen on it and saw my GPS receiver come up after a few minutes....

Another look at palmgear showed some freebies that just printed out status screens from the decoded NMEA data. That is probably all I am going to need. And below was what I needed to find out how to get it ready as a balloon payload or for attachment to a laptop.

http://www.radiohound.com/randgps.htm
http://www.chadphillips.org/zaurus/palmgps.html

Definately go get one of these eBay to play with.

I also saw some Palm III modems (33.6k) for about a buck each. These come with email, and other network software. Might be the beginnings of a TNC.

73
Scott

Friday Night Hamming

2005-02-25T22:21:00.000-08:00

After some work I got UI-View set up on what can be a full-time radio, antenna and computer.

Made a couple test messages and a lot of beacons. I'm pretty happy now. I learned to make a scratch map by looking for Oklahoma bit-maps on the Internet. Maybe I'll try my hand at scanning my own road maps later. It's not easily to know the positions of the edges of your map, and how the "any 2 points" function worked wasn't immediately obvious.

I got cables and rig blaster setup to the point I realized I only had one serial port on this computer, and it was being used by the TNC. So, I'll have to investigate USB-serial adapters.

I tried AGWPE and while it installed okay and detected my PK-12 on COM1, it didn't go into KISS mode correctly. But I was able to put in into KISS mode manually from Hyperterminal, so it's not the TNC. I'll have to use the AGWPE in its soundcard mode I guess. I hear Winlink 2000 supports it. I wanted to set up the necessary software to accept email from any Ham in the coverage of the BA digi and direct it into the Internet via cable modem.

Now, who wants to meet up on the TARC UHF linked system and chat while experimenting with an APRS net on 144.390 ? Remember, the BAARC net meets Mondays 2000 on 146.91.

73
Scott

Mac Mini Arrived

2005-02-25T10:54:00.000-08:00

Yes it did.

I put in the living room and paired with a 17" Samsung LCD panel, Apple wireless KYBD, wireless mouse, 15GB iPod, and I'll dig out my JBL Creature speakers and HP printer / scanner combo. I'll pick up a powered USB hub tonite.

One thing I want to check on is Mac support for my APC UPS.

I had everything going (including Itunes and the Airport card) running in just minutes. Never touched a CD or book yet.

Now for something called Konfabulator. And in the ham shack, to finish getting packet gear working.

73
Scott

My Birthday

2005-02-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

I turned 29 Sunday. Enough of that.

Tiff and I topped off the tank in the truck, bought two large sodas and hit the road Sunday for places unknown in my Dakota. It was a sunny day and I am gonna have to add Sequoyah State Park near Wagoner to my to-do list. The Whispering Pines trails look peaceful, as does the lake. There is lodging there and there used to be an airstrip (sorry, Pentafive) but it is closed now.

Mailman came today with a package. Yes, my latest eBay score, a Rand McNally Streetfinder GPS snap-on for my dusty old Palm III came today with all the goodies. May as well get that Palm whipped into shape again as satellite passing predictor. Or, as a mobile terminal for packet (done that before too) or as a in-car navigation system... this would be a new undertaking.

I have some new ideas too, but I need to tune the shortwave bands to see if I can find enough activity to justify a new Grundig Satellit 900.

73

Scott

Windows Ham Shack Computer Taking Shape

2005-02-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well, with the Mini Mac on order I can retire my P4 WinXP pro-based machine to the shack and the Mini Mac can get its spot in the living room. The P4 machine is mini-ITX mobo in a small Hornet-looking case. I'll probably add a USB and maybe Firewire card into it to use up the remaining slots.

I got UI-View 32 running on it Thursday night. It was really easy to set it using my AEA PK-12 (PK-232 compatible) TNC. I sent and received message from it to Kenwood TH-D7A. I'm using my FT-290R all-mode 2m rig (2W / 20W) I had at Field Day. Next up will be to find a good Oklahoma map (and maybe some Tulsa area ones). Maybe I'll check the NWS page or scan some telephone directory maps. Anyway, I noticed plenty of tracker users and quite a few digipeaters (even one ID'ing as Stillwater) But not a lot of home or fixed users.

