Saturday morning I passed my Amateur Radio Extra Class exam!!  I now have an “all-access” pass to the privileges in my favorite hobby!

I’ve gotta tell you - I used the HamTestOnline website, and it is AWESOME! I purchased my subscription at this year’s Dayton Hamvention, and within two months I’d gone from perpetual No-Code Technician to Extra Class.

Now that I have that license,  it’s definitely time to start saving my pennies so that I can buy my real station.  I’m trying to come up with a direction I’d like to take my involvement in the hobby.  However, because I live in a covenant-controlled neighborhood, large antennae are out of the question.  I think I’d like to restart the 2-meter digital work I did in Detroit, as I think I can put up an inobtrusive 2m vertical antenna without much hassle. However, that doesn’t use my new privileges at all!  So I would like to put together a portable rig that is capable of some DX work.  Something that I can take to field day and they can assign me just about any band…and I’d be able to work SOMETHING.

For my portable system, here’s what I have in mind:
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Ok, it’s simple, but it’s an application that’s not just a “Hello World!” knockoff.

This is a mac implementation of the xkcd website’s geohashing spontaneous adventure generator. It runs on OSX 10.4 and above. It MAY run on pre-Tiger versions of OSX, but I provide no support, and don’t guarantee that it’ll run on those.

Download it!

I passed my Amateur Radio General Class exam this morning!

I’m going to keep on studying and will attempt the Extra Class exam in two weeks at the Milford, Ohio hamfest. WOOT!

I’m that much closer to my own HF rig! (I promised myself that I wouldn’t buy a real, expensive radio until I got my Extra Class…)

I went to the Dayton Hamvention on Saturday. It’s been YEARS since I last went. I’m setting a goal now to have my “Amateur Extra” license by December 31, 2008. That means I will buy an all-band radio at NEXT year’s Hamvention!

As of right now, I’m eyeing a Yaesu FT-897D radio.  This baby does almost all available bands, in all modes, is built for portability…and is under $1,000!

Today’s quote:

Wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. And radio operates exactly the same way. The only difference is that there is no cat. — Albert Einstein

I have always hated “fruit on the bottom” yogurt. Although lately I’ve found it easier to ignore the noxious fact that it’s yogurt and actually eat it, I have always found that it’s near impossible to stir hard enough or long enough to properly blend the stuff. Either you end up with yogurt all over your desk / table / tie, or you end up with NASTY white streaks all throughout the goop. Sometimes you even have places where the yogurt was a bit more solid than the rest…and you get little chunks! Not the way I want to start my day.

Tie in the fact that I visited the doctor yesterday and he basically ruled out anything good-to-eat in the mornings (eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.), and you have a miserable Daddy Bear.

Well, no more! Read the rest of this entry »

Original Story at ESPN

A very cool story I heard about yesterday on sports radio here in Cincinnati, and then found this morning.

Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school’s career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement.

To sum it up, Tucholsky hits her first career home run on the LAST [regular season] home game of her career, and crumples in a heap after an ACL injury suffered trying to touch first base. Coaches can’t help her, or she’s out. According to the umpire’s interpretation of the rules, later clarified by the NCAA as being incorrect, they can only replace her. But this would turn the home run into a two-run single. That’s when the other team’s home run leader offers to help Tucholsky around the bases & score her home run. Seems there’s no rule preventing that - so they do!

It’s stories like THIS that bring true meaning to sports. Holtman and the rest of her team could very well have stayed out of the situation, taking advantage of Tucholsky’s injury. We’d never hear about the act, and they very well might have gone on to win the game. Instead, we get one of the greatest expressions of sportsmanship I’ve ever heard about.

Just an amazing, awesome story.

Have really been enjoying the XKCD webcomic. Especially this one:

Wow.