I wonder if there are enough users to hold a net ? Any takers ? I just need to set the machine up in the shack where I can connect to my attic antenna. It can ht the ETULSA digi, and Tulsa and BA digis.

I'll like to get the software installed to run the Telpac software. That would allow folks with small computer gear and 2m capability to access Internet mail. Messages from field stations would traverse the Broken Arrow digi over to this station and into my cable modem connection. Since my TNC would be on 144.390 for APRS service, I suppose I would use sound card software (AGWPE) and my RigBlaster to connect over to my IC-910 VHF base station. I've run Slow Scan with the '910, RB and MMSSTV, and it works great.

Anyone who whould like to give me a hand with any project or set up a sked, let me know.

73

Scott

Grundig Satellit 900 / Eton e1xm

2005-02-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

I was looking at ordering a Satellit 800 from Amazon after reading some reviews (namely Eham) stating that most of the problems in the original were more recently corrected. But then I saw the e1mx at Universal Radio's website. This is gonna be a great rig when it comes out in a month or so. The smaller form factor of the '750, a nice big speaker, and hopefully a good synchronous detector. And XM !!! What a great rig for providing some entertainmnt on a picnic or backpacking trip. I wonder if it could even be pressed into service as a receiver in a QRP station. We'll see !

Balloon Payload Idea: HF beacon

2005-02-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

I know that since ASTRO-1 and ASTRO-2 have proven we can find what we launch, people have suggested wnd speed meters, Geiger counters, ATV systems, gliders, rovers, wireless access points, etc. be deployed on the balloons.

How about something simple like an HF beacon? This can operate at milliwatt levels (part 15) and can be received by many many many old-time hams. A suggested frequency - 10m because there are a lot of 10m Yagi beams in the world.

This would be an excercise in propagation and QRP operation. The antenna could be a half-wave of magnet wire, or an end-fed Zep.

I talked it over with Dan (KD5NJS) at lunch and he though Maxim had some one-wire or dip-switch programmable oscillators that could drive a buffer chain of NOT gates, then out to the antenna.

Proof of concept: I'll start looking for HF Air Traffic Control transmissions (likely Houston or Miami) at my QTH. That will give us an idea of how much power, etc. will be needed as well as a baseline for equipment. I have a pocket SW reciever (Grundig Mini200) a couple portables (DX-440s) an Icom IC-706MKIIg and perhaps a Grundig Satellite 900 down the road.

Just an idea.

73
Scott

Ada Hamfest Afternath

2005-02-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Well, Saturday was the Ada Hamfest and Tiffany and I were "wheels up" at 0645 (a little later than planned) to head down the turnpike to Stroud then it was 2 lane on in.

Pretty small Hamfest. Rad-com was there from Lubbock and was the only major vendor I saw. But it's always nice to see them there. They brought along some of the new low-end handheld rigs that have been in QST of late, and of course a couple Yaesu FT-847 Satellite Rigs for those looking for a full-on rig. I grabbed a couple cables, some official ARRL logbooks (one for the nets, one for Field Day) and a small rubber duck for one of my rigs.

Picked up a sack of small parts and connectors from a guy outta the Houston area. No minimum order, no sales tax, no hassles. Took credit cards. That's great. Turned around and saw Kevin, KD5RHF. He's back from out west (western OK) now, and is in living in OKC.

Something caught my eye. It was an Icom IC-2AT. This might be the most famous (and just about first) synthesized 2m HT. My dad had one in the early the 80s. With the understanding that I get it promptly in the hams of a new ham (someone from W5YJ came to mind) I took it home (and two battery packs, a drop-in charger and a roll-up J pole) for $20. Thumbwheel switches set the frequency. Dip switches on the back handle the split and power level. No tone board. But it should work for .715 on campus. I think I might donate another rig to that cause and keep this one for packet work. 1W would hit Tiger Hill fine. I thought I got screwed Sunday, but now I see the radio is showing signs of life. The batteries are severly flat. Will have to rebuild the packs. No biggie for a piece of history.

I picked up a pair of Sennheiser headphones for the iPod. Turns out the guy made a few bucks on me, but I didn't pay tax or shipping per se, so lesson learned. Beware what things really cost before Hamfest. Example, go to Green Country Hamfest Friday night, make shopping list, hit the web overnight (Amazon, HRO, eBay, etc) then go back Saturday and deal.

Here is a case in point. This guy had a Grundig Satellite 800 SWL rig (I had my eye on this for a while) for sale. Rig was 6 mo. old, and allegedly he paid Universal Radio $550. That would make his offer of $399 attractive, right? I skipped the deal and when I got home I see that Amazon has new rigs for $400. And it's important to get the newest rigs because of better quality control and some mods. I might get one with the tax return ;)

All for now.

73
Scott

Ada Hamfest Tomorrow

2005-02-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning is the Ada Hamfest. Ada is a fair piece from greater Tulsa. Looks to be an hour out of Norman or so. We'll see what kind of early bird specials there. I have some old computers (as in home computers, specifically Radio Shack CoCo's and Model 100s) and a spare walkie talkie or two, but you never can tell what kind of weird stuff you'll find.

I'll have to find the "Agri-plex" but hopefully I'll succeed.

73
Scott

Experiment on Heat Reflection

2005-02-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

After seeing all the different payload boxes on the ASTRO-2 flight, I though to myself, "what is the best way to do this" and how I determine that in a way that
1) would involve simple tools found in the kitchen, hobby room and Radio Shack
2) would be easily verifiable and repeatable
3) would stimulate some thought, discussion, and maybe some lightweight math and physics.
4) eventually a computer model could be established to simulate the cabin and outside environments on a future balloon payload.

S0, I picked two "automotive" indoor / outdoor thermometers from Radio Shack for not a lot of change. These make nifty low DC voltmeters too. So I had 4 channels of thermometer.
1) CH1 (a remote probe) for in the test chamber (a.k.a. balloon payload)
2) CH2 (another remote probe) for the area between the test chamber and the desk lamp (a.k.a. "the atmosphere")
3) CH3 (built in) was in the back of the bench and was to measure ambient temp away from the lamp.
4) CH4 (built in) was the same thing, but on the other thermometer. There might be a way to remove some experimental error taking these readings into account.

The next thing was to find a sample balloon payload enclosure. I didn't care what it was made of at first, because I wanted to just test out the theories and equipment. I did know I wanted something of a uniform contruction. I had on-hand:
1) some plastic cups without lids
2) a ceramic coffee mug
3) a plastic tumbler
4) a styrofoam cup
5) a stainless steel insulated mug (a freebie from work)
but either these didn't have a lid, or the lid was made of a different material. I thought that would undermine the integrity of the experiment. So I settled on a glass jar with glass lid. (I'll photograph and weight it out later)

I needed someting inside the "capsule" to heat up. So I filled it up with styrofoam packing peanuts leftover, by this point, from Christmas. This project got delayed a number of times.

So first, I thought I would investigate coatings, then move on to the actual structural material later. I thought if my readings of the instruments were good and the instruments and procedure was good, that I could determine which materials would be desirable for reflecting and absorbing heat. It's good to absorb some heat to keep transmitters on frequency (namely, its the crystal that needs to be kept at temp) but it's also good to reflect away heat that would otherwise kill a biological sample, or trouble other electronics.

I decided to start simple and work with black construction paper, some Hewlett-Packard photo paper intended for an inkjet printer, and some aluminum foil from the kitchen.

I expected to see the black construction paper absorb heat, raising the internal temp quickly while slowly releasing it when the lamp was shut off. This would be handy for parts of the payload in indirect sunlight. I expected to see the aluminum foil reflect heat and keep the inside very cool. I assumed this would be a good coating for parts of the payload in direct sunlight and it would serve as a ground plane for monopole "whip" antennas. The photo paper should have been a happy medium on the reflectivity scale. If I was really crafty, I think this could be folded (orgami ?) into ribs and spars. Then a coating of aluminum foil could be applied.

Someone could fashion a greenhouse by lining a box-shape with aluminum foil, then covering the top with Saran wrap to let in the light... The heat absorbed during the initial ascent could be saved for later (colder ) parts of the flight.

Anyway, over time I found a few spare hours to sit with clip board and stop watch. I keyed the figures into Excel. How I need to learn to publish graphs on the blog.

73
Scott

Trip to Stillwater

2005-02-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning Tiffany and I made a quick road trip to Stillwater for some cheese fries and a Fowl Thing at Eskimo Joes. What was interesting was that we felt like walking around some in the park, so we did the trail from East of 14th Perkins and got just chilly enough to require something warm to drink at Aspen Coffee on 7th and Main.

Boy was I suprised when I got to that corner. Now in downtown is a low power TV station UHF-31, and the studios for 2 AM and 1 FM station. I noticed on the way home the FM station (105.3 or 105.1, "the Bee") was full quieting until the Hallett gate for the turnpike and then on the hilltops I could hear it east of Lake Keystone.

I wonder if the W5YJ guys could scam some summer employment at a radio station...

Also, there is A LOT of of those anodized Yagis around. And BBQ-grill reflectors on small towers... smells like Wi-Fi. I should have been carrying NetStumber with me...

More ideas to follow.

73
Scott

Mac Mini Ordered

2005-02-08T18:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, I mentioned last post I was gonna get a Mac Mini...

It is done. I did it. I crossed the line now.

I heard Macs were over-priced. This one, arguably underpowered (1.4G G4) was priced right where I could take that chance. For a bit under a kilobuck ($ 1k) I got the fast(er) processor, the big(er) hard disk, DVD burner upgrade, 802.11? "Airport" networking, integrated Bluetooth (for KYBD and Internet access via cell phone) oh, yes, and some extra memory. More memory, more better.

Macs are for artists. Too bad. I'm an engineer. What I was interested in was another cool tech toy and I can scrounge around for some old keyboards, mice and a screen. (the DVI to VGA adapter ships gratis with the Mac.) If I am half as happy with this Mac as I am with the iPod I bought from a friend last summer, I'll consider it money well spent.

Its a closed system. Maybe that's what hurt their market share in the past. But from what I can tell (see engineering remark above) Darwin strongly resembles BSD. Panther understands X11. The GUI is compatible with Javascript, Java and the terminal is compatible with Applescript. I'm expecting to be writing small code pronto. And in the next rev of the OS (codename: Tiger), there will be further support "widgets" for small programs. For a preview, do a Google search for Konfabulator. I think writing nice looking apps like a QSO manager for Field Day will be straightforward.

There isn't any software. I've found software for ham rig control. Software for satellite pass prediction. OpenOffice is there. iLife probably isn't too bad either. Oh, yeah, Mozilla Firefox.

It ships early March. We'll see.

Back to running laundry and cleaning house. Girlfriend's at work.

73
Scott

February Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club meeting

2005-02-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Last year, after some arm twisting, I accepted a change in position from secretary to president in the BAAARC. One concern was "quality programs." So I asked Harry (KC5TRB) to come out and talk to us last night about his informal (anyone can join) Oklahoma Research Balloons group. Rich (KD5JXU) came to help. They showed off the various ways (easy, hard, simple, powerful) to deploy a APRS station and access the "Ham internet."

The also talked about the history of their club (about 15 launches), and the balloon internals. Very interesting use of small computer (Palm III class gear and pencams) and Ham rigs.

I had starting playing around with graphing temperatures in and around chambers of different construction methods and colors. I'll wrap the experiment up, graph the points and write about it soon. I'd like to fly my own payload at some point.

I bought a Mac Mini today. Hoping to have a "QRP" computer.

Also in the hopper at radio station KD5NJR, a Telpac station to provide Broken Arrow with low speed Internet email via the Winlink 2000 suite.

W5GGW is writing tiny clients for Winlink, Echolink and APRS in Java. In theory that would port to almost any device.

Nikropht asked me some crazy thing about magnetic fields while I was freezing in the parking garage. Wonder what that is all about.

More later.

73
Scott

Test Post

2005-02-07T00:27:00.000-08:00

This is my first post to my newly created blog. I needed an account to reply back to Nikropht, and since I have a lot of crazy stray ideas in my head anyway, I though I might try to put some of them to paper... so to speak. At work, so back to work. Until later.

73

Scott, KD5NJR